St Edmund

Feastday Nov 20 841-870 Edmund was born in Germany. He was an English king who was given the throne when he was only fourteen. But his high position did not make him proud or snobbish. Instead, he took as his model the Old Testament king, David. Edmund tried to serve God as well as David had. In fact, Edmund even learned David's psalms by heart. The psalms are beautiful hymns of praise to God contained in the Holy Bible. King Edmund ruled wisely, showing kindness and justice to all his people. When Danish barbarians attacked his land, he fought them bravely. Their army was much larger than his. At last, the English king was captured. The barbarian leader offered to spare Edmund's life if he would agree to give his Christian people to them. But the king refused and said he would never save his life by offending God and his people. In anger, the pagan chief ordered for him to be put to death. St. Edmund was tied to a tree and then cruelly whipped. The holy king took it all patiently, calling on Jesus for strength. Next, his torturers shot arrows into every part of his body. They were careful not to hit any vital organ, so he would suffer for a long time. At last they chopped off his head. King Edmund died in 870.

St Nerses

Feastday Nov 19 Born: (around) 300 :: Died: 369 Nerses lived in Armenia and was educated at Cappadocia. He married a princess and was the father of St. Isaac the Great. He was an official in the court of King Arshak. After Nerses' wife died, he was ordained a priest. He became chief bishop of Armenia in 363. He and St. Basil worked to help the people become more fervent Catholics. They called a meeting of all the Armenian bishops and wanted to help the priests and people grow in holiness. Bishop Nerses respected the vocation of monks. He wanted new monasteries to begin. He started hospitals and encouraged the rich to be honest and generous. King Arshak was not living a good life. When he murdered his wife, Olympia, Bishop Nerses publicly condemned this terrible crime. The king sent Bishop Nerses away from his diocese and appointed another bishop. King Arshak was killed in battle against the Persians. His son became king but the son was more evil than his father. Bishop Nerses corrected him. The new king pretended to be sorry. He invited the bishop to his palace for supper to show he was sorry. But the food was poisoned and Nerses died right there at the king's table. He is considered a martyr and the Armenians call him "the great."

St Rose Duchesne

Feastday Nov 18 1769-1852 Rose was born at Grenoble in France. Her family was very wealthy and had strong political connections. From the time she was eight years old, she had a wish to spread the good news about Jesus in the Americas after hearing a Jesuit missionary talk about his work there. She was educated at home until she was twelve and was then sent for her religious education to the convent of the Visitation in Grenoble. As a youngster, there was nothing especially holy about Rose. In fact, she often did her best to get her own way. She ordered everyone else to do what she wanted. In school, her favorite subject was history. She later became very interested in stories about Native Americans. At the age of seventeen, Rose entered the convent. She was not allowed to take her vows when the time came, because of the French Revolution. All the sisters were forced to leave the country closing down the convent, and Rose had to return to her family for ten years. Still she did not give up her desire to belong to Jesus. When the revolution was over, she joined the newly formed Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne's great desire was to be a missionary. However, she was fifty before she was sent to the United States. It was still a mission land at this time. In Mississippi, she and a small group of sisters started a free school for the children of poor families in a log cabin. The work was hard, because of the different languages and ways of the people and Rose's English was terrible. Despite the many difficulties, Mother Duchesne never lost her youthful enthusiasm. As she grew older, she became less commanding and gentler. Mother Duchesne was a real heroine who went through terrible journeys. She nearly died from yellow fever. She overcame all kinds of obstacles to open convents in the New World. Then, when she was seventy-one, she resigned her position as superior. She went off to open a school among her beloved native people. The Native Americans called her the "Woman-Who-Prays-Always." She died in 1852 at the age of eighty-three.

St Elizabeth of Hungry

Feast Day: November 17 Born: 1207 :: Died: 1231 Elizabeth, the daughter of King Andrew of Hungary was born in Presburg. When she was only thirteen years old, she married Louis, the ruler of Thuringia. Elizabeth was a beautiful bride who dearly loved her handsome husband. Louis returned her affection with all his heart. God gave them three children and they were very happy for six years. She build a hospital at the foot of the mountain where the castle stood and looked after the sick herself. Once when she was taking food to the poor and sick in secret, Prince Louis stopped her and looked under her cloak. The food she was carrying miraculously changed to roses. Then St. Elizabeth's sorrows began. Louis died of the plague. She was so heart-broken that she cried: "The world is dead to me and all that is joyous in the world." Louis' relatives had never liked Elizabeth because she had given so much food to the poor. While Louis was alive, they had not been able to do anything but now they began to trouble her. Within a short time, this beautiful, gentle princess and her three children were sent away from the castle. They suffered hunger and cold. Yet Elizabeth did not complain about her terrible sufferings. Instead she blessed God and prayed with great fervor. She accepted the sorrows just as she had accepted the joys. Elizabeth's relatives came to her rescue. She and her children had a home once more. Her uncle wanted her to marry again, for she was still very young and attractive. But the saint had decided to give herself to God. She wanted to imitate the poverty of St. Francis. She went to live in a poor cottage and spent the last few years of her life serving the sick and the poor. She even went fishing to try to earn more money for her beloved poor. St. Elizabeth was only twenty-four when she died in 1231. On her death bed, she was heard to sing softly. She had great confidence that Jesus would take her to himself.

