MARCH SAINTS

This is the month of St. Joseph!

MARCH SAINTS CALENDAR
1.	Saint David of Wales (601)
	Blessed Roger (1367)
2.	Blessed Charles the Good (1124)
3.	Saint Cunegunda (1040)
4.	Saint Casimir of Poland (1483)
5.	Saint John Joseph of the Cross (1734)
6.	Saint Collete (1477)
7.	Saint Perpetua and Saint Felicitas (203)
8.	Saint John of God (1550)
	Saint Humphrey (Onuphrius) (871)
9.	Saint Frances of Rome (144)
	Saint Dominic Savio (1857)
10.	This is the latest day on which Ash Wednesday can occur
11.	Saint Sophronius (639)
	Saint Alberta (286)
12.	Saint Nicholas Owen (1606)
13.	Saint Euphrasia (410)
14.	Saint Matilda (Maud) (968)
	Blessed Arnold (1254)
15.	Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer (1820)
	Saint Louise de Marillac (1660)
	Saint Longinus (First Century)
16.	Saint Abraham (360)
17.	Saint Patrick (493)
	Saint Joseph of Arimathea (First Century)
18.	Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (386)
19.	Saint Joseph (29)
	Saint Odran (452)
20.	This day commemorates the First Day of Creation, when God said, "Let there be light."
	Saint Photina (First Century)
	Saint Herbert (687)
21.	Saint Serapion (Fourth Century)
22.	This is the earliest day on which Easter Sunday can occur.  The latest day on which it can fall is April 25, the feast of Saint Mark.
	Saint Zachary (752)
23.	Saint Turibius (1606)
	Our Lady of Victories
24.	Saint Catherine of Sweden (1381)
25.	The Annunciation
	Saint Dismas (33)
	Saint Harold (1168)
26.	Saint Manuel (304)
27.	The Apparition of Our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary on the day of His Resurrection
	Saint Rupert (720)
28.	Saint Spes (Sixth Century)
29.	Saint Gladys (Fifth Century)
30.	Saint John Climacus (605)
31.	Saint Benjamin (421)
	Padre Pio

 

1. Saint David of Wales (601).

He was the disciple of Saint Paulinus, an apostle to England.  Saint David is the patron of Wales, where thousands and thousands noble Catholics have lived and where many saints have been given to God.  Saint David was a most militant adversary of all heresy, especially that of Pelagius, a Briton, who held that grace is not necessary for the performance of good works and that mere natural virtues can lead one to salvation.  Saint David of Wales died when he was one hundred and forty-seven years old.

Blessed Roger (1367).

He was a Frenchman and the son of a nobleman.  He became a bishop and instituted a feast in honor of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception.

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2. Blessed Charles the Good (1124).

He was the son of Saint Canute, King of Denmark, and was called "the Good" because of his outstanding Catholic virtues.  He was martyred in a Catholic Church in Bruges.  Noted Catholic saints killed in Catholic churches by enemies of the Faith include:

Saint Canute, father of Blessed Charles the Good, martyred at the foot of the later, just after he had received Holy Communion.

Saint Matthew the Apostle, who was martyred at the alter in Ethiopia for supporting Saint Phigenia, when she refused to marry her father's successor, iing Hirtacus, after Saint Matthew had raised her form the dead and dedicate here with a group of young virgins, to live the life of a nun.

Saint Boniface, the apostle of Germany, martyred as he started Mass.

Saint Thomas a Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in England, who was murdered in his cathedral as he knelt at prayer.

Saint Anthony Daniel, one of the eight North American martyrs, who was tomahawked by Indians after he had received form his chalice the Precious Blood of Jesus.

Saint Stephen I. Pope, who was killed in the catacombs as he went to sit on his chair at the end of the Mass he had just said.

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3. Saint Cunegunda (1040).

She was the virginal wife of Saint Henry II, Emperor of Germany, who dedicated her to God as soon as he married her.  Saint Henry's feast on July 13.  After Saint Henry's death, Saint Cunegunda, the virgin, became a Benedictine nun.  Her relics, and those of her saintly husband, are kept together in the Cathedral of Bamberg.

