We know more about the devotion to Saint Blaise by Christians around the world than we know about the saint himself. His feast is observed as a holy day in some Eastern Churches. In 1222, the Council of Oxford prohibited servile labor in England on Blaise’s feast day. The Germans and Slavs hold him in special honor, and for decades many United States Catholics have sought the annual Saint Blaise blessing for their throats.
We know that Bishop Blaise was martyred in his episcopal city of Sebastea, Armenia, in 316. The legendary Acts of St. Blaise were written 400 years later. According to them Blaise was a good bishop, working hard to encourage the spiritual and physical health of his people. Although the Edict of Toleration (311), granting freedom of worship in the Roman Empire, was already five years old, persecution still raged in Armenia. Blaise was apparently forced to flee to the back country. There he lived as a hermit in solitude and prayer, but he made friends with the wild animals. One day a group of hunters seeking wild animals for the amphitheater stumbled upon Blaise’s cave. They were first surprised and then frightened. The bishop was kneeling in prayer surrounded by patiently waiting wolves, lions and bears.
The legend has it that as the hunters hauled Blaise off to prison, a mother came with her young son who had a fish bone lodged in his throat. At Blaise’s command the child was able to cough up the bone.
Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia, tried to persuade Blaise to sacrifice to pagan idols. The first time Blaise refused, he was beaten. The next time he was suspended from a tree and his flesh torn with iron combs or rakes. Finally, he was beheaded.
Reflection
Four centuries give ample opportunity for fiction to creep in with fact. Who can be sure how accurate Blaise’s biographer was? But biographical details are not essential. Blaise is seen as one more example of the power those have who give themselves entirely to Jesus. As Jesus told his apostles at the Last Supper, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). With faith we can follow the lead of the Church in asking for Blaise’s protection.
John Bosco’s theory of education could well be used in today’s schools. It was a preventive system, rejecting corporal punishment and placing students in surroundings removed from the likelihood of committing sin. He advocated frequent reception of the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion. He combined catechetical training and fatherly guidance, seeking to unite the spiritual life with one’s work, study and play.
Encouraged during his youth in Turin to become a priest so he could work with young boys, John was ordained in 1841. His service to young people started when he met a poor orphan in Turin, and instructed him in preparation for receiving Holy Communion. He then gathered young apprentices and taught them catechism.
After serving as chaplain in a hospice for working girls, Don Bosco opened the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales for boys. Several wealthy and powerful patrons contributed money, enabling him to provide two workshops for the boys, shoemaking and tailoring.
By 1856, the institution had grown to 150 boys and had added a printing press for publication of religious and catechetical pamphlets. John’s interest in vocational education and publishing justify him as patron of young apprentices and Catholic publishers.
John’s preaching fame spread and by 1850 he had trained his own helpers because of difficulties in retaining young priests. In 1854, he and his followers informally banded together, inspired by Saint Francis de Sales.
With Pope Pius IX’s encouragement, John gathered 17 men and founded the Salesians in 1859. Their activity concentrated on education and mission work. Later, he organized a group of Salesian Sisters to assist girls.
Reflection
John Bosco educated the whole person—body and soul united. He believed that Christ’s love and our faith in that love should pervade everything we do—work, study, play. For John Bosco, being a Christian was a full-time effort, not a once-a-week, Mass-on-Sunday experience. It is searching and finding God and Jesus in everything we do, letting their love lead us. Yet, because John realized the importance of job-training and the self-worth and pride that come with talent and ability, he trained his students in the trade crafts, too.
St. Brigid of Ireland (451–525 A.D.), also known as St. Brigit of Kildare, was born to a pagan Irish chieftain and a Christian slave mother. Being the daughter of a slave woman, she also was a slave, and worked as a dairy maid. She became known for her virtuous life and her charity to the poor. Recognizing her great piety and special graces, a Christian king convinced her father to grant Brigid her freedom. Once free to follow her own course in life, St. Brigid refused marriage, consecrated herself to Christ, and became Ireland’s first nun. She also formed Ireland’s first convent at Kildare and became its abbess. She went on to found many other religious communities, as well as a School of Art famous for its metal working and illuminated manuscripts. St. Brigid was known for her extraordinary spirituality, even converting her father to the faith after he witnessed her fashioning the sign of the cross from strands of rushes. She was also a contemporary and friend of St. Patrick. When she died, her sisters kept a fire burning in an enclosure at her Kildare convent. This fire burned for centuries, tended by the sisters and not burning out until the 13th century. It was later re-lit and burned for 400 more years until the Protestant revolt. St. Brigid is the patroness of Ireland and many other causes, most notably of dairy and milk maids, chicken farmers, travelers, and sailors. Her feast day is February 1st.
