Bl Rose Veneri

Rose thought she knew what God wanted her to do with her life when she was very young, but God showed her that He had other great plans for her. When she was young, Rose was engaged to be married, but the young man died before they were able to be married. Rose then decided that because she loved God so much she should become a nun and she joined a convent. Shortly after, her father died and Rose left the convent to take care of her mother. It was during this time that Rose began to realize that God was calling her to be a leader and a teacher. She began to meet with other young woman in the community she lived in and she began to realize that they knew very little about their faith. She began to teach them and many people began to realize what a wonderful teacher she was. She was encouraged to keep teaching and was asked to organize the schools and train the teachers in one of the Bishop’s Diocese. It was during this time that she became friends with Lucy Filippini who later started a religious community of sisters and became a saint. During her life Rose organized 40 schools all over Italy, including in Rome. After she died, her teachers decided to become nuns and formed the Order of the Venerini Sisters. They continued teaching, just as Rose has shown them, all over the world.

St Francois de Montmorency Laval

Francois grew up in a good Catholic family and he studied with priests as he grew up. So it wasn’t surprising that Francois felt called by God to become a priest too, even when he was very young. Francois became a priest and then a Bishop who travelled all the way to New France (which is now the province of Quebec in Canada) to lead the Church in the new country. Bishop Laval was a great missionary, he helped build the Church in the new country; he built a seminary to train more priests; he started Catholic schools; and he also built the beautiful Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. When he finally retired, he lived as a hermit (alone with God) in Quebec; he spent his time helping the poor and encouraging people to become more like God. After he died, many miracles happened for people who asked for his prayers.

St Judith of Prussia

Judith came from a rich family and was married when she was very young. Even though she was very rich, she wanted to live like St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who was a Queen that took care of the poor around her. Judith helped her husband to realize that if they lived more simply they would have more to give to the poor around them and together they were very generous. After her husband died and her children were grown up, Judith sold all that she had and moved to Prussia so that no one would know she was rich and she could live as a hermit (alone with God). She lived in a little hut and took care of travellers that needed a place to stay. She told everyone that she met about Jesus and prayed that they would come to know Jesus too. Judith lived a simple life, even though she was rich, because she believed it would help her get closer to God.

Bl Marie Leonie Paradis

Marie-Leonie Paradis was named Elodie Paradis when she was born. She was born into a poor but very Catholic family. Even though they were poor, her parents sent Elodie to a boarding school when she was 9 years old, because they wanted her to get a good education. The teachers at the school were the Sisters of Notre Dame. In order to make more money, Elodie’s father went to California because he heard that there was Gold there. He came back with no gold and found out that his daughter had joined the convent with the Sisters of Notre Dame. He loved his daughter so much that he didn’t want her to stay in the convent; he wanted her to come home to be with her family. He begged her to leave and go back home to be with him and her mother, but Elodie really loved God and wanted to become a nun. Her father saw how much she loved God and agreed to let her stay; she became a nun in 1857 and chose the name Marie-Leonie. She taught in many schools in many different cities in Quebec until she felt like God was asking her to start her own order of Sisters. She started the Little Sisters of the Holy Family; and their mission is to care for Priests in their homes, so they can concentrate on taking care of the people in their parishes. There are now 67 convents of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family in Canada, the USA, Rome and Honduras. Sr. Marie-Leonie served the priests, her sisters and God’s people until she died at 71 years old.

Sts Philip and James

Phillip and James were two of Jesus’ Apostles. Phillip was a follower of John the Baptist, who was telling people to prepare their hearts for the coming of the Jesus. When Jesus told Phillip to “Follow Me”, he was ready to go right away, because he had already prepared his heart for Jesus' coming. He was so happy to be following Jesus that he invited his friend Nathaniel to come and follow him too. After Jesus died and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, Phillip travelled to Greece and Asia Minor to spread the Good News. He died a martyr because of his faith in Jesus; the Emperor of Rome during that time, did not let anybody believe in Jesus. James, was Jesus’ cousin. After Jesus ascended into heaven James was made the Bishop of Jerusalem. St. James forgave the people that hurt him and even when the enemies of Jesus came to crucify him, James prayed that God would forgive them. He was also killed because of his faith in Jesus and died a martyr.

St Athanasius

Athanasius was a good student; he loved to read books about the Catholic faith and about God during University. He became a priest after he finished University and he made sure that the truth about God and Jesus was kept in our Church. The Arian people living in Egypt at the time, did not believe that Jesus was God and they were trying to change this teaching in the Church. Athanasius was at the meeting where the Nicene Creed was written and he made sure that it said that Jesus was God. Athanasius then became the Archbishop of Alexandria in Egypt. He was only 30 years old and he took care of his people for 46 years. There were lots of people that didn’t like the teachings of Archbishop Athanasius, including 4 emperors of Alexandria. They tried to make him stop writing and speaking the Truth about Jesus, but he never stopped. Even when they tried to catch him so that they could kill him, he was never afraid and never stopped spreading the Truth about God and his son Jesus. During the last 7 years of his life, the people he shepherded hid him from those who were trying to kill him, because they loved him so much. During this time he wrote a book called, “The Life of St. Anthony the Hermit”. Athanasius had been friends with St. Anthony when he was very young. He was able to stay away from those that wanted to kill him and he died peacefully in the year 373. He is a Doctor of the Church, for the great teachings that he left us.

St Joseph the Worker

This is the 2nd feast day that we celebrate for St. Joseph; that is because he is such a special man and we can learn a lot from him. Today we celebrate what a hard working husband and father he was. He always took care of Mary and Jesus and because he always prayed and listened closely to God, he protected Mary and Jesus from danger. St. Joseph was a carpenter and he taught Jesus how to be a carpenter too. Through his work he provided everything that his family needed.