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February 7
St. Romuald, Abbot:
St. Romuald at the age of 20, undertook a life of
prayer, meditation, and penance. He founded
under the rule of St. Benedict, an Order that
takes its name from a field owned by Maldule. In
a vision Romuald while in this field saw a ladder
on which monks clothed in white ascended and
descended. He acquired this field and built the
monastery called Camaldule.
(Source: Fr. Lasance, The New Roman Missal)
February 8
St. John of Matha, Confessor:
St. John of Matha, a Frenchman, with his
compatriot, St. Felix of Valois, founded the
Trinitarian Order for the redemption of Christian
slaves from the Mohammedans. The little cell in
which he lived in Rome is still to be seen. On the
door of the church nearby there still exists,
dating from the time of Innocent III, a striking
mosaic of the Savior between two slaves, one
white and the other black.
(Source: Fr. Lasance, The New Roman Missal)
St. Romuald, Abbot:
St. Romuald at the age of 20, undertook a life of
prayer, meditation, and penance. He founded
under the rule of St. Benedict, an Order that
takes its name from a field owned by Maldule. In
a vision Romuald while in this field saw a ladder
on which monks clothed in white ascended and
descended. He acquired this field and built the
monastery called Camaldule.
(Source: Fr. Lasance, The New Roman Missal)
February 8
St. John of Matha, Confessor:
St. John of Matha, a Frenchman, with his
compatriot, St. Felix of Valois, founded the
Trinitarian Order for the redemption of Christian
slaves from the Mohammedans. The little cell in
which he lived in Rome is still to be seen. On the
door of the church nearby there still exists,
dating from the time of Innocent III, a striking
mosaic of the Savior between two slaves, one
white and the other black.
(Source: Fr. Lasance, The New Roman Missal)
Today's Saint
February 11
Feast of the Apparition of Our Blessed
Lady at Lourdes:
Our Blessed Lady appeared to Bernadette
Soubirous on February 11, 1858, and said, "I am
the Immaculate Conception." Pope Pius X in
1908 ordered that this feast be kept in the
universal Church on this day. The miracles at
Lourdes have continued to the astonishment of
the world down to the present time. In 1933
Bernadette was canonized and her feast fixed
on this day.
(Source: Fr. Lasance, The New Roman Missal)
Commentary: Bernadette Soubirous is the saint
of Lourdes, France. Visionary and messenger of
the Immaculate Conception, she told us the very
words of the Virgin Mary, spoken in the native
Basque tongue of Southern France and
Northern Spain. She spoke words teaching of
the merits of prayer, penance, poverty and
church. In the first and most widely recognized
Marian apparition of modern times, a personal
message was delivered also to Bernadette--She
would not find happiness in this world, but only
in the next.
She was to die twenty-one years later in 1879
after a prolonged and painful illness. She
remained hidden in a convent about 300 miles
from home, a refuge from the interrogations and
the pilgrims that never ceased seeking her. At
thirty-five, her strong-willed manner gave way to
her frail body, and she finally entered into her
eternal happiness.
While she took with her the knowledge of
certain secrets the Virgin gave her, one secret
remained hidden in our presence. The most
spectacular of all the incorruptibles,
Bernadette's miraculously preserved body
remained buried in a damp grave for thirty years
until the cause for beatification was taken up. To
this day, the body of Bernadette is a profound
source of inspiration and of mystery
surrounding the ways of the Lord. The face of
Bernadette is one of surreal beauty, and will
remain for us always the face that gazed into the
eyes of the Mother of God.
Feast of the Apparition of Our Blessed
Lady at Lourdes:
Our Blessed Lady appeared to Bernadette
Soubirous on February 11, 1858, and said, "I am
the Immaculate Conception." Pope Pius X in
1908 ordered that this feast be kept in the
universal Church on this day. The miracles at
Lourdes have continued to the astonishment of
the world down to the present time. In 1933
Bernadette was canonized and her feast fixed
on this day.
(Source: Fr. Lasance, The New Roman Missal)
Commentary: Bernadette Soubirous is the saint
of Lourdes, France. Visionary and messenger of
the Immaculate Conception, she told us the very
words of the Virgin Mary, spoken in the native
Basque tongue of Southern France and
Northern Spain. She spoke words teaching of
the merits of prayer, penance, poverty and
church. In the first and most widely recognized
Marian apparition of modern times, a personal
message was delivered also to Bernadette--She
would not find happiness in this world, but only
in the next.
