Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Hilary of Poitiers

Little children follow and obey their father. They love their mother. They know nothing of covetousness, ill-will, bad temper, arrogance and lying. This state of mind opens the road to heaven. To imitate our Lord’s own humility, we must return to the simplicity of God’s little ones.

– Saint Hilary of Poitiers

Saint Hilary of Poitiers' patronage: Against snakes; against rheumatism; backward children; children learning to walk; mothers; sick people; against snake bites; La Rochelle, France; Poitiers Luçon, France; Argusto, Italy; Vervio, Italy.

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Ambrose of Milan on the Baptism of the Lord

The Lord was Baptized, not to be cleansed Himself, but to cleanse the waters, so that those waters, cleansed by the flesh of Christ which knew no sin, might have the power of Baptism.

– Saint Ambrose of Milan

Saint Ambrose of Milan's patronage: Bee keepers; bees; bishops; candlemakers; chandlers; domestic animals; French Commissariat; geese; learning; livestock; Milan, Italy; police officers; schoolchildren; students; wax melters; wax refiners.

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint John Nepomucene Neumann

A man must always be ready, for death comes when and where God wills it.

– Saint John Nepomucene Neumann

NOTE: Saint John Nepomucene Neumann is the first United States bishop to be canonized.

Saint John Nepomucene Neumann's patronage: Catholic education

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Thomas Becket

For our sake Christ offered Himself to the Father upon the altar for the cross. He now looks down from heaven on our actions and secret thoughts, and one day He will give each of us the reward his deeds deserve. It must therefore be our endeavor to destroy the right of sin and death, and by nurturing faith and uprightness of life, to build up the Church of Christ into a holy temple of the Lord.

– Saint Thomas Becket

Saint Thomas Becket's patronage: Clergy; secular clergy; Exeter College Oxford; Portsmouth, England.

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Quodvultdeus on The Holy Innocents

A tiny child is born, who is a great king. Wise men are led to him from afar. They come to adore one who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and on earth. When they tell of one who is born a king, Herod is disturbed. To save his kingdom he resolves to kill him, though if he would have faith in the child, he himself would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come.

Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this you are disturbed and in a rage. To destroy one child whom you seek, you show your cruelty in the death of so many children.

You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers and fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. You imagine that if you accomplish your desire you can prolong you own life, though you are seeking to kill Life himself.

The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The Christ child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it.

To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory.

– Saint Quodvultdeus from a sermon onThe Holy Innocents

Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe Quote on Saint Stephen

Our King, despite His exalted majesty, came in humility for our sake; yet He did not come empty-handed. He gave of His bounty, yet without any loss to Himself. In a marvelous way He changed into wealth the poverty of His faithful followers while remaining in full possession of His own inexhaustible riches. And so the love that brought Christ from heaven to earth raised Stephen from earth to heaven; shown first in the King, it later shone forth in His soldier. His love of God kept him from yielding to the ferocious mob; his love for his neighbor made him pray for those who were stoning him. Love inspired him to reprove those who erred, to make them amend; love led him to pray for those who stoned him, to save them from punishment.

– Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe

Saint John Chrysostom Quote on Bethlehem

"Adoration of the Shepherds"
by Gerard van Honthorst (1622)

Bethlehem this day resembles heaven; hearing from the stars the singing of angelic voices; and in place of the sun, enfolds within itself on every side, the Sun of justice. And ask not how: for where God wills, the order of nature yields. For He willed; He had the power; He descended; He redeemed; all things yielded in obedience to God. This day He Who is, is Born; and He Who is, becomes what He was not. For when He was God, He became man; yet not departing from the Godhead that is His. Nor yet by any loss of divinity became He man, nor through increase became He God from man; but being the Word He became flesh, His nature, because of impassability, remaining unchanged.