St. Lawrence of Canterbury (d. 619 A.D.) was among the original band of missionaries sent from Rome to evangelize England with St. Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury. As a fruit of their labor the region’s most powerful ruler, the King of Kent, became a baptized Christian along with many of his countrymen. When Augustine died, Lawrence became Canterbury’s second Archbishop. He was a zealous leader and urged the Celtic bishops to keep peace and unity with Rome. When the King of Kent died, his pagan son caused great damage to the faith of the people and the mission work which had been done among them; because of this, some of the missionaries fled to Gaul. Lawrence was so upset by the abandonment of Christianity among his flock that he considered abandoning his bishopric as well. In response, St. Peter the Apostle appeared to him in a vision, rebuked him, and scourged him so badly that Lawrence had physical marks on his body from the encounter. St. Lawrence then relayed his vision to the king and showed him his wounds, causing the king to convert to the Christian faith as his father did. St. Lawrence’s feast day is February 2nd.
And therefore that good news Jesus came to give us, and that good news you must carry out, you must bring into the world where you are going to move in now. What good news? That God loves you and that you want to love others as He loves you — tenderly, lovingly.
And how do we know that God loves us? There is a very beautiful word in the Scriptures in Isaias where He says: “I have called you by your name, you are Mine. Water will not drown you, fire will not burn you. I will give up nations for you. You are precious to Me. I love you. And if mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of My hand.” How wonderful it is, the tenderness of God’s love for us. And it is this that you have to carry out in the world of today.
The Joy of Loving
This expectation your parents, your relations, your friends, even the whole world, is expecting that you be that light, the light that Jesus said: “I am the light that you must lit. I am the truth you must speak. I am the joy that you must share. I am the life that you must lead. I am the love that you must love.” Go with that — the joy of loving.
You must experience the joy of loving. And how do you experience that freedom? You need to be free to love. That means have a clean heart. And this is my prayer for you: that you become real carriers of God’s love, in tenderness and love.
Do Not Be Afraid to Love
Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid to love. Even when suffering comes, humiliation comes, pain comes, success comes, joy comes. Remember, you are precious to Him. He loves you.
And this is something that today we are brought together to proclaim: the joy of being loved and the joy of loving.
We hear so many terrible things happening. But never lose heart. We always — thank God — I can smile. At least you can smile, if nothing else.
The Kiss of Jesus
I never forget one day I met a lady who was dying of cancer, and I could see the way she was struggling with that terrible pain. And I said to her, I said, “You know this is but the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close to Him on the cross that He can kiss you.” And she joined her hands together and said: “Mother Teresa, please tell Jesus to stop kissing me.
This is the joy of suffering, the kiss of Jesus. Do not be afraid to share in that joy of suffering with Him because He will never give us more suffering than we are able to bear. I have seen that again and again with our poor people.
We deal with thousands of people, people who die of hunger, of disease, people who die of loneliness, of being unwanted, unloved. And I have never yet heard one of them complain or curse.
Once I picked up a man from the street — from an open drain — and I took him to our home. He did not shout; he did not blame anybody. [He] just said, “I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared [for].” Two or three hours after, he died with a big smile on his face. That was tenderness and love that came to him through the hands of those young sisters.
Now, in our congregation, we have about 70 young American sisters who have joined and who are completely so totally dedicated, and through that taking care of lepers, of the dying, of the crippled, of the unwanted, of the shut-ins and so on. And there is so much — that sharing and joy. Because Jesus wants us to be happy, He wants us to give that joy “that My joy be with you.” And we have no reason to be unhappy because we are loved by God Himself even in suffering. It is not a punishment, it is a gift of God.
