St. Anthony & Our Lady of Fatima

St. Wolfgang, Bishop Feast date: Oct 31 Oct. 31, though best known as the Vigil of the Solemnity of All Saints (All Hallows’ Eve) in the Western church, is also the liturgical feast day of St. Wolfgang of Ratisbon, who was regarded as one of the greatest German saints of his time The Benedictine monk and bishop, who served as a missionary to pagans and a reformer of the Church in southeastern Germany, was born around 934 in the historic southwestern German region of Swabia. Wolfgang came from a family of nobility and was privately tutored as a child. Later…

St. Foillan Feast date: Oct 31 St. Foillan was born in 7th-century Ireland and was the brother of St. Fursey and St. Ultan. He joined them in England, where they were working as missionaries, and had established a monastery near Yarmouth. During a war between the Mercians and Anglo-Saxons, c.650, the monastery was destroyed and many of the brothers were killed, captured or dispersed. Foillan ransomed back his brothers and traveled to France, where they were welcomed and encouraged in their evangelization by King Clovis II. In 653, St. Foillan founded a monastery at Fosses in the Diocese of Liege and served…

St. Alonso Rodriguez Feast date: Oct 30 On October 30, the Catholic Church honors a man whose humble occupation gave the world only glimpses of his extraordinary holiness. During his lifetime, Brother Alonso Rodriguez never became a priest, published a book, or advanced professionally. But writings discovered after his death revealed a true mystic, who attended to a rich spiritual life while he worked as a doorkeeper and porter. Born in Spain during 1532, Alonso married at 26 and worked as a cloth merchant, coming to religious life only through a string of crushing tragedies. His wife and two of…

St. Narcissus Feast date: Oct 29 St. Narcissus was born towards the end of the first century, and he was nearly 80 years old when he was named as the 30th bishop of Jerusalem. In 195, he and Theophilus, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, presided together over a council of the bishops of Palestine held at Caesarea around Easter. There it was decreed that the feast be kept always on a Sunday, and not continually with the Jewish Passover. The bishop and historian Eusebius says the following miracle can be attributed to him: One year on Easter-eve the deacons did not have any…

St. Abraham Kidunaia Feast date: Oct 29 St. Abraham Kidunaia was born to a wealthy family during the third century. After receiving an excellent education, Abraham was encouraged to get married. He followed the wishes of his parents, but after the wedding ceremony, he told his bride his desire to remain a virgin and dedicate his life to God. His bride accepted this resolution and Abraham retired to a hermitage near Edessa, a city near Mesopotamia. Ten years after he retreated from the world, his parents died and left a great amount of wealth to Abraham. As soon as he…

St. Jude Thaddeus and St. Simon the Zealot, Apostles Feast date: Oct 28 St. Jude Thaddaeus St. Jude, known as Thaddaeus, was a brother of St. James the Lesser, and a relative of Jesus. Ancient writers tell us that he preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Lybia. According to Eusebius, he returned to Jerusalem in the year 62 and assisted at the election of his brother, St. Simeon, as Bishop of Jerusalem. He is an author of an epistle (letter) to the Churches of the East, in particular the Jewish converts, directed against the heresies of…

St. Frumentius of Ethiopia Feast date: Oct 27 St. Frumentius helped in a great capacity to bring Christianity to Ethiopia. He was born in Lebanon, and was shipwrecked in East Africa while voyaging on the Red Sea. Only he and his brother, Aedeius, survived. They were taken to the king at Axum, Ethiopia, and became members of the court. When the king died, the two brothers stayed on as part of the queen’s court. She permitted them to introduce Christianity to the country, as well as opening up trade between Ethiopia and the west. Frumentius convinced St. Athanasius to send missionaries…

St. Evaristus, Pope Feast date: Oct 26 St. Evaristus was the son of a Greek Jew, originally from Bethlehem, and was the sixth Pope of the Catholic Church. He is traditionally considered a martyr, but there is no documentation of the event. He is buried in the Vatican, near Saint Peter. Saint Evaristus succeeded Saint Anacletus as pope. The text of the Liber Pontificalis, says of him: “Evaristus, born in Greece of a Jewish father named Juda, originally from the city of Bethlehem, reigned for thirteen years, six months and two days, under the reigns of Domitian, Nerva and Trajan, from the Consulate…

St. Crispin and St. Crispinian Feast date: Oct 25 Sts. Crispin and Crispinian were brothers. Together, they evangelized Gaul in the middle of the third century. Working from Soissons, they preached the streets by day and made shoes by night. Their charity, piety, and contempt of material things impressed the locals and many were converted to Christianity. The brothers refused to yield to the persecutors of the Faith who wanted Crispin and Crispinian to apostatize. They were both beheaded in Rome ca. 286 A.D. They are the patrons of  cobblers, glove makers, lace makers, lace workers, leather workers, saddle makers,…

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales Feast date: Oct 25 This feast, the feast of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, honors the hundreds of British men and women who died for their faith in wake of the dispute between the Pope and King Henry VIII during the 16th century. Many loyal Catholics were tortured and killed by the British state from 1535 to 1679. In 1970, the Vatican selected 40 martyrs, men and women, lay and religious, to represent the full group of about 300. Each martyr has their own day of memorial, but they are all remembered as…