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4. Saint Casimir of Poland (1483).

He was the son of a king of Poland, and a most saintly prince.  He refused the crown of Hungary, and died when he was only twenty-four years old, of tuberculosis.  His great love was for the virginal Mother of God.  The only royalty he desired was to be her son.  He recited every day on his knees Saint Anselm's lovely hymn, "Daily, daily sing to Mary" (Omni die die Mariae).  He asked that this hymn be buried with hi in his grave.  One hundred and twenty years after his death, Saint Casimir's body was found incorrupt, thanks to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the little hymn he kept beside him.

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5. Saint John Joseph of the Cross (1734).

He was a Franciscan who died after a life of heroic mortification and sanctity in Naples, in Italy.  He was eighty years old when he died.  He died with his eyes fixed on a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary which he always wanted kept before him.

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6. Saint Collete (1477).

She was a Poor Clare nun who was born in 1381.  Her special devotions were to the Passion of Our Lord and to the practice of holy poverty.  She was a loyal friend of the great Dominican, Saint Vincent Ferrer.  Along with him, she was responsible for the end of the Great Western Schism, which lasted from 1378 to 1417.

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7. Saint Perpetua and Saint Felicitas (203).

Saint Perpetua was a noble young matron, twenty-two years old, who lived in Carthage, in Africa, and was taking instructions to be a Catholic when she was seized by the pagans there and thrown into prison.  She was the mother of a very young child.  Arrested with her was her servant, Saint Felicitas, who was with child, soon to be born.  Both these saints were baptized with water between their arrest and their imprisonment.  After the birth of the child of Saint Felicitas, these two heroic and saintly African women were brought to the amphitheater in Carthage, and gored by a wild cow.  Finally, after embracing each other for the last time, they were both martyred by the sworn.  Their children were taken and reared by Christian women.  Saint perpetua and Saint Felicitas are mentioned in the roman Canon of the Mass.  They are two of the seven women to whom this honor is given.  These are the seven:  Saint Felicitas, Saint Perpetua, Saint Agatha, Saint Lucy, Saint Agnes, Saint Cecilia, Saint Anastasia.

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8. Saint John of God (1550).

He was born in Portugal.  He lived in Spain and, for a time, in Hungary.  He was a poor shepherd.  Saint John of God had a great devotion to sacred images.  He founded the Order of Brothers Hospitallers.  They are often called "the Brothers of Saint John of God."  Saint John of God died when he was fifty-five years old.

Saint Humphrey (Onuphrius) (871).

Saint Humphrey was a monk of the Benedictine Order in France who later became a bishop.  He was especially devoted to the feast of Our Lady's Assumption, and had it kept with special ceremonies in this diocese.

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9. Saint Frances of Rome (144).

She was a noble matron who lived a life of heroic charity.  She had such a great devotion to her Guardian Angel that she was given an almost constant vision of him walking at her side.  She was fifty-six years old when she died.

Saint Dominic Savio (1857).

He was the young disciple of Saint John Bosco, who wrote his life.  Saint Dominic was only fifteen years old when he died.  He was one of the glories of the last century by way of a heroic young Catholic boy.  He was totally given in all his thoughts and deeds to Jesus and Mary.

Click here for more information about Saint Dominic Savio

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10.  This is the latest day on which Ash Wednesday can occur.

The forty Holy Martyrs of Sebaste (320).  These were forty soldiers who, under the Emperor Licinius, in Armenia, were all frozen to death on an icy lake because they would not apostatize from the Catholic Faith.  One of the forty did give in, but his place was taken by one of the guards.  The youngest and last of these forty soldiers to die was named Melitho.  His mother, who was standing by, took him in her arms and carried him to the place where the other martyrs were being burned.  He died in her arms.  She then laid him with the other martyrs, to be thrown into the fire.

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11. Saint Sophronius (639).

