Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Saint Francis de Sales -
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Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul except sin. God commands you to pray, but He forbids you to worry.

– Saint Francis de Sales

Saint Francis de Sales' patronage: Baker, Oregon; Cincinnati, Ohio; Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana; Catholic press; Columbus, Ohio; confessors; deaf people; educators; Upington, South Africa; Wilmington, Delaware; writers; journalists; teachers; the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest; Oblates of St. Francis de Sales; Salesians of Don Bosco

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Peter Damian, Doctor of the Church

Do not be depressed. Do not let your weakness make you impatient. Instead, let the serenity of your spirit shine through your face. Let the joy of your mind burst forth.

– Saint Peter Damian

Saint Peter Damian's patronage: Faenza, Italy; traceurs; freerunners.

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Anthony of Padua

We should speak, then, as the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of speech. Our humble and sincere request to the Spirit for ourselves should be that we may bring the day of Pentecost to fulfillment, insofar as he infuses us with his grace, by using our bodily senses in a perfect manner by keeping the commandments. Likewise we shall request that we may be filled with a keen sense of sorrow and with fiery tongues for confessing the faith so our deserved reward may be to stand in the blazing splendor of the saints and to look upon the triune God.

– Saint Anthony of Padua

Saint Anthony of Padua's patronage: Lisbon, Portugal; Lost items; lost people; lost souls; American Indians; amputees; animals; barrenness; Brazil; elderly people; faith in the Blessed Sacrament; fishermen; Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land; harvests; horses; lost articles; lower animals; mail; mariners; oppressed people; poor people; Portugal; pregnant women; seekers of lost articles; shipwrecks; starvation; sterility; swineherds; Tigua Indians; travel hostesses; travellers; Tuburan, Cebu; Watermen; runts of litters; counter-revolutionaries; Pila, Laguna, Taytay, Rizal; Iriga, Camarines Sur; Camaligan, Camarines Sur.

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

It is not sinners, but the wicked who should despair; it is not the magnitude of one’s crime, but contempt of God that dashes one’s hopes.

– Saint Peter Damian

Saint Peter Damian's patronage: Faenza, Italy; traceurs; freerunners.

Saint Quote: Saint Basil the Great, Church Father and Doctor of the Church

Happy is he who night and day entertains no other care and anxiety but how he may be able to render a satisfactory account of his life when he stands before the Judge.

– Saint Basil the Great

Saint Basil the Great's patronage: Cappadocia; hospital administrators; monks; reformers; Russia.

Saint Quote: Saint Anthony of Padua, Doctor of the Church

Attribute to God every good that you have received. If you take credit for something that does not belong to you, you will be guilty of theft.

– Saint Anthony of Padua

Saint Anthony of Padua's patronage: Against shipwrecks; against starvation; against starving; American Indians; amputees; animals; asses; barrenness; boatmen; Brazil; diocese of Beaumont, Texas; domestic animals; elderly people; expectant mothers; faith in the Blessed Sacrament; Ferrazzano, Italy; fishermen; harvests; horses; Lisbon, Portugal; lost articles; lower animals; mail; mariners; oppressed people; Padua, Italy; paupers; poor people; Portugal; pregnant women; sailors; seekers of lost articles; shipwrecks; starvation; starving people; sterility; swineherds; Tigua Indians; travel hostesses; travelers; watermen.

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church

The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing.

– Saint Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas' patronage: Academics; against storms; against lightning; apologists; book sellers; Catholic academies; Catholic schools; Catholic universities; chastity; colleges; learning; lightning; pencil makers; philosophers; publishers; scholars; schools; storms; students; theologians; universities; University of Vigo.

Saint Quote: Saint Ephrem of Syria

Lord, shed upon our darkened souls the brilliant light of your wisdom so that we may be enlightened and serve you with renewed purity. Sunrise marks the hour for men to begin their toil, but in our souls, Lord, prepare a dwelling for the day that will never end. Through our unremitting zeal for you. Lord, set upon us the sign of your day that is not measured by the sun. In your sacrament we daily embrace you and receive you into our bodies; make us worthy to experience the resurrection for which we hope. Teach us to find our joy in your favor! Savior, your crucifixion marked the end of your mortal life; teach us to crucify ourselves and make way for our life in the Spirit.

– Saint Ephrem of Syria from a sermon

Saint Ephrem of Syria's patronage: Spiritual directors; spiritual leaders.

Saint Quote: Saint Bonaventure on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Eternal and inaccessible fountain, clear and sweet stream flowing from a hidden spring, unseen by mortal eye! None can fathom your depths nor survey your boundaries, none can measure your breadth, nothing can sully your purity. From you flows the river which gladdens the city of God and makes us cry out with joy and thanksgiving in hymns of praise to you, for we know by our own experience that with you is the source of life, and in your light we see light.

– Saint Bonaventure from a work on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, font of sacramental graces and living water.

Saint Bonaventure's patronage: Bagnoregio, Italy; against intestinal problems; Cochiti Indian Pueblo; Saint Bonaventure University, New York.

