Saints of the Day & More

Pope St. Gregory the Great was an apostle of the English, one of the most important popes and influential writers of the Middle Ages. Gregory was the son of a Roman senator and entered the service of the State as a young man. But in 573 he sold his enormous properties, founding six monasteries in Sicily and a seventh in Rome, and giving generously to the poor. The next year he entered his own monastery of St. Andrew's on the Celian Hill as a monk and was distinguished for his austere life, which both filled him with nostalgia in later years and caused some of the ill-health which he suffered so constantly. Pope Benedict I, however, called him out of the monastery to become one of the seven deacons of Rome, and his successor, Pelagius II, made him apocrisiarius (ambassador) in Byzantium. After six years of distinguished service Gregory returned to Rome to become abbot of St. Andrew's, seemingly convinced that the future of Christianity lay with monasticism rather than with the d...

Anthony was born at Lisbon in Portugal in 1195. He was baptised "Fernando" in the Cathedral Church of old Lisbon. On the font is written: "Here the waters of holy baptism cleansed Anthony from all stain of original sin. The world rejoices in his light, Padua in his body, heaven in his soul." His father, was a revenue officer and knight at the court of Alfonso II, king of Portugal. When Fernando was 15 years old, he joined the community of Canons Regular of St Augustine in Lisbon. However, because of the constant visits of his family, he asked to be moved to another house of the Order. At seventeen he was transferred, more than 175km away, to the Augustinian Monastery of Santa Cruz at Coimbra which was renowned for its biblical scholarship. Here he spent nine years in intense study. There is every indication that during this time he learned the Sacred Scriptures off by heart. However, it is possible that he was not ordained during this period as it was a custom of th...

St. Justin was born in Samaria around 100 A.D., the son of noble Roman colonists. Greatly interested in philosophy, he studied all varieties of pagan wisdom - Stoicism, Pythagoreanism, and Platonism - until his conversion to Christianity about the year 130. He describes his conversion in his famous book, Dialogue with Trypho. Justin was walking by the sea near the town of Caesarea, when he met an old man who revealed the riches of the true Faith to him. The man told Justin about Jesus and the Hebrew prophets, and encouraged him to pray so that he would be able to understand the truth about God. Justin used his great knowledge to teach. He explained to the pagans why they should not worship idols and revealed to them the mysteries of the true Faith. Justin traveled to other lands to debate publicly. He also wrote two open letters, The First Apology and The Second Apology, to the emperor Antonius Pius and his son, the philosopher, Marcus Aurelius. In these long, written arguments known a...

Thomas was born in Roccasecca, Kingdom of Sicily in the year 1225. He was born into the Italian Nobility and was destend to be a Count as his father had been. Thomas was a well eduacted young man, that at the age of five he was taught at Monte Cassino but after the military conflict between Pope Gregory IX and Emperor Fredrick II. After this his mother, Theodora Countess of Theate, enrolled him at Studium Generale , in Naples, which would now relate to the University. Here is where St. Thomas learned about Aristotle and the many other great philosophers who influenced his philosophy. It was also during his study at Naples that Aquinas came under the influence of John of St. Julian, a Dominican preacher in Naples, who was part of the active effort by the Dominican order to recruit devout followers. Here his teacher in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music was Petrus de Ibernia. In the year 1244, Thomas decided that he was going to join the Dominican Order. Thomas' family was no...