He was born at Damascus, in Syria, where Saint Paul was baptized.  He was the great defender in the East of the full humanity of Jesus Christ against those heretics, the Monothelites, who denied that Our Lord had a human will, and therefore that He had truly become man for love of us.

Saint Alberta (286).

She was a virgin and martyr, killed in a persecution under Diocletian.

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12. Saint Nicholas Owen (1606).

At the time of the Reformation in England Saint Nicholas was a carpenter who devoted his life to building hiding places for Catholic priests who, at the peril for their lives, were ministering to the persecuted English Catholics.  He died in the tower under torture, taking his secrets into eternity with him.

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13. Saint Euphrasia (410).

She was the daughter of a Roman senator.  She became a Catholic nun at the age of seven.  She refused all offers to leave the convent and marry a member of the nobility.  She gave all her goods to the poor and died at the age of thirty.

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14. Saint Matilda (Maud) (968).

She was a German queen, the mother of a German emperor, Otto the Great, and of henry, Duke of Bavaria, and of Saint Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne.  She was an Oblate of the Benedictine Order.

Blessed Arnold (1254).

Born at Padua, Blessed Arnold became a Benedictine monk and later was made an abbot.  He was persecuted for eight years by cruel enemies of the Faith.  He died in prison at the age of seventy.

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15. Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer (1820).

He is one of the four canonized saints of the Redemptorist Order.  (The other three are:  Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liquori, Saint Gerard Majella and Saint John Neumann).  Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer, in the midst of the aftermath of the masonic French Revolution, gloriously and courageously preached the necessity of the Catholic Faith for the salvation of all men.

Saint Louise de Marillac (1660).

She was a French girl, born in Paris.  After her husband's death she became a nun and cooperated with Saint Vincent de Paul in establishing the Sisters of Charity.  This order was started in 1634.  Saint Louise was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1934.

Saint Longinus (First Century).

He was the centurion who pierced the side of Our Lord when He was hanging on the Cross after His death.  It was Longinus who exclaimed on Mount Calvary, on the first Good Friday, "Indeed, this was the Son of God!"  Longinus was converted to the Catholic Faith.  He later went to Cappadocia, and shed his own blood there for the teachings of the crucified Jesus.  The relics of Saint Longinus are now in the beautiful church of Saint Augustine, in Rome, not far from the body of Saint Monica.

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16. Saint Abraham (360).

He was a holy hermit of Mesopotamia whose life was brilliantly written by Saint Ephrem, Doctor of the Church.  Saint Abraham's niece named Mary was reconverted by him to a life of mortification and self-sacrifice for the sake of Jesus.  She too became a saint.

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17. Saint Patrick (493).

Saint Patrick, the glorious apostle of Ireland, was born in France, in the year 387.  He father was an official of the Roman government.  His mother's brother was Saint Martin, Bishop of Tours.  When Saint Patrick was almost sixteen years old, he was captured by pirates and brought to Ireland, where he met the people who would one day be his spiritual children.  Saint Patrick was miraculously freed and returned to France.  He was sent back to Ireland in 432 as a bishop by Saint Celestine, the Pope.  Saint Patrick's most noted spiritual daughter in Ireland was Saint Bridget, called "the Mary of the Gael."  Saint Patrick drove all the snakes--symbols of the devil--out of Ireland.  He raised thirty-three persons from the dead.  By making the sign of the cross, he caused the earth to swallow up a heathen who mocked the virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Saint Patrick's charioteer, Saint Odran, was martyred in place of him by some Celtic heathens.  Saint Patrick was one hundred and six years old when he died.  Saint Patrick, Saint Bridget and Saint Columbkille are all buried together and are the patron saints of Ireland.

Saint Joseph of Arimathea (First Century).

He was a noble counselor (a lawyer) who became a disciple of Our Lord.  He took care of the burial of Jesus in a grave which he owned, and which never had been used by another.  Our Lord's two pallbearers were Saint Joseph of Arimathea and Saint Nicodemus.  Saint Joseph of Arimathea was the first apostle to Britain, and founded the church at Glastonbury.  It was he who brought the Holy Grail--the Cup which Jesus used for His Precious Blood at the Last Supper-to England.  Saint Joseph of Arimathea was more than eighty years old when he died.