Prayer Is Your Strength
And so I think these days when you are, after so many years — four full years you are prepared — I hope you have learned to pray. And if you have learned to pray, that is your strength, that is your joy. And through this life of prayer, make sure — the fruit of prayer is always the deepening of faith. And the fruit of faith is always love. And the fruit of love is action. We must put our love for Jesus in the living action.
How do we do that? If we do it with Jesus, if we do it for Jesus, and if we do it to Jesus, then we know that we are with Him because He has said so.
This is not an act of faith, to believe that I am doing it to Jesus. Jesus has said, “Whatever you do to the least of My brethren, you do to Me.”
And also the condition — in our last day when we come face to face with God, we are going to be judged by what we have been to Him, and He says, “I was hungry; and you gave Me to eat; I was naked, and you clothed Me; I was homeless, and you did it to Me.” There is no imagination, no maybe.
Our Need for the Eucharist
Just as we believe that two and two make four — we don’t need to believe that; we know it is like that — so [it is the same] when Jesus has said, “You did it to me,” that presence. And to be able to do that, we need the Eucharist, we need Jesus in the Holy Communion, we need the Bread of Life. That is why Jesus made Himself Bread of Life to satisfy our hunger for His love. And then He makes Himself the Hungry One so that we can satisfy His hunger for our love.
A few months ago, I had to go to Delhi, and one of the ministers was the top man in social works, and he said, “Mother Teresa, you and we are doing [the] same social work. But there is a great difference between you and us. We do it for something, and you do it to somebody.”
This is for you young people: Remember, do it to somebody; that man, that woman, my brother, my sister — somebody. Jesus in distressing disguise.
Love Begins at Home
And how do we have to do that? Where does it begin, this love? At home. And how does this love begin? [The] family that prays together, stays together. And if you stay together, you will love one another as God loves each one of you, as Jesus wants us to love one another — not in sadness, but in joy. To think that I can love God in my brother, in my sister — it is a wonderful thing.
Only we must come to know. Do we know the poor of this beautiful country? Maybe the poor are in our own family. Maybe we have somebody sick, somebody old, somebody feeling very restless, somebody feeling very lonely. Do we know that?
Rejection and the Loss of Human Dignity
Nakedness is not only for a piece of cloth. Nakedness is also the loss of that dignity, human dignity — the loss for what is beautiful, what is pure, what is chaste, what is virgin. Loss. Homelessness is not only [for] a house made of brick. Homelessness is being that people are completely forgotten, rejected, left alone, as if they are nobody to nobody.
I never forget, one day I was walking down the streets of London, and there I saw a man. The way he was sitting, the way he was looking, he looked the most rejected man that I have ever seen. So, I went right near him, and I took his hand and shook his hand. And my hands are very warm — except here they are a little bit cold.
But I shook his hands, and then he said, “Oh, after so long a time, I feel the warmth of a human hand.” And his face was quite different. There was joy, there was sunshine in his eyes. I can’t tell you the change that came on that man’s life just with that simple shaking of the hand, the warmth of my hand. This is felt.
Abortion is the Greatest Poverty
Now, you young people must go out with that — with the searching eyes. Go in search and find. Maybe in your family; maybe next-door neighbor. Find. There are many people here in the States.
To me, the greatest poverty is that abortion: the fear of the child. The child must die; the child must be killed so that we don’t have to feed one more child, we don’t have to educate one more child. Terrible! Terrible! Mother could murder her own child! Terrible! It is the sign of great poverty. And so, open your eyes to come to know.
Learn from the Poor
One evening, a man came to our house and said, “There is a family with eight children that have not eaten for a long time. Do something for them.” And I took some rice, and the mother took [it]. I could see from the eyes of the children — God knows how long they had not eaten — their eyes were simply shining with hunger, and big black lines under their eyes. And the mother went out with the rice, and when she came back, I asked her, “Where did you go? And what did you do?” And she said, “They are hungry, also.”
Next-door neighbor. She knew they were hungry. I was not surprised that she gave, but I was very much surprised that she knew, because in sorrow like that, in a suffering like that, very often we have no time to think of others. And yet this tremendous woman had the courage to love like that. Great love.
This is something we have to learn from the poor people; they are very great people. You don’t know what is hunger. You have never experienced that. But one day, I picked up a child — six, seven years old — from the street, and I could see the pain of hunger in her face. So, I gave her a piece of bread. And then I saw the child eating the bread, crumb by crumb. I said, “Eat, eat the bread.” And then she looked at me and said, “I am afraid when the bread will be finished, I will be hungry again.”
