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.