St Margaret of Scotland

Feast Day: November 16 Born: 1046 :: Died: 1093 Margaret was an English princess who was born in Hungary and was the great-niece of St. Stephen of Hungary. She and her mother sailed to Scotland to escape from the king who had conquered their land. They got ship wrecked on the Scottish coast and King Malcolm of Scotland welcomed them. He fell in love with the beautiful princess and Margaret and Malcolm were soon married. They had eight children, six sons and two daughters and they loved their children very much. Margaret changed her husband and the country for the better. Malcolm was good, but he and his court were very rough. When he saw how wise his wife was, he willingly listened to her good advice. Margaret helped him control his temper and practice the Christian virtues. She made the court beautiful and civilized. The king and queen were wonderful examples because of the way they prayed together and treated each other. They fed crowds of poor people. They tried very hard to imitate Jesus in their own lives. Margaret was a blessing for all the people of Scotland. Many people had bad habits that kept them from growing closer to God. Margaret worked hard to find good teachers to help the people correct their evil ways. She and Malcolm had new churches built. She loved to make the churches beautiful to honor God. In fact, Queen Margaret embroidered some of the priests' robes herself. Their youngest son became St. David and one of their daughters St. Maud. But Margaret had sorrows, too. She was very ill, and she learned that both her husband and her son, Edward, had been killed in battle. They died just four days before Margaret's death. She died on November 16, 1093.

St Albert the Great

Feastday November 15 1206-1280 Albert was born in a castle on the Danube River in Swabia (southwest Germany) and was the son of a military nobleman. He studied at the University of Padua in Italy and there he decided to become a Dominican Priest. His uncle tried to change his mind but Albert would not as he felt that this was what God wanted. His father, the count of Bollstadt, was very angry. The Dominicans thought that he would force Albert to come back home and transferred him to a location farther away. But his father did not come after him. St. Albert loved to study. The natural sciences, especially physics, geography and biology, interested him. He also loved to study his Catholic religion and the Bible. He used to observe the ways of animals and write down what he saw, just as scientists do today. He wrote a great number of books on these subjects. He also wrote on philosophy and was a popular teacher in different schools. One of St. Albert's pupils was the great St. Thomas Aquinas. It is said that Albert found out about the death of St. Thomas directly from God. He had guided St. Thomas in beginning his great works in philosophy and theology. He also defended his teachings after Thomas died. As St. Albert grew older, he became more holy. Before, he had expressed his deep thoughts in his writings. Now he expressed them in his whole way of living for God.

St Lawrence O'toole

Feastday November 14 1128-80 Lawrence was born at Castledermot in Ireland. He was the son of the chief of Hy Murray. When he was only ten years old, a neighboring king Dermot McMurrogh Leinster attacked his father's territory and kidnapped him. Young Lawrence suffered for two years. Then his father forced the king to give him up to the care of a bishop. When he did, Lawrence's father hurried to see his son and gratefully brought him home. The chief wanted one of his sons to enter the service of the Church. While he was wondering which one to send, Lawrence told him with a laugh that he need not wonder anymore. "It is my desire," said Lawrence, "to have for my inheritance the service of God in the Church." So his father took him by the hand and gave him into the care of the Bishop of Glendalough. Lawrence became a priest and the abbot of a great monastery. Once food became very scarce in the whole neighborhood of the monastery. The good abbot gave great quantities away to keep the people from starving. He had many problems to handle as head of the monastery, too. Some of the monks criticized him for being too strict. But Lawrence kept right on guiding the community in the way of self-sacrifice, despite the criticism. Then, there was the problem of the robbers and outlaws who lived in the nearby hills. Yet nothing discouraged the fearless Lawrence O'Toole. In fact Lawrence was very strict with himself too. He wore a hair shirt under this robes. He made a 40 day retreat in St. Kevin's cave every year. He never ate meat or drank wine and fasted every Friday. But when he was in company, he would color his water and make it look like wine to avoid bringing attention to himself. He became so famous that soon he was chosen to be archbishop of Dublin. In this new position, he lived as holy a life as ever. Every day, he invited many poor people to be his guests and helped many others as well. Lawrence loved his people and Ireland, and his country very much. He did all he could to keep peace. Once a madman attacked him as he was going up to the altar to say Mass. He was knocked to the floor unconscious. Yet he came to his senses right away. He asked for water, blessed it and washed the wound at once. The bleeding stopped and he went right ahead with the Mass. After years of labor for the Church, St. Lawrence O'Toole became very ill. When he was asked if he wanted to make a will, the holy archbishop smiled. He answered, "God knows that I don't have a penny in the world." He had long ago given everything he had to others, just as he had given himself completely to God. St. Lawrence O'Toole died on November 14, 1180 when he was traveling with King Henry II, as a peacemaker.