See, that little one, so small, has already tasted the pain of suffering, the pain of hunger. And this is what I want you — you, who are going out into the world — [to do]: open your eyes.
Many young people come to Calcutta to share in the work — many from different universities, from different colleges. They come and spend two weeks, one month, according to what they are able to make. And there, each one of them, they come, they share the life of prayer with us in our congregation, and we have adoration every day, so for one in the evening.
“I Saw, but I Did Not Look”
So they come. Especially they want to work in the Home for the Dying. And they come with us, and they always say the same thing: “At home, I saw but I didn’t look. You have taught me to see and to look. Now I go home, and I am sure I will find the same. I must find people who need my tender love and care.” All of them.
A girl — a university girl who was in her final examination [for a] Ph.D. in Paris University — she came, also. Before examination, she wanted to spend one month working with Mother Teresa in the Home for the Dying. She was always very occupied, and so on. But then one week before, one day she came to our house, and she put her hands around me, and she said, “I found Jesus.” I said, “Yes, where did you find Him?” And she said, “I found Him in the Home for the Dying.” And I said to her, “What did you do with Jesus when you found Him?” And she said, “I went to confession and Holy Communion after 15 years.”
Then I said, “What else did you do with Jesus when you found Him?” And she said, “I sent a telegram to my parents and told them I found Jesus.” So beautiful.
See: She came, she saw, she looked, and she did. This is what you go out with that determination. Mary came into the room with Elisabeth, the little one leaped with joy. Your presence should bring that in your own family first. The joy of that presence of Christ, the joy of purity, the joy of that real sharing.
Love with a Virgin Heart
It is very beautiful that a young man loves a young woman, and a young woman loves a young man. That’s a beautiful creation of God. But make sure, make sure, that you love with a clean heart, with a pure heart, that you love with a virgin heart. And that on the day of your marriage — when God makes you one, as in the Scripture we read that they cleave together and they become one — on that day, that you can give to each other a virgin heart, a virgin body, a virgin soul. That is the greatest gift you can give to each other.
A few days before I came, I left Calcutta, a young man and a woman came to our house, and just two days before that they had got married. And they gave me a big amount of money to feed the people, because we cook for 7,000 people in Calcutta every day. So, these good young people gave me the money to feed the people.
And I said, “Where did you get so much money?” And they said to me, “Mother, before our marriage, we decided that out of love for each other, we will not buy wedding clothes, we will not have a wedding feast; we will give you the money.” And I said, “Why did you do that?” because that is unheard of in India, especially in a Hindu family. Marriage is something very important, a big part of their lives.
And they said they wanted to give something very special to each other. “We loved each other so tenderly, and we wanted to give something special to each other.” This is a love, a great love.
Light a New Light
So, my prayer for you is that you go in the world today with a virgin heart, with a virgin love, and give that love to all you meet. Your presence should light a new light in the lives of people.
When our sisters went to Yemen — a Muslim country, completely Muslim; there is no church, no nothing there — the governor of that place wrote and said, “The presence of the sisters has lit a new light in the lives of our people.”
This is something that you also — Go forward with the joy and keep the joy of loving Jesus in your hearts and share that joy with all you meet, especially with one another and with your family.
And through this love for each other, you will grow in holiness. Holiness is not the luxury of the few. It’s a simple duty for you and for me. So, let us grow in that holiness so that one day, we will be all one heart full of love in the Heart of Jesus.
Pray for Us
And you, also, pray for us, the sisters and the brothers. We have consecrated our lives to love Christ with undivided love and chastity through freedom of poverty, in total surrender and obedience.
And in our congregation, we take a fourth vow of giving wholehearted, free service to the poorest of the poor. By this vow, we are specially bound to the people who have nothing and nobody, and [we], also, fully depend on Divine Providence.
We accept no government grants, no salaries, no church [supplements]. We are just like the flowers of the field and the birds of the air. We depend on Him fully and He has been a wonderful father to us and to our poor people.
We deal with thousands and thousands and thousands of people, and we have never had to say, “I’m sorry, we don’t have.” It’s always been there. So, you pray that we don’t spoil God’s work, that it remains His work.