– Saint John Chrysostom

Saint John Chrysostom's patronage: Constantinople; education; epilepsy; lecturers; orators; preachers

Saint Augustine of Hippo Quote

Nothing was so necessary for raising our hope as to show us how deeply God loved us. And what could afford us a stronger proof of this than that the Son of God should become a partner with us of human nature?

– Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Augustine of Hippo's patronage: Brewers; diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut; Cagayan de Oro, Philippines; diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan; printers; city of Saint Augustine, Florida; diocese of Saint Augustine, Florida; sore eyes; diocese of Superior, Wisconsin; theologians; diocese of Tucson, Arizona.

Saint Augustine of Hippo Quote

The world being unworthy to receive the Son of God directly from the hands of the Father, He gave His Son to Mary for the world to receive Him from her.

– Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Augustine of Hippo's patronage: Brewers; diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut; Cagayan de Oro, Philippines; diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan; printers; city of Saint Augustine, Florida; diocese of Saint Augustine, Florida; sore eyes; diocese of Superior, Wisconsin; theologians; diocese of Tucson, Arizona.

Saint Melito of Sardis Quote

There is, therefore, nothing to hinder thee from changing thy evil manner of life, because thou art a free man; or from seeking and finding out who is the Lord of all; or from serving Him with all thy heart: because with Him there is no reluctance to give the knowledge of Himself to those that seek it, according to the measure of their capacity to know Him.

– Saint Melito of Sardis

Saint Hilary of Poitiers Quote

For we recognize the Lord Christ as no creature, for indeed He is none such; nor as something that has been made, since He is Himself the Lord of all things that are made; but we know Him to be God, God the true generation of God the Father. All we indeed, as His goodness has thought fit, have been named and adopted as sons of God: but He is to God the Father the one, true Son, and the true and perfect birth, which abides only in the knowledge of the Father and the Son. But this only, and this alone, is our religion, to confess Him as the Son not adopted but born, not chosen but begotten.

– Saint Hilary of Poitiers

Saint Hilary of Poitiers’ patronage: Against snakes; backward children; snake bites; against rheumatism; children learning to walk; mothers; sick people; La Rochelle, France; Poitiers Lucon, France; Argusto, Italy; Verviio, Italy.

Pope Saint Damasus I Quote

He who walking on the sea could calm the bitter waves, who gives life to the dying seeds of the earth; he who was able to loose the mortal chains of death, and after three days’ darkness could bring again to the upper world the brother for his sister Martha: he, I believe, will make Damasus rise again from the dust.

– Pope Saint Damasus I from an epitaph he wrote for himself.

Pope Saint Damasus I’s patronage: Archaeologists

Saint Anselm of Canterbury Quote

To me, it seems to be negligence if, after confirmation in the faith, we do not study to understand that which we believe.

– Saint Anselm of Canterbury

Saint Augustine of Hippo Quote on the Blessed Virgin Mary

‘Hail, full of grace.’ By these words the angel shows that she was altogether excluded from the wrath of the first sentence, and restored to the full grace of blessing.

– Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Augustine of Hippo's patronage: Brewers; diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut; Cagayan de Oro, Philippines; diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan; printers; city of Saint Augustine, Florida; diocese of Saint Augustine, Florida; sore eyes; diocese of Superior, Wisconsin; theologians; diocese of Tucson, Arizona.

Saint Ambrose of Milan Quote

The Church of the Lord is built upon the rock of the apostles among so many dangers in the world; it therefore remains unmoved. The Church’s foundation is unshakable and firm against assaults of the raging sea. Waves lash at the Church but do not shatter it. Although the elements of this world constantly beat upon the Church with crashing sounds, the Church possesses the safest harbor of salvation for all in distress.

– Saint Ambrose of Milan

Saint Ambrose of Milan's patronage: Bee keepers; bees; bishops; candlemakers; chandlers; domestic animals; French Commissariat; geese; learning; livestock; Milan, Italy; police officers; schoolchildren; students; wax melters; wax refiners.