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18. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (386).

He is a Doctor of the Church, born in Palestine, near Jerusalem.  His simple and clear explanations of the Catholic Faith, which an innocent child can understand, have been responsible for his being truly and properly proclaimed a Doctor of the Universal Church.  Here is the way he speaks:  "Believe in the Son of God, the one and only.  Our Lord Jesus Christ, begotten as God from God, begotten as Light from Light, begotten as Life from Life, like in all things to the Father, not receiving His existence in time, but begotten of the Father eternally and incomprehensibly before all ages…"

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19. Saint Joseph (29).

He was the royal and divinely-trusted man to whom the Blessed Virgin Mary was given as a bride, and whom God knew would guard her innocence as a virgin and protect her Division Child.  Saint Joseph is the foster father of Jesus.  The Litany of the Saints refers to him as the last of the patriarchs.  Saint Joseph was espoused to Our Blessed lady by divine arrangement on September 8, in the year 2 B.C., when she was just fourteen years old.  Saint Joseph was thirty years old at the time.  His solemn espousals to Our lady took place on the following January 23.  Saint Joseph died when he was sixty years old, just before the public life of Our Lord began.  The whole month of March is dedicated to Saint Joseph.  Saint Joseph's body arose from the grave when Our Lord died, on Good Friday.  Saint Joseph ascended with Jesus into Heaven, in soul and in body, forty days later, to await there the coming of Mary on the great feast of the Assumption, on August 15, in the year 58.  Saint Joseph has now two special feast days, one for his royalty on March 19, and one for his humility as a workman, on May 1.  It was told to the Israelites in the Old Testament, "Go to Joseph," if they wanted any favor of benefit.  "Go to Joseph," is the advice and counsel given to every Catholic who wants a favor and who believes in the sanctity of the Holy Family and in its simple and innocent hierarchy.  Anything Saint Joseph asks of Mary and of Jesus in eternity, he will get.  He is still the head of the Holy Family.  One of his greatest admirers and lovers among the saints was Saint Teresa of Avila.

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20. This day commemorates the First Day of Creation, when God said, "Let there be light."

Saint Photina (First Century).

It is fitting that on this day should be celebrated the feast of a radiant saint named Photina, which means light.  She was the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at the well of Jacob.  She was martyred at Carthage in Africa and was thrown into a well.  Martyred with her were her two sons, Saint Victor and Saint Joseph.

Saint Herbert (687).

He was a priest who lived as a hermit on an island in a lake in England.

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21. Saint Serapion (Fourth Century).

He was a learned man of Alexandria in Egypt who became a desert recluse and later a bishop.  He was a friend of Saint Anthony the Abbot.  Driven from his see by the Arians he died in exile.

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22. This is the earliest day on which Easter Sunday can occur.  The latest day on which it can fall is April 25, the feast of Saint Mark.

Saint Zachary (752).

Pope Saint Zachary was a great friend and support of Saint Boniface, the apostle of Germany.  It was on Saint Zachary's authority that Pepin, the father of Charlemange, was crowned King of the Franks.  Saint Zachary condemned the teaching of the existence of a race of men-on another planet- who were not, and who could not have been, descended from Adam and who were not ransomed by Christ.  

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23. Saint Turibius (1606).

Saint Turibius was Archbishop of Peru for twenty-six years.  He traveled 50,000 miles over his vast diocese, almost always on foot.  He built the first American seminary at Lima in 1591.

Our Lady of Victories.

This is the name given to a beautiful image of the Blessed Virgin which the French took form the Greeks at Constantinople in 1204 in a battle in which they scored a victory.  There is also a famous and much-loved church called Our lady of Victories in Paris.  This church was desecrated during the French Revolution, but it was miraculously restored by Our Lady with the help of a simple French priest named Father Desgenettes, in 1836.  "Consecrate your parish to the most holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary," he heard a voice say to him at morning Mass, when only ten were present.  One evening at vespers, after he had obeyed Our Lady's orders, the hitherto empty church was filled for the first time in many, many years.  It was one of the favorite churches of the Little Flower of Jesus.  She visited it ten years before her death.

