Saints

SAINT DOMINIC

Saint Dominic was born in1170 at Calaruega, Spain to Felix Guzman and Bl. Joan of Aza. He studied at the University at Palencia and was appointed canon at Osma in 1199. In 1203 he accompanied Bishop Diego de Avezedo of Osma to Languedoc where Dominic preached against the Albigensians and helped reform the Cistercians. He founded an institute for women at Prouille in Albigensian territory in 1206 and attached several preaching friars to it.

When papal legate Peter of Castelnan was murdered by the Albigensians in 1208, Pope Innocent III launched a crusade. Dominic followed the army and preached to the heretics with little success.

In 1214 Simon gave him a castle at Casseneuil where Saint Dominic with six followers founded an
order devoted to the conversion of the Albigensians. He failed to gain approval for his order of
preachers at the fourth General Council of the Lateran in 1215 but received Pope Honorius III’s approval in the following year. The Order of Preachers (The Dominicans) was founded. Saint Dominic spent the last years of this life organizing the order. He traveled all over Italy, Spain and France preaching and attracting new members. He called together the first general council of the order at Bologna in 1220 and died there the following year on August 6, 1221. He was canonized in 1234 and is the patron saint of astronomers. Feast day is Aug. 8.

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SAINT ANNE MOTHER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Saint Anne is not mentioned in the New Testament, and we must depend on apocryphal literature, chiefly the Protoevangelium of James, which dates back only to the second century. In this document we are told that Saint Anne, wife of Joachim, was advanced in years and that her prayers for a child had not been answered. Once as she prayed beneath a laurel tree near her home in Galilee, an angel appeared and said to her, “Anne, the Lord hath heard thy prayer and thou shalt conceive and bring forth, and thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world.” Anne
replied, “As the Lord my God liveth, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life ”

Her two most famous shrines are at Saint Anne d’Auray in Brittany and at Saint Anne-de Beaupre in the province of Quebec. She is patroness of housewives, women in labor, cabinet-makers, and miners. Her emblem is a door. Saint Anne has been frequently represented in art, and her lovely face was depicted by Leonardo da Vinci .

The name Anne derives from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning “grace.”

Saint Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin. Feast Day is July 26.

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SAINT JAMES THE GREATER, APOSTLE

Saint James, the son of Zebedee, is called the Greater, as the other James is called the Less. He is called the Greater because he was called earlier by Christ and because of his intimacy with
Christ. Our Lord seems to have held this James in closer friendship than the other, admitting him to His secrets, as when he was present at the raising of the daughter of Jairus and at the Transfiguration. Saint James was the first of the apostles to be put to death. He is called Greater because he received the grace of the apostolate earlier.

James the Apostle went to Spain to sow the word of God. He had been able to gather only nine
disciples in Spain. He left two disciples to preach and returned to Judea with the other seven. Upon his return to Judea the Pharisees asked a magician named Hermogenes to send his disciple Philetus to confront James and to convict him of the falsity for his doctrine before the Jews.

When the Jews saw that Hermogenes was converted, they came in anger to James, and turned against him for preaching Christ crucified. And the apostle proved the mission and the Passion of Christ so clearly to them, citing the sacred books, that many were converted. Abiathar, who was the high priest of the year, incited the populace to riot, caused a rope to be thrown about the apostle’s neck and dragged him before Herod Agrippa. Saint James was beheaded on March 25, the day of the Annunciation.

The disciples laid the body of the apostle on a great stone, which immediately softened as if it were wax, and shaped itself into a sarcophagus fitted to his body. The disciples went to Queen Lupa and said to her: “Our Lord Jesus Christ sends thee the body of His disciple, that thou mayest welcome in death him whom thou wouldst not welcome alive!” And they narrated to her the miracle whereby they had come thither without a rudder nor a steersman, and besought her to appoint a place for the burial of the saint. She guilefully sent them to the king of Spain, a most cruel man, with the pretext of seeking his permission for the saint’s burial; and the king
arrested them and threw them into prison. In the night an angel opened the prison doors and set them free. The king sent soldiers in pursuit of them but just as these soldiers were crossing a bridge it collapsed and the soldiers were drowned. At this report, the king feared for
himself and his people, and repented.

The disciples returned to Lupa, to make known to her the kings’s assent. The queen was sore distraught at these tidings, and answered: “I have oxen in a mountain place. Take them and yoke them, and carry your master’s body wherever you wish, and build him a tomb!” All this she said in cunning, for she knew that the oxen were really untamed and savage bulls, and she thought that they could not be yoked or harnessed. The disciples, unaware of the queen’s ruse, went up
into the mountain, where first they encountered a dragon which belched fire; but they held a cross before him, and he was cloven asunder. Then they made the sign of the cross over the bulls and they became as meek as lambs. They drew the saint’s body, with the stone in which it was laid into the middle of the queen’s palace. The queen was dismayed, believed in Christ, transformed her palace into a church of Saint James, and endowed it munificently.

Saint James feast day is July 25.

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SAINT YMAR

Saint Ymar, Benedictine martyr of England.
Saint Ymar was a monk in Reculver Abbey Kent, England. He was put to death by marauding Danes.

Feastday is November 12.

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SAINT AFAN

An obscure bishop of Brecknock, Wales. All that is known of this saint comes from an inscription in a churchyard in Lanafan Fawr, Brecknock. The inscription notes that St. Afan, bishop, was interred at this site. Died: 6th Century, Feastday: November 16.

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SAINT AGERANUS

Martyr, caught up in the Norman invasion of his era. A Benedictine monk in the monastery of the Order of Beze Côte-d’Or, France, Ageranus chose to defend the sacred precincts of the monastery when a Norman army arrived on the scene. He was accompanied by four other monks, Gerard, Genesius, Rodron, and Silfrard, and by a young lad, probably a novice, named AdaIric. The other monks had fled the monastery. All of the remaining custodians were murdered defending the altars. Died: 303, Feastday: April 4.

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SAINT ADELELMUS

Saint Adelelmus, disciple of St. Bernard of Thiron, was born in Flanders, Belgium. He founded the monastery of Etival-en-Charnie. Died: 1152, Feastday: April 27.

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SAINT ADAUCTUS

Saint Adauctus and his daughter, Callisthene, were victims in the persecutions of Maximinus Daia . Adauctus was executed in Ephesus. His daughter, Callisthene, spent the rest of her life doing works of mercy. Died: 312, Feastday: October 4.

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SAINT AGAPITUS

Martyr in the reign of Emperor Aurelian. Buried in Palestrina, in Italy, Agapitus is traditionally identified as a fifteen-year old caught in the persecutions of the Christians in Antioch. He was brought before the governor when he announced his faith. The young man was tortured and beheaded. The tale is perhaps apocryphal, and Agapitus’ cult was limited in 1969 to local status. A similar tale has been told about saints named Porphyrius and Venantius. Died: 272, Feastday: August 18.

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SAINT ADERALD

Saint Aderald the was archdeacon at Troyes when he led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Saint Aderald built the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Sepulchre at Samblières to place the relics he brought make with him. Died: 1004, Feastday: October20.

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