St. Anthony & Our Lady of Fatima

St. Stephen Feast date: Dec 26 Just after Christmas, the Catholic Church remembers its first martyr, and one of its first deacons, Saint Stephen. Roman Catholics celebrate his feast Dec. 26, while Eastern Catholics honor him one day later.   In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke praises St. Stephen as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit,” who “did great wonders and signs among the people” during the earliest days of the Church.   Luke’s history of the period also includes the moving scene of Stephen’s death – witnessed by St. Paul before his conversion –…

The Nativity of The Lord – Christmas Feast date: Dec 25 The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ, first found in 1038, and Cristes-messe, in 1131; in Latin Dies Natalis. Early Celebration Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Sts. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts, and Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday. Arnobius can still ridicule the “birthdays” of the gods.   The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt….

Vigil of Christmas Feast date: Dec 24 In the first ages, during the night before every feast, a vigil was kept. In the evening the faithful assembled in the place or church where the feast was to be celebrated and prepared themselves by prayers, readings from Holy Writ (now the Offices of Vespers and Matins), and sometimes also by hearing a sermon. On such occasions, as on fast days in general, Mass also was celebrated in the evening, before the Vespers of the following day. Towards morning the people dispersed to the streets and houses near the church, to wait…

St. Thorlak of Iceland Feast date: Dec 23 The Scandinavian island nation of Iceland celebrates its national patron, St. Thorlak Thorhallsson, on Dec. 23. Although Iceland’s national assembly declared him a saint in 1198, only five years after his death, this “unofficial” canonization did not become an official part of the Church’s liturgical calendar until Pope John Paul II confirmed him as the country’s patron in January 1984. Thorlak was born in 1133, less than two centuries after German and Norwegian missionaries began the first effective evangelization of Iceland. The pagan nation’s conversion had involved a dramatic national struggle, as…

St. Chaeromon Feast date: Dec 22 Not much is known about the life of St. Chaeromon except that he was a bishop of Nilopolis in Egypt who was already advanced in age when Emperor Trajanus Decius began the intense persecution of Christians.  Chaeromon and his companions fled to Arabia, and are believed to have been martyred there.

St. Peter Canisius Feast date: Dec 21 An important figure in the Catholic counter-reformation that responded to the 16th century spread of Protestantism, the priest and Doctor of the Church Saint Peter Canisius is remembered liturgically on Dec. 21. His efforts as a preacher, author, and religious educator strengthened the Catholic faith in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and parts of Central Europe during a period of doctrinal confusion. Writing about St. Peter Canisius in 1897, Pope Leo XIII noted similarities between the late 19th century and the saint’s own lifetime, “a period when the spirit of revolution and looseness of doctrine…

St. Dominic of Silos Feast date: Dec 20 Saint Dominic was born in 1000 in Cañas, Navarre, Spain. He was born a peasant, and as a youth worked as a shepherd until he entered the Benedictine monastery in Navarre. When Dominic refused to hand over the monastery lands at the King of Navarre’s demands, he was forced to leave the house with two other monks. He fled to Old Castile and was welcomed by the king. He then entered the monastery of San Sebastian in Silos, an almost dilapidated abbey with a mediocre physical and spiritual regimen.  Within very little time, Dominic, who…

Blessed Pope Urban V Feast date: Dec 19 Blessed Pope Urban V was born Guillaume de Grimoard at Grisac in Languedoc, 1310. He studied canon law and theology in Avignon and became a Benedictine monk. He was named abbot of his monastery in 1352, and served as a papal diplomat and was eventually sent as an ambassodor to various locations. He also served as a bishop around Italy and throughout Europe. He was elected pope in 1362 while on diplomatic business, even though he was not a cardinal. His reign was blessed by his peacekeeping activity between the French and…

St. Gatian of Tours Feast date: Dec 18 Not much is known about the life of Saint Gatian, but we do know that he was the first bishop of Tours in France, and is said to be a disciple of Saint Denis of Paris. Arriving in Gaul, a pagan land, completely untouched by the Good News, Gatian scattered the first seeds of the faith in the region of Tours, laying the foundations of the Church in the city of the great Saint Martin. Saint Gatian died in 337.

St. Olympias Feast date: Dec 17 Born sometime between 360-365, this pious, charitable, and wealthy disciple of St. John Chrysostom came from an illustrious family in Constantinople. Her father (called by the sources Secundus or Selencus) was a “Count” of the empire. One of her ancestors, Ablabius, filled the consulor office in 331, and was also praetorian prefect of the East. As Olympias was not thirty years of age in 390, she cannot have been born before 361. Her parents died when she was quite young, and left her an immense fortune. In either 384 or 385 she married Nebridius, Prefect…