Saint Quote: Saint Peter Chrysologus, Church Father and Doctor of the Church

God appeals to us in his mercy to avoid having to punish us in his severity. Listen to the Lord’s appeal: In me, I want you to see your own body, your members, your heart, your bones, your blood. You may fear what is divine, but why not love what is human? You may run away from me as the Lord, but why not run to me as your father? Perhaps you are filled with shame for causing my bitter passion. Do not be afraid. This cross inflicts a mortal injury, not on me, but on death. These nails no longer pain me, but only deepen your love for me. I do not cry out because of these wounds, but through them I draw you into my heart. My body was stretched on the cross as a symbol, not of how much I suffered, but of my all-embracing love. I count it no less to shed my blood: it is the price I have paid for your ransom. Come, then, return to me and learn to know me as your father, who repays good for evil, love for injury, and boundless charity for piercing wounds.

– Saint Peter Chrysologus from a sermon

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

Saint Quote: Saint Bede the Venerable On "The Visitation"

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior". With these words Mary first acknowledges the special gifts she has been given. Then she recalls God’s universal favors, bestowed unceasingly on the human race.

When a man devotes all his thoughts to the praise and service of the Lord, he proclaims God’s greatness. His observance of God’s commands, moreover, shows that he has God’s power and greatness always at heart. His spirit rejoices in God his savior and delights in the mere recollection of his creator who gives him hope for eternal salvation.

These words are often for all God’s creations, but especially for the Mother of God. She alone was chosen, and she burned with spiritual love for the son she so joyously conceived. Above all other saints, she alone could truly rejoice in Jesus, her savior, for she knew that he who was the source of eternal salvation would be born in time in her body, in one person both her own son and her Lord.

– Saint Bede the Venerable

Saint Bede the Venerable's patronage: Lectors; English writers and historians.

Saint Quote: Saint Athanasius of Alexandria on the Holy Trinity

We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and created being. It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the unity of the holy Trinity is preserved. Accordingly, in the Church, one God is preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things [Ephesians 4:6] . God is above all things as Father, for he is principle and source; he is through all things through the Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit.

– Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

Saint Quote: Saint Ambrose of Milan, Church Father, and Doctor of the Church

When we speak about wisdom, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about virtue, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about justice, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about peace, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about truth and life and redemption, we are speaking of Christ.

– Saint Ambrose of Milan

Saint Ambrose of Milan's patronage: Bee keepers; bees; bishops; candle makers; chandlers; domestic animals; French Commissariat; geese; honeycake bakers; learning; livestock; Milan, Italy; police officers; school children; security personnel; starlings; students; wax melters; wax refiners; Archdiocese of Milan; Alassio, Italy; Bologna, Italy; Lombardy, Italy; Archdiocese of Milan, Italy; Monte San Savino, Italy; Stresa, Italy; Vigevano, Italy.

Saint Quote: Saint Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church

There is no sin nor wrong that gives a man such a foretaste of hell in this life as anger and impatience.

– Saint Catherine of Siena

Saint Catherine of Siena's patronage: Against fire; bodily ills; diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA; Europe; illness; Italy; miscarriages; people ridiculed for their piety; sexual temptation; sick people; sickness; nurses.

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Saint Quote: Saint Gregory Nazianzen, Church Father, and Doctor of the Church

Give something, however small, to the one in need. For it is not small to one who has nothing. Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could.

– Saint Gregory Nazianzen

Saint Gregory Nazianzen's patronage: Harvests; poets.

Saint Quote: Saint Augustine of Hippo, Early Church Father

Now it was not for the angels that Christ died. Yet what was done for the redemption of man through His death was in a sense done for the angels, because the enmity that sin had put between men and the holy angels is removed, and friendship is restored between them, and by the redemption of man the gaps that the great apostasy left in the angelic host are filled up.

– Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Augustine of Hippo's patronage: Brewers; against sore eyes; against vermin; printers; theologians; Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut; Diocese of Ida, Philippines; Diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan; Diocese of Laredo, Texas; Diocese of Saint Augustine, Florida; Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin; Diocese of Tucson, Arizona; Cagayan de Oro, Philippines; Carpineto Romano, Italy; Isleta Indian Pueblo; Ponte Nizza, Italy; Saint Augustine, Florida; San Austin, Ibiza, Spain; Valletta, Malta.

Saint Quote: Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, Early Church Father

All men enjoy some measure of heavenly teaching; and though the measure of grace might be small, it is sufficient to be a remedy for some men and a testimony for everyone.

– Saint Prosper of Aquitaine

Saint Prosper of Aquitaine's patronage: Reggio Emilia, Italy; Romano Canavese, Italy.

Saint Quote: Saint John of Avila, Doctor of the Church

Your life consists in drawing nearer to God. To do this you must endeavor to detach yourself from visible things and remember that in a short time they will be taken from you.

– Saint John of Avila

Saint John of Avila's patronage: Andalusia, Spain; Spain; Spanish secular clergy; World Youth Day 2011.

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church

We can't have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.

– Saint Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas' patronage: Academics; against storms; against lightning; apologists; book sellers; Catholic academies; Catholic schools; Catholic universities; chastity; colleges; learning; lightning; pencil makers; philosophers; publishers; scholars; schools; storms; students; theologians; universities; University of Vigo.

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church

If things always went wrong, no one could endure it; if things always went well, everyone would become arrogant.

– Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux's patronage: Beekeepers; bees; Burgundy, France; candlemakers; chandlers; Cistercian Order; Cistercians; Knights Templar; wax-melters; wax refiners; Gibraltar; Queens College, Cambridge; Speyer Cathedral.