Religious Life Is a Great Gift
And you help your children when God calls them to join in giving their lives to God, to [the] priesthood or to religious life. Be grateful to God for this great gift, for this is something very special because God is asking your child to belong to Him totally and to give Him the all for Him.
So, let us pray together for our poor people that God’s love may be shown to them through each one of us:
Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellowmen throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands this day their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give peace and joy.
St. Joseph Mary Tomasi (1649-1713) was born in Sicily to noble and virtuous parents. He received a good Christian education and was drawn to the things of God from an early age. He renounced his inheritance and titles, transferring them to his brother, and entered religious life in the Order of the Clerics Regular Theatine founded by St. Cajetan. When their children were grown, his parents also entered religious life. St. Joseph Tomasi became so well known for his sanctity and learning that his advice and friendship was widely sought. He was a master of several languages, including Hebrew, and converted his teacher, a Jewish Rabbi, to Christianity. He is known for his writings on theology and love of the Roman liturgy, earning him the name “Liturgical Doctor.” Some of the liturgical reforms he sought were adopted in 20th century. He was famous for teaching catechism to the children of his titular church, and its congregants Gregorian chant. He was appointed a Cardinal, and not long after suffered from pneumonia and died. St. Joseph Mary Tomasi is the patron saint of liturgy. His feast day is January 1st.
Image: Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in St. Paul Catholic Church, Westerville, Ohio | photo by Nheyob
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton’s Story (August 28, 1774 – January 4, 1821)
Mother Seton is one of the keystones of the American Catholic Church. She founded the first American religious community for women, the Sisters of Charity. She opened the first American parish school and established the first American Catholic orphanage. All this she did in the span of 46 years while raising her five children.
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton is a true daughter of the American Revolution, born August 28, 1774, just two years before the Declaration of Independence. By birth and marriage, she was linked to the first families of New York and enjoyed the fruits of high society. Reared a staunch Episcopalian, she learned the value of prayer, Scripture and a nightly examination of conscience. Her father, Dr. Richard Bayley, did not have much use for churches but was a great humanitarian, teaching his daughter to love and serve others.
The early deaths of her mother in 1777 and her baby sister in 1778 gave Elizabeth a feel for eternity and the temporariness of the pilgrim life on earth. Far from being brooding and sullen, she faced each new “holocaust,” as she put it, with hopeful cheerfulness.
At 19, Elizabeth was the belle of New York and married a handsome, wealthy businessman, William Magee Seton. They had five children before his business failed and he died of tuberculosis. At 30, Elizabeth was widowed and penniless, with five small children to support.
While in Italy with her dying husband, Elizabeth witnessed Catholicity in action through family friends. Three basic points led her to become a Catholic: belief in the Real Presence, devotion to the Blessed Mother and conviction that the Catholic Church led back to the apostles and to Christ. Many of her family and friends rejected her when she became a Catholic in March 1805.
To support her children, she opened a school in Baltimore. From the beginning, her group followed the lines of a religious community, which was officially founded in 1809.
The thousand or more letters of Mother Seton reveal the development of her spiritual life from ordinary goodness to heroic sanctity. She suffered great trials of sickness, misunderstanding, the death of loved ones (her husband and two young daughters) and the heartache of a wayward son. She died January 4, 1821, and became the first American-born citizen to be beatified (1963) and then canonized (1975). She is buried in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Reflection
Elizabeth Ann Seton had no extraordinary gifts. She was not a mystic or stigmatic. She did not prophesy or speak in tongues. She had two great devotions: abandonment to the will of God and an ardent love for the Blessed Sacrament. She wrote to a friend, Julia Scott, that she would prefer to exchange the world for a “cave or a desert.” “But God has given me a great deal to do, and I have always and hope always to prefer his will to every wish of my own.” Her brand of sanctity is open to everyone if we love God and do his will.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton is a Patron Saint of:
Catholic Schools Educators/Teachers Loss of Parents Widows
Image: Statue of Saint Hilary of Poitiers | en l’Église Saint-Hilaire de Givet | photo by G.Garitan
Saint Hilary of Poitiers’ Story (C. 315 – C. 368)
This staunch defender of the divinity of Christ was a gentle and courteous man, devoted to writing some of the greatest theology on the Trinity, and was like his Master in being labeled a “disturber of the peace.” In a very troubled period in the Church, his holiness was lived out in both scholarship and controversy. He was bishop of Poitiers in France.
