Blessed Torello

When Torello was still young, his father died and left him lots of money. Torello didn’t make very good decisions with that money and he made some bad friends who were lazy and didn’t work. One day while Torello was playing sports with his friends a rooster flew down, landed on Torello’s arm, and crowed loudly 3 times. This reminded Torello of when St. Peter (one of Jesus’ Apostles) denied Jesus and the rooster crowed 3 times. Torello did not want to make that mistake and he decided to change how he was living. After spending 8 days alone praying near a big tree, he decided to become a hermit (to spend his time all alone with Jesus). He sold everything he had, keeping only enough money to buy the land where the tree was that he prayed under. He built a little shack and spent the rest of his life there praying and doing penance. He lived this way until he died at 80 years old.

Zechariah

Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was married to a good and holy man named Zechariah. Zechariah was part of the priestly class, which means that he had responsibility to pray and serve in the temple. One day while praying alone in the temple the Angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him that even though Elizabeth and him were very old, they were going to have a baby boy. Zechariah didn’t believe him and asked the Angel to give him a sign that this was true. Because Zechariah didn’t believe what the Angel told him, he became unable to talk until what the Angel said came true and his son was born. Elizabeth did have a baby boy 9 months later and when they were offering the baby to God, Elizabeth said that his name was to be John. Since Zechariah couldn’t speak yet he wrote down “John is his name”, as soon as he did that Zechariah was able to speak again and he praised God. Zechariah and Elizabeth’s baby boy was John the Baptist who told everyone to prepare their hearts for his cousin Jesus.

St Matilda

Matilda’s parents were very important people in Germany and Denmark, and they arranged for her to marry an important man named Henry. Soon after they were married, Henry became the King of Germany, which made Matilda a Queen! Even though she was Queen, she lived very simply and she tried to help people with all the riches she had as Queen. King Henry realized how amazing Matilda was and he let her do what she thought was best for the people of Germany. They were married happily for 23 years and they ruled Germany very lovingly and generously. After King Henry died, Matilda gave up all her jewels and riches and joined the convent to live the rest of her life for God alone.

St Euphrasia

Euphrasia was related to Emperor Theodosius I, who converted Rome into a Christian state.  After Euphrasia’s father died, Emperor Theodosius helped to take care of Euphrasia and her mom.  When Euphrasia was 7 years old, her mother took her to Eygpt and they lived near a convent of nuns.  Eurphrasia loved the nuns and begged her mom to let her live with them and serve God, and she did.  After her mother died, the Emperor wrote to Euphrasia saying that she was promised to marry a rich senator.  Euphrasia wanted to stay with the nuns, so she wrote an amazing letter to the Emperor saying, which said that she belonged only to Jesus.  She said she could not give herself to anyone else, because she belonged only to God.  She told him that she wanted the world to forget about her, she wanted all her money to be given to the poor and she wanted the Emperor to release all the slaves that belonged to her family.  She also asked the Emperor to please forgive any debts that anyone owed her family. The Emperor was so amazed by the letter he agreed to everything and Euphrasia spent the rest of her life as a nun.

St Seraphina

Seraphina’s family called her Fina.  They had once been rich, but difficult times had made them poor.  Fina was very generous, even as a child.  She knew that not everyone had as much to eat as she did and so she would save half her dinner and give it to someone that was poorer than her.  During the day she would sew and spin wool to help her family and at night she spent time praying.  When Fina was still young she got very sick.  The sickness paralyzed her, which meant she couldn’t move her muscles anymore.  For 6 years she lay on wooden planks, because she didn’t want to be too comfortable.  She was in lots of pain, but instead of complaining, Fina would think about Jesus’ pain, when he died for us on the cross.  She prayed that her suffering be joined to his.  Someone told Fina about St. Gregory the Great and how he suffered a lot in his life, so she began to ask him to pray for her that she would grow closer to God through her suffering.  One day St. Gregory appeared to her in a vision and told her that soon she would be in heaven with God where there would be no suffering anymore.  On March 12, St. Gregory’s Feast Day at that time, St. Gregory took Fina home to heaven.

St Eulogius

Eulogius received a very good education as a child and he loved to read and study the Bible.  The more he studied the Word of God in the Bible, the more he wanted to tell everyone about Jesus and his love for us.  When he grew up he became a priest and the principal of a famous school.  The rulers of Spain during this time did not like Christians and tried to make everyone who believed in Jesus give up their faith.  If you didn’t give up your faith you were thrown in jail and some were killed.  Eulogius and his Bishop were thrown in jail because they would never give up their faith in Jesus.  While Eulogius was in jail, he read the Bible out loud to remind everyone of God’s love for them and to take away their fear of being in jail.  He even wrote a book while he was in prison, “Exhortation to Martyrdom” that encouraged people to never give up their faith and to be willing to die a martyr instead of doing what the rulers wanted and give up their faith.  Eulogius was ready to die for his faith, but instead he was set free and he went out and kept telling more and more people about God and many began to believe.  Since Eulogius kept preaching the Gospel and helping other Christians hide from the ruler, they became angry and arrested him again.  Eulogius preached the Gospel in court and until the day he died as a martyr for the faith.

St Simplicius

Simplicius was elected Pope after St. Hilary, in the year 468.  He was Pope during a very hard time in Rome, when barbarians (a group of people that wanted power) had invaded most of Italy and the people of Rome where suffering because everything they had was taken away.  Pope Simplicius did everything he could for his people, just like the Good Shepherd takes care of his sheep.  Pope Simplicius also was busy telling the barbarians about God and many of these people began to believe in God.  The Pope had a hard time dealing with people in the Church who didn’t want to believe in the truth that Jesus taught us.  Even though these people were wrong and didn’t treat the Pope well, he always treated them with kindness.  Pope Simplicius built 4 churches in Rome during his time as Pope and also set up lots of good rules for the Church to follow, to make sure his flock was taken care of.