Saint Quote: Saint Cristobal Magallanes Jara

I am innocent and I die innocent. I forgive with all my heart those responsible for my death, and I ask God that the shedding of my blood serves toward the peace of our divided Mexico.

--Saint Cristobal just before his executioners fired

Saint Quote: Blessed Maria Caridad Brader

See God's will in everything, and to do His will with joy, out of love of Him.

--Blessed Caritas

Catholic

Saint Quote: Saint John of the Cross

Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing.

--Saint John of the Cross

Saint Quote: Saint Daniel Comboni

The missionaries will have to understand that they are stones hid under the earth, which will perhaps never come to light, but which will become part of the foundations of a vast, new building.

--Saint Daniel Comboni

Saint Quote: Saint Rose of Viterbo

Prayer reveals to souls the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures. It fills them with light, strength and consolation; and gives them a foretaste of the calm bliss of our heavenly home.

-- St Rose of Viterbo

Saint Quote: Saint Polycarp of Smyrna

Let us therefore without ceasing hold fast by our hope and by the earnest of our righteousness, which is Jesus Christ who took up our sins in His own body upon the tree, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, but for our sakes He endured all things, that we might live in Him. Let us therefore become imitators of His endurance; and if we should suffer for His name's sake, let us glorify Him. For He gave this example to us in His own person, and we believed this.

--Saint Ploycarp of Smyrna

Saint Quote: FEAST OF THE CHAIR OF PETER

Out of the whole world one man, Peter, is chosen to preside at the head of all nations and to be set over all the apostles and all the fathers of the church. Though there are in God's people many bishops and many shepherds, Peter is thus appointed to rule in his own person those whom Christ also rules as the original ruler. Beloved, how great and wonderful is this sharing in his power that God in his goodness has given to this man. Whatever Christ has willed to be shared in common by Peter and the other leaders of the Church, it is only through Peter that he has given to others what he has not refused to bestow on them.

Jesus said: "Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." On this strong foundation, he says, I will build an everlasting temple. The great height of my Church, which is to penetrate the heavens, shall rise on the firm foundation of this faith.

Blessed Peter is therefore told: "To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven."

--from a sermon by Pope Saint Leo the Great

Catholic

Saint Quote: Saint Peter Damian

Let us faithfully transmit to posterity the example of virtue which we have received from our forefathers.

--Saint Peter Damian

Saint Quote: Blessed Mother Marianne Cope

I am hungry for the work and I wish with all my heart to be one of the chosen Ones, whose privilege it will be, to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the souls of the poor Islanders…. I am not afraid of any disease, hence it would be my greatest delight even to minister to the abandoned ‘lepers.’

--Blessed Mother Marianne Cope

Catholic

Saint Quote: Blessed Luigi Guanella

O my Jesus, draw me entirely to you. Draw me with all the love of my heart. If I knew that one fiber of my heart did not palpitate for you, I would tear it out at any cost. But I know that I could not speak without your help. Draw me, O my Jesus, draw me completely. I know it well, my heart cannot rest until it rests in your heart.

--Blessed Luigi Guanella

Chair of Saint Peter

Portable chair preserved at the Vatican and believed to be a chair used by Saint Peter, the extant testimony referring to it dating from the 2nd century. The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Rome has been celebrated from the early days of the Christian era on 18 January, in commemoration of the day when Saint Peter held his first service in Rome. The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch, commemorating his foundation of the See of Antioch, has also been long celebrated at Rome, on 22 February. At each place a chair (cathedra) was venerated which the Apostle had used while presiding at Mass. One of the chairs is referred to about 600 by an Abbot Johannes who had been commissioned by Pope Gregory the Great to collect in oil from the lamps which burned at the graves of the Roman martyrs. One of these phials, preserved in the cathedral treasury of Monza, Italy, had a label reading, "oleo de sede ubi prius sedit sanctus Petrus" (oils from the chair where Saint Peter first sat). The Mass for both feast days is the same; the Collect is as follows:

"Oh, God, who, together with the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, didst bestow on blessed Peter Thy Apostle the pontificate of binding and loosing, grant that by the aid of his intercession we may be released from the yoke of our sins."

Saint Quote: Saint Antony the Abbot

The devil dreads fasting, prayer, humility, and good works: he is not able even to stop my mouth who speak against him. The illusions of the devil soon vanish, especially if a man arms himself with the Sign of the Cross. The devils tremble at the Sign of the Cross of our Lord, by which He triumphed over and disarmed them.

--Saint Antony the Abbot

Saint Quote: Saint John Vianney

We must always choose the most perfect. Two good works present themselves to be done, one in favour of a person we love, the other in favour of a person who has done us some harm. Well, we must give preference to the latter.

--Saint John Vianney

Saint Quote: Saint Leopold Bogdan Mandic

We have in heaven the heart of a mother, The Virgin, our Mother, who at the foot of the Cross suffered as much as possible for a human creature, understands our troubles and consoles us.