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24. Saint Catherine of Sweden (1381).

She was the daughter of Saint Bridget of Sweden.  She persuaded the man whom she married to make a vow of chastity and live with her the life of a religious.  She became an abbess.  She died when she was fifty years old.  The Danish form of the name Catherine is Karen.

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25. The Annunciation.

This is the day when the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary that by the power of the Holy Ghost she would conceive and bear a Child and would call His name Jesus (which means Savior).  Our Lady, both knowing her dignity and her lowliness consented, saying "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word."  At that instant the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.  This was the greatest moment in the history of the world.

March 25 was the day on which Adam and Eve were created.  It was on March 25 that Jesus died on the Cross for us.  Saint John the Baptist was beheaded on March 25, one year before the death of Our Lord.  Our Lady said to Marie Bernadette at Lourdes, "I am the Immaculate Conception" on March 25.

Saint Dismas (33).

He was the penitent thief crucified with Jesus.  He died shortly after Our Lord, when his legs were broken by the Roman soldiers.  Dismas said to Jesus, while hanging beside Him on the Cross, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom."  Jesus replied to Dismas, "Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise."  He is also commemorated on October 13.

Saint Harold (1168).

Saint Harold was a little boy put to death by the Jews in Gloucester in England.  He died on the same feast day as did Our Lord, March 25.

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26. Saint Manuel (304).

This is the Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan form of Emmanuel, which means God with us.  In Italy they would call him Emmanuelle.  He was one of a group of forth-three martyrs put to death under the emperor, Diocletian.

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27. The Apparition of Our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary on the day of His Resurrection

It was on March 27, in the year 33, that Jesus rose from the dead.  This was the first Easter Sunday.  Our Lord died at three o'clock in the afternoon, on March 25, in the year 33, and was three days in the tomb.  Our Lord arose from the dead on March 27, at seven o'clock in the morning.  Our Lord was forty hours dead.  Our Lord then spent forty days on earth before He ascended into Heaven.  During these days, Jesus appeared to many.  The best known apparitions of Our Lord after His Resurrection, and before His Ascension, are twelve.  They are these:

To Our Lady, the first of His apparitions to anyone.  So great was Mary's grief from having seen Jesus die on the Cross that Our Lord was obliged to stay a long time with Our Lady in order to comfort her.

To Saint Mary Magdalen, the greatest of all penitents, on Easter Sunday.

To Saint Mary of Cleophas and Saint Mary Salome, the former of whom was the mother of the Apostles Saint Simon, Saint James and Saint Jude, and the latter, her daughter, the mother of the Apostles Saint John and Saint James.  This apparition was on Easter Sunday.

To Saint Peter, on Easter Sunday.

To the disciples on the road to Emmaus, on Easter Sunday.  One of the disciples was Saint Cleophas, the husband of Saint Mary of Cleophas and the brother of Saint Joseph.

To all the Apostles, except Saint Thomas, in the Supper Room, on Easter Sunday.

Besides these well-known apparitions on Easter Sunday, Our Lord appeared before His Ascension, (a) to all the Apostles, including Saint Thomas, assembled in the Supper Room one week after Easter Sunday; (b) to seven Apostles by the Lake of Genesareth; (c) to a multitude on a mountain in Galilee; (d) to Saint James the Less, the first Bishop of Jerusalem; (e) to Saint Joseph of Arimathea, the kindly man who gave Jesus a grave in which to be buried for three days; (f) to all the Apostles and many others on the Mount of Olives on the day of His Ascension into Heaven, on May 5, forty days after His Resurrection, at which great event Our Lady assisted as the Mother of Jesus and our Queen.

Saint Rupert (720).

He was Bishop of Salzburg in Germany and preached the Gospel throughout Bavaria and Austria.

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28. Saint Spes (Sixth Century).