Saints of the Day & More

The information we have about his life are few. It is the tenth successor of St. Peter was pope from St. Pius I and Saint Sotero, ruled the Church by the time they last eleven years from 155 to 166 - and was a native of Emesa in Syria. The circumstances under which worked are given by the social, political, economic and cultural life of the time. In the second century Greek was used as the language worship, the Popes are usually from poor families of the people elected for that service choice for martyrdom was (until the fourth century all popes gave their lives for the faith). The care or service to the brothers had to be intense, self-sacrificing, courageous, generous and very demanding but full of goodness. The disciples of Jesus had increased every day still a precarious existence even in periods of peace. Even with the Antonines, death to the Christian could be behind any allegations or event, to the Stoic Marcus Aurelius believed that the patience of the Christian martyrs was fan...

Bl. Pope Pius IX was born in Senigallia, Italy, on 13 May 1792, the son of Gerolamo of the Counts Mastai Ferretti, and Caterina Solazzi, of the local nobility. He was baptized on the day of his birth with the name Giovanni Maria. Of delicate physical constitution but of very lively intelligence, his childhood was marked by little voluntary mortifications and an intense religious life. In 1809 he moved to Rome for higher studies. A disease not well diagnosed, which some called epilepsy, forced him to interrupt his studies in 1812. He was accepted into the Pontifical Noble Guard in 1815, but because of his illness he was immediately discharged. It was at this time that St Vincent Pallotti predicted that he would become Pope and that the Virgin of Loreto would free him eventually from the disease. After serving briefly in the Tata Giovanni Educational Institute, he participated as a catechist in 1816 in a memorable mission in Senigallia and, immediately thereafter, decided to enter the ec...