Saints celebrated this week
S. Francis of Assisi – 4th October
Francis was born in 1181 to Pietro di Bernardone, a prominent businessman, and his wife Pica Bourlemont, about whom little is known except that she was originally from France. He was one of seven children. He gave up everything to obey the words of the Lord “Leave all, and follow me” and lived in complete poverty preaching the Gospel. He was joined by others and they lived a simple rule based on the Gospel. From this grew the Franciscan Order and, although he ceased to be its leader, it spread rapidly during his lifetime. His life was marked by faith, joy, service of others, prayer and love of all created things. He died on the evening of 3 October 1226 singing Psalm 141, and on 16 July 1228 he was pronounced a saint by the next pope Gregory IX, the former cardinal Ugolino di Conti, friend and protector of St. Francis.
S. Bruno – 6th October
Bruno was born at Cologne and, after ordination, ran the cathedral school at Rheims for many years. He was eventually forced to leave following difficulties with the Archbishop and thereafter turned to the religious life. He felt called to a life of asceticism and solitude and retired to the mountains near Grenoble with a few companions. From this community grew the Carthusian Order. Bruno was summoned back to Rome by the pope, but after a few years retired to Calabria where he founded a new monastery. He died in 1101 and was buried in the little cemetery of the hermitage of Santa Maria. Since the Carthusian Order maintains a strict observance of humility, St. Bruno was canonised comparatively late to the other founders of great orders. Shortly after St. Bruno’s bones were discovered with the epitaph “Haec sunt ossi magistri Brunonis” over them in 1513, Pope Leo X proclaimed him a saint on 19 July 1514.
Our Lady of the Rosary – 7th October
This feast has been celebrated since the Christian victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571
S. Denis and his Companions – 9th October
S. Denis is a Christian martyr and saint who was Bishop of Paris in the third century. He irritated the tempers of heathen priests by his conversions and was beheaded on the highest hill near Paris (Montmartre) in about 250. His companions, a priest named Rusticus and a deacon named Eleutherius, were killed with him.
S. John Leonardi – 9th October
John Leonardi was born in Lucca, Tuscany in 1541. He was ordained priest in 1572 and founded a community to teach the young and to instruct adults against the Protestant Reformers. He went to Rome where he worked with Philip Neri for a time. He laid the foundations of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in preparing priests for mission work. He died in Rome in 1609 and was canonised in 1938.