--Saint Leopold Bogdan Mandic

Saint Quote: Blessed Peter Donders

After I had spent about ten months in the city of Paramaribo, his Lordship the Bishop sent me, along with two other Fathers, to work from then on in Batavia. During this time it pleased God to offer to the till now neglected Indians—the Arrowaks and the Warros as well as the Caribs—the possibility of knowing and loving Him. But, sadly, expectations were not fulfilled, except among the Arrowaks. Even there, progress was moderate; because of the lack of sufficient instruction, it was not what it could have been... But God is all-powerful; Mary, the refuge of sinners, is also their mother; we must pray and do penance and hope in God and his Holy Mother; for the saints say: From the day on which Christ died souls must be bought by blood. If only, by sacrificing my own life, I could bring all people to know and love God as he deserves. But let God's holy will be done in all things. The Holy Will of God and perfect obedience in all things have always been my consolation, and I hope that it may still be so at the hour of my death. Amen.

--Blessed Peter Donders

Saint Quote: Venerable Pope Pius XII

Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, a particular form of State, or the repositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the worldly community... whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God.

--Venerable Pope Pius XII

Saint Quote: Pope Saint Gregory VII

Now, my dearest brothers, listen carefully to what I tell you. All those throughout the world who are numbered as Christian and who truly acknowledge the Christian faith know and believe that the blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, is the father of all Christians and, after Christ, the first shepherd, and that the holy Roman Church is the mother and teacher of all the churches. Therefore, if you believe this and hold to it without hesitation, I ask you and enjoin upon you by Almighty God - I your brother and unworthy teacher as I am - to support and assist your father and your mother if you wish to have, through them, the remission of all your sins, along with blessings and grace in this world and in the life to come.

May almighty God, from whom all good things come, continually enlighten your minds and fill them with love for him and for your neighbor, so that by your devotion you may deserve to make this father and mother of whom I have spoken your debtors and enter without shame into their company. Amen.

from a letter by Pope Saint Gregory VII

Saint Quote: Saint Columba

O Lord, grant us that love which can never die, which will enkindle our lamps but not extinguish them, so that they may shine in us and bring light to others. Most dear Savior, enkindle our lamps that they may shine forever in your temple. May we receive unquenchable light from you so that our darkness will be illuminated and the darkness of the world will be made less. Amen.

--Saint Columba

Saint Quote: Blessed Alojzije Stepinac

We always stressed in public life the principles of God's eternal law regardless of whether we spoke about Croats, Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, Catholics, Muslims, Orthodox or whoever else.... The Catholic Church does not recognize races that rule and races that are enslaved.

-- Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, 1943

Saint Quote: Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

Owing to the spirit of the world and tepidity, if the Savior returned to earth today to announce His doctrine in person, He would find as many opponents as He did among the Jews.

--Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

Saint Quote: Saint Josephine Bakhita

One day I unwittingly made a mistake that incensed the master's son. He became furious, snatched me violently from my hiding place, and began to strike me ferociously with the lash and his feet Finally he left me half dead, completely unconscious. Some slaves carried me away and lay me on a straw mat, where I remained for over a month.

A woman skilled in this cruel art [tattooing] came to the general's house...our mistress stood behind us, whip in hand. The woman had a dish of white flour, a dish of salt and a razor... When she had made her patterns; the woman took the razor and made incisions along the lines. Salt was poured into each of the wounds... My face was spared, but 6 patterns were designed on my breasts, and 60 more on my belly and arms. I thought I would die, especially when salt was poured in the wounds...it was by a miracle of God I didn't die. He had destined me for better things.

--Saint Josephine Bakhita, describing some miseries during her time as a slave.

Saint Quote: Saint Hilary of Poitiers

Every part of Holy Writ announces through words the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ, reveals it through facts and establishes it through examples. ..For it is our Lord who during all the present age, through true and manifest adumbrations, generates, cleanses, sanctified, chooses, separates, or redeems the Church in the Patriarchs, through Adam's slumber, Noah's flood, Melchizedek's blessing, Abraham's justification, Isaac's birth, and Jacob's bondage.

--Saint Hilary of Poitiers

Saint Quote: Saint Paul Miki

The Christian law commands that we forgive our enemies and those who have wronged us. I must therefore say here that I forgive Taikosama. I would rather have all the Japanese become Christians.

--Saint Paul Miki one of the Martyrs of Nagasaki

Saint Quote: Saint Agatha

Jesus Christ, Lord of all things! You see my heart, you know my desires. Possess all that I am - you alone. I am your sheep; make me worthy to overcome the devil.

--Saint Agatha

Saint Quote: Saint Joseph of Leonissa

Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel. This is what Saint Paul says to the Corinthians, 'Clearly you are a letter of Christ which I have delivered, a letter written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh in the heart' (2 Corinthians 3:3). Our heart is the parchment; through my ministry the Holy Spirit is the writer because 'my tongue is nimble as the pen of a skillful scribe'(Psalms 45:2).

-- from a sermon by Saint Joseph of Leonissa

Saint Quote: Saint Aelred

One who speaks the word of God to others ought not aim at vaunting his own knowledge but at discerning how he can build up his hearers. And with a motherly compassion for weaker minds he ought, I might say, prattle to them, descending to the use of baby talk. But the limit of my gifts make it necessary that my hearers stoop down to the poverty of my words.

-- Saint Aelred

Saint Quote: Blessed Maria Dominica Mantovani

The Holy Family, for the great and mysterious project [that God is calling it to], has chosen me as its Cofoundress, knowing that the Lord uses the least qualified, little, unknown instruments to do great works. I am tranquil and convinced that the Institute, the work of God, will be provided for and guided by Him.

-- Blessed Maria

Saint Quote: Saint Basil the Great

The bread which you use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.

--Saint Basil the Great