Raised a pagan, he was converted to Christianity when he met his God of nature in the Scriptures. His wife was still living when he was chosen, against his will, to be the bishop of Poitiers in France. He was soon taken up with battling what became the scourge of the fourth century, Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ.
The heresy spread rapidly. Saint Jerome said “The world groaned and marveled to find that it was Arian.” When Emperor Constantius ordered all the bishops of the West to sign a condemnation of Athanasius, the great defender of the faith in the East, Hilary refused and was banished from France to far off Phrygia. Eventually he was called the “Athanasius of the West.”
While writing in exile, he was invited by some semi-Arians (hoping for reconciliation) to a council the emperor called to counteract the Council of Nicea. But Hilary predictably defended the Church, and when he sought public debate with the heretical bishop who had exiled him, the Arians, dreading the meeting and its outcome, pleaded with the emperor to send this troublemaker back home. Hilary was welcomed by his people.
Reflection
Christ said his coming would bring not peace but a sword (see Matthew 10:34). The Gospels offer no support for us if we fantasize about a sunlit holiness that knows no problems. Christ did not escape at the last moment, though he did live happily ever after—after a life of controversy, problems, pain and frustration. Hilary, like all saints, simply had more of the same.
The life of Anthony will remind many people of Saint Francis of Assisi. At 20, Anthony was so moved by the Gospel message, “Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor” (Mark 10:21b), that he actually did just that with his large inheritance. He is different from Francis in that most of Anthony’s life was spent in solitude. He saw the world completely covered with snares, and gave the Church and the world the witness of solitary asceticism, great personal mortification and prayer. But no saint is antisocial, and Anthony drew many people to himself for spiritual healing and guidance.
At 54, he responded to many requests and founded a sort of monastery of scattered cells. Again, like Francis, he had great fear of “stately buildings and well-laden tables.”
At 60, he hoped to be a martyr in the renewed Roman persecution of 311, fearlessly exposing himself to danger while giving moral and material support to those in prison. At 88, he was fighting the Arian heresy, that massive trauma from which it took the Church centuries to recover. “The mule kicking over the altar” denied the divinity of Christ.
Anthony is associated in art with a T-shaped cross, a pig and a book. The pig and the cross are symbols of his valiant warfare with the devil—the cross his constant means of power over evil spirits, the pig a symbol of the devil himself. The book recalls his preference for “the book of nature” over the printed word. Anthony died in solitude at age 105.
Reflection
In an age that smiles at the notion of devils and angels, a person known for having power over evil spirits must at least make us pause. And in a day when people speak of life as a “rat race,” one who devotes a whole life to solitude and prayer points to an essential of the Christian life in all ages. Anthony’s hermit life reminds us of the absoluteness of our break with sin and the totality of our commitment to Christ. Even in God’s good world, there is another world whose false values constantly tempt us.
St. Canute IV of Denmark (1042 – 1086 A.D.), also known as Canute the Holy, was one of thirteen sons born to the king of Denmark. Canute later succeeded his brother to the throne and reigned as king from 1080 to 1086. He was a devout Catholic, a zealous propagator of the faith, and a brave warrior, in addition to being a man of prayer, penance, austerity, and charity towards the poor and weak among his people. The happiness of his people and the interests of the Church were his motivation, often putting him in opposition to the aristocracy. He fought against the barbarian nations and worked to strengthen the power of the monarchy, but some of his laws were unpopular and caused unrest among the people. Canute sought to expand Denmak’s territory and believed he had a claim to the English throne. In 1085 he gathered his fleet and planned an invasion of England to overthrow William the Conquerer, a plan which was never realized. Instead, a revolt broke out against Canute, causing him to take refuge inside St. Alban’s Priory in Odense. Canute, his brother, and seventeen of his men were pursued and killed by rebels in front of the altar. He was named a martyr for the faith, and many miracles were reported at his tomb. He was canonized in the year 1101, the first Danish saint. St. Canute is the patron saint of Denmark. His feast day is January 19.
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