Saints of the Day & More

Aurelius was the son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother. He was also secretly a follower of Christianity, as was his wife Natalia, who was also the child of a Muslim father. One of Aurelius's cousins, Felix, accepted Islam for a short time, but later converted back to Christianity and married a Christian woman, Liliosa. Under Sharia Law, all four of them were required to profess Islam. In time all four began to openly profess their Christianity, with the two women going about in public with their faces unveiled. They were all swiftly arrested as apostates from Islam. They were given four days to recant, but they refused, and were beheaded. They were martyred with a local monk, George, who had openly spoken out against the prophet Mohammed. He had been offered a pardon as a foreigner, but chose instead to denounce Islam again and die with the others.

Perfectus was born in Córdoba when the area was under the control of the Moors (the Umayyad Caliphate). Perfecto was a monk and ordained priest. He served at the basilica of St. Acisclus in Córdoba. Christians were tolerated in the area, but not uniformly. According to his legend, in 850, Perfecto was challenged by two Muslim men to say who was the greater prophet: Jesus or Mohammed. At first he refrained from responding, so as not to provoke them; but they insisted that he give them an answer, promising to protect him from reprisals. He then told them in Arabic that Muhammed was a false prophet and that he was an immoral man for supposedly seducing his adopted son's wife. The Muslims kept their promise and let him go, but several days later some of them changed their mind and had him arrested. They had friends seize Perfecto (so as to not be forsworn) and tried. Perfecto was found guilty of blasphemy by the Islamic court and was executed. The legend says that Perfecto's final ...

This saint was born in 1556 in Leonessa in Umbria, and at the age of eighteen he made his profession as a Capuchin friar in his hometown, and took the name of Joseph Eufranio instead of its name. He was humble, obedient and heroic degree mortified, and three days a week, took no other sustenance than bread and water. Generally preached a crucifix in hand, and the fire of his words inflamed the hearts of her listeners. In 1587 he was sent to Turkey as a missionary among the Christians of Pera, a suburb of Constantinople. They cheered and served the Christian slaves in the galleys with wonderful devotion, especially during a malignant fever, which became infected, but later recovered his health. Converted many apostates, and was exposed to the stringency of the Turkish law when he preached the faith to Muslims. Joseph was jailed twice, and the second time he was sentenced to a cruel death. By sharp claws which crossed one of his hands and one foot was hanging from a gallows. However, aft...