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 Elizabeth Ann Seton

I will go peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who received it from God Himself.

– Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton's patronage: Death of children; in-law problems; loss of parents; opposition of Church authorities; people ridiculed for their piety; Diocese of Shreveport, Louisiana; Apostleship of the Sea; widows; State of Maryland; Catholic schools.

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux on the Holy Name of Jesus

The name of Jesus is the purest, and holiest, the noblest and most indulgent of names, the name of all blessings and of all virtues; it is the name of the God-Man, of sanctity itself. To think of Jesus is to think of the great, infinite God Who, having given us His life as an example, has also bestowed the necessary understanding, energy and assistance to enable us to follow and imitate Him, in our thoughts, inclinations, words and actions. If the name of Jesus reaches the depths of our heart, it leaves heavenly virtue there. We say, therefore, with our great master, St. Paul the Apostle: If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema (1 Corinthians 16:22).

– Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux's patronage: Beekeepers; bees; candlemakers; chandlers; wax-melters; wax refiners; Gibraltar; Queens College, Cambridge.

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory Nazianzen

Saint Basil the Great (left)
and Saint Gregory Nazianzen

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; reformers; monks; Russia.

Let us not esteem worldly prosperity or adversity as things real or of any moment, but let us live elsewhere, and raise all our attention to Heaven; esteeming sin as the only true evil, and nothing truly good, but virtue which unites us to God.

– Saint Gregory Nazianzen

Saint Gregory Nazianzen's patronage: For harvests; poets.

Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe

The blessed Paul argues that we are saved by faith, which he declares to be not from us but a gift from God. Thus there cannot possibly be true salvation where there is no true faith, and, since this faith is divinely enabled, it is without doubt bestowed by his free generosity. Where there is true belief through true faith, true salvation certainly accompanies it. Anyone who departs from true faith will not possess the grace of true salvation.

– Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe

Saint Quote of the Day: Pope Saint John Paul II

"Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Sm 16:7). And Mary’s heart was fully disposed to the fulfilment of the divine will. This is why the Blessed Virgin is the model of Christian expectation and hope. In her heart there is no shade of selfishiness: she desires nothing for herself except God's glory and human salvation. For her, the very privilege of being preserved from original sin is not a reason to boast, but one for total service to her Son’s redemptive mission.

– Pope Saint John Paul II

Pope Saint John Paul II's patronage: Kraków, Poland; World Youth Day; young Catholics; Świdnica; families; World Meeting of Families 2015

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 John the Apostle Quote

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life: For the life was manifested; and we have seen and do bear witness, and declare unto you the life eternal, which was with the Father, and hath appeared to us: That which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you, that you may rejoice, and your joy may be full. And this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness.

– Saint John the Apostle from 1 John 1:1-5

Saint John the Apostle's patronage: Against poison; art dealers; authors; bookbinders; booksellers; burns; compositors; editors; engravers; friendships; lithographers; painters; papermakers; poisoning; printers; publishers; tanners; theologians; typesetters; writers; Asia Minor; Taos, New Mexico; Umbria, Italy; diocese of Cleveland, Ohio; diocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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 John of Kanty Quote

Avoid slander because it is difficult to retract. Avoid offending anyone for to ask forgiveness is not delightful.

– Saint John of Kanty

Saint John of Kanty's patronage: Lithuania; Poland.

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.

Pope Saint Leo the Great Quote

That "the Word was made flesh" does not mean that the nature of God was changed into flesh, but that flesh was assumed by the Word into the unity of His person. The word "flesh" moreover signifies the whole man, with whom the Son of God so inseparably united Himself within the womb of the Virgin, fecundated by the Holy Spirit and destined to remain for ever virginal, that He who was begotten of the essence of the Father before time, in time was born of the Virgin's womb. For in no other way could we be released from the chains of eternal death, except He become humble in our nature who remained almighty in His own.

– Pope Saint Leo the Great

Saint Mark the Ascetic Quote

When Scripture says, ‘He will reward every man according to his works’ (Matthew 16:27), do not imagine that works in themselves merit either hell or the Kingdom. On the contrary, Christ rewards each man according to whether his works are done with faith or without faith in Himself; and He is not a dealer bound by contract, but God our Creator and Redeemer.

– Saint Mark the Ascetic

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

Blessed Giulia Valle Quote

Keep a quick pace, without looking behind and concentrate on the one goal: God Alone! To Him the glory, to the others joy, for me to pay the price, never make others suffer. I shall be very strict with myself and full of charity towards the others: love gratuitously offered is the only thing that remains.

– Blessed Giulia Valle

Blessed Giulia Valle's patronage: Educators

Pope Saint Leo the Great Quote

 

Rightly therefore did the birth of our Salvation impart no corruption to the Virgin’s purity, because the bearing of the Truth was the keeping of honour.

– Pope Saint Leo the Great

Saint Ephrem of Syria Quote

Remember me, you heirs of God, you brethren of Christ; supplicate the Savior earnestly for me, that I may be freed through Christ from him that fights against me day by day.

– Saint Ephrem of Syria

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

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.

Saint John of the Cross Quote

O you souls who wish to go on with so much safety and consolation, if you knew how pleasing to God is suffering, and how much it helps in acquiring other good things, you would never seek consolation in anything; but you would rather look upon it as a great happiness to bear the Cross of the Lord.

– Saint John of the Cross

Saint John of the Cross' patronage: Contemplative life, contemplatives, mystical theology, mystics, Spanish poets, World Youth Day 2011, Segovia, Spain, and Ta’ Xbiex, Malta

Saint Lucy of Syracuse Quote

No one's body is polluted so as to endanger the soul if it has not pleased the mind. If you were to lift my hand to your idol and so make me offer against my will, I would still be guiltless in the sight of the true God, who judges according to the will and knows all things. If now, against my will, you cause me to be polluted, a twofold purity will be gloriously imputed to me. You cannot bend my will to your purpose; whatever you do to my body, that cannot happen to me.

– Saint Lucy of Syracuse

* She is one of eight women who, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, are commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass.

Saint Lucy of Syracuse's patronage: Against hemorrhages; authors; blind people; blindness; cutlers; dysentery; eye disease; eye problems; glaziers; hemorrhages; laborers; martyrs; peasants; Perugia, Italy; saddlers; salesmen; stained glass workers; Syracuse, Sicily; throat infections; writers.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Quote

Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything.

– Our Lady of Guadalupe to Saint Juan Diego

Our Lady of Guadalupe's patronage: The America’s; Mexico.

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 Anthony Mary Zaccaria Quote

That which God commands seems difficult and a burden. The way is rough; you draw back; you have no desire to follow it. Yet do so and you will attain glory.

– Saint Anthony Mary Zaccaria

Saint Anthony Mary Zaccaria’s patronage: The Barnabite order; Angelic Sisters of St. Paul; Laity of St. Paul; Physicians

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