She was to die twenty-one years later in 1879
after a prolonged and painful illness. She
remained hidden in a convent about 300 miles
from home, a refuge from the interrogations and
the pilgrims that never ceased seeking her. At
thirty-five, her strong-willed manner gave way to
her frail body, and she finally entered into her
eternal happiness.
While she took with her the knowledge of
certain secrets the Virgin gave her, one secret
remained hidden in our presence. The most
spectacular of all the incorruptibles,
Bernadette's miraculously preserved body
remained buried in a damp grave for thirty years
until the cause for beatification was taken up. To
this day, the body of Bernadette is a profound
source of inspiration and of mystery
surrounding the ways of the Lord. The face of
Bernadette is one of surreal beauty, and will
remain for us always the face that gazed into the
eyes of the Mother of God.
February 9
St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop,
Confessor, Doctor of the Church:
This feast was instituted in 1882 by Leo XIII, who
chose this day because January 28, on which date
the saint's name appears in the Martyrology, is
already assigned to another Office. The name of St.
Cyril immediately evokes the memory of those
celebrated early sessions of the Council of Ephesus,
when, through the agency of Cyril, the most splendid
pages of the doctrine concerning the Blessed Virgin
Mary were recorded. Nestorius having thrown doubt
upon the dogma that in Jesus Christ there is only one
person, it consequently resulted from this heresy
that there could no longer be bestowed upon the
Blessed Virgin the title of Mother of God, by which
the faithful until then had been accustomed to invoke
her. He died A.D. 444.
(Source: Fr. Lasance, The New Roman Missal)
February 10.
St. Scholastica, Virgin:
St. Scholastica the twin sister of St. Benedict
followed in the footsteps of piety of her saintly
brother. In the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great
it is related that on the occasion of the last
conversation of St. Scholastica with her brother,
he had determined to return to his monastery at
evening, but Scholastica leaning with her elbows
on the table and holding her forehead in her
hands began to shed tears. A violent storm burst
forth and the rain fell in torrents, so that Benedict
was compelled to remain and continue in the
spiritual conversation. St. Gregory says that on
that occasion she had more power that he over
the heart of God, because whilst St. Benedict
upheld the law of discipline and justice she, on
the other hand, appealed to a higher law, that of
love: plus potuit, quia plus amavit. She died in the
early half of the Sixth Century.
(Source: Fr. Lasance, The New Roman Missal)
St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop,
Confessor, Doctor of the Church:
This feast was instituted in 1882 by Leo XIII, who
chose this day because January 28, on which date
the saint's name appears in the Martyrology, is
already assigned to another Office. The name of St.
Cyril immediately evokes the memory of those
celebrated early sessions of the Council of Ephesus,
when, through the agency of Cyril, the most splendid
pages of the doctrine concerning the Blessed Virgin
Mary were recorded. Nestorius having thrown doubt
upon the dogma that in Jesus Christ there is only one
person, it consequently resulted from this heresy
that there could no longer be bestowed upon the
Blessed Virgin the title of Mother of God, by which
the faithful until then had been accustomed to invoke
her. He died A.D. 444.
(Source: Fr. Lasance, The New Roman Missal)
February 10.
St. Scholastica, Virgin:
St. Scholastica the twin sister of St. Benedict
followed in the footsteps of piety of her saintly
brother. In the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great
it is related that on the occasion of the last
conversation of St. Scholastica with her brother,
he had determined to return to his monastery at
evening, but Scholastica leaning with her elbows
on the table and holding her forehead in her
hands began to shed tears. A violent storm burst
forth and the rain fell in torrents, so that Benedict
was compelled to remain and continue in the
spiritual conversation. St. Gregory says that on
that occasion she had more power that he over
the heart of God, because whilst St. Benedict
upheld the law of discipline and justice she, on
the other hand, appealed to a higher law, that of
love: plus potuit, quia plus amavit. She died in the
early half of the Sixth Century.
(Source: Fr. Lasance, The New Roman Missal)