Friday
July 3, 2009
St. Leo II, Pope,
Pope, Confessor:
This feast was originally the second
commemoration of St. Leo the Great,
who was the object of very marked
devotion in the Middle Ages. It was
celebrated on the anniversary of the
removal of his body from the porch to
the interior of St. Peter’s. Later it
became the feast of Pope Leo II who
approved the acts of the Sixth
Ecumenical Council which
condemned the heresy of those who
asserted that Christ had only one will.
In his brief pontificate he gave an
example of earnest preaching and
devotion to the poor. He died in 683.
(Source: The New Roman Missal,
Rev. F. X. Lasance)
Saturday
July 4, 2009
Of the Octave of the
Apostles, Sts. Peter
and Paul:
Although during the Middle Ages, in a
great number of churches, the
anniversary of the ordination of St.
Martin of Tours and of the dedication
of his famous basilica was kept on
this date, yet Christian Rome
continued to celebrate the Octave of
her great Apostles Peter and Paul.
(Source: The New Roman Missal,
Rev. F. X. Lasance)
Sunday
July 5, 2009
St. Anthony Mary
Zaccaria, Confessor:
This famous Lombard preacher was
one of that band of saints who the
Lord, in the Sixteenth Century, sent
to carry out in Italy that ecclesiastical
reform which had indeed been long
desired, but which the Canons of the
Council of Trent alone could not
effect. It was necessary that they
should be put into practice with
heroic zeal, and this could be done
only by a saint. He founded the order
of Regular Clerks who from the
Church of St. Barnabas near which
they lived are called "Barnabites."
They gave much assistance to St.
Charles Borromeo in his work of
reform. Anthony died at the age of
36, July 5, 1539, and was canonized
by Pope Leo XIII. (Source: The New
Roman Missal, Rev. F. X. Lasance)
Saints