Saint Nicholas of Myra Quote

Children, I beseech you to correct your hearts and thoughts, so that you may be pleasing to God. Consider that although we may reckon ourselves to be righteous and frequently succeed in deceiving men, we can conceal nothing from God. Let us therefore strive to preserve the holiness of our souls and to guard the purity of our bodies with all fervor. Ye are the temple of God, says the divine Apostle Paul; If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.

– Saint Nicholas of Myra

Saint Nicholas of Myra's patronage: Against imprisonment; against robberies; against robbers; apothecaries; archers; bakers; barrel makers; boatmen; boot blacks; boys; brewers; brides; captives; children; coopers; dock workers; druggists; fishermen; grooms; judges; lawsuits lost unjustly; longshoremen; maidens; mariners; merchants; murderers; newlyweds; old maids; parish clerks; paupers; pawnbrokers; perfumeries; perfumers; pharmacists; pilgrims; poor people; prisoners; sailors; scholars; schoolchildren; shoe shiners; spinsters; students; thieves; travellers; unmarried girls; watermen; Greek Catholic Church in America; Greek Catholic Union; Bari, Italy; Fossalto, Italy; Duronia, Italy; Portsmouth, England; Greece; Lorraine; Russia; Sicily.

Saint John Chrysostom Quote Regarding Saint Andrew the Apostle

After Andrew had stayed with Jesus and had learned much from him, he did not keep this treasure to himself, but hastened to share it with his brother. Notice what Andrew said to him: We have found the Messiah, that is to say, the Christ. Notice how his words reveal what he has learned in so short a time. They show the power of the master who has convinced them of this truth. They reveal the zeal and concern of men preoccupied with this question from the very beginning. Andrew’s words reveal a soul waiting with the utmost longing for the coming of the Messiah, looking forward to his appearing from heaven, rejoicing when he does appear, and hastening to announce so great an event to others. To support one another in the things of the spirit is the true sign of good will between brothers, of loving kinship and sincere affection.

– Saint John Chrysostom

Saint John Chrysostom's patronage: Constantinople; education; epilepsy; lecturers; orators; preachers; speakers; Istanbul, Turkey.

Saint Saturninus of Toulouse Quote

I adore one only God, and to him I am ready to offer a sacrifice of praise. Your gods are devils, and are more delighted with the sacrifice of your souls than with those of your bullocks. How can I fear them who, as you acknowledge, tremble before a Christian?

– Saint Saturninus of Toulouse at his martyrdom

Saint Saturninus of Toulouse's patronage: Against ants; against bovine spongiform encephalopathy; death anxiety; against fraud; against headaches; against mad cow disease; against nausea; against pain; against plague; against scrapie; against smallpox; against syphilis; bullfighters; smallpox patients; Toulouse, France

Saint Francis de Sales Quote

All the science of the Saints is included in these two things: To do, and to suffer. And whoever had done these two things best, has made himself most saintly.

– Saint Francis de Sales

Saint Francis de Sales' patronage: Baker, Oregon; Cincinnati, Ohio; Catholic press; Columbus, Ohio; confessors; deaf people; educators; Upington, South Africa; Wilmington, Delaware; writers; journalists; the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

Saint Peter Chrysologus Quote

The first Adam was made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to give him life. The last Adam was formed by his own action; he did not have to wait for life to be given him by someone else, but was the only one who could five life to all. The first Adam was formed from valueless clay, the second Adam came forth from the precious womb of the Virgin. In the case of the first Adam, earth was changed into flesh; in the case of the second Adam, flesh was raised up to be God.

What more need be said? The second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created him. That is why he took on himself the role, and the name, of the first Adam, in order that he might not lose what he had made in his own image. The first Adam, the last Adam; the first had a beginning, the last knows no end. The last Adam is indeed the first; as he himself says: I am the first and the last.

– Saint Peter Chrysologus from a sermon

Saint Peter Chrysologus' patronage: Against fever; Against mad dogs