Saint of the Day – February 5 – Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr
Saint Agatha – Born: 231
Died: 251
Canonized:
Pre-congregation by tradition confirmed by Pope Gregory I
Patronage:
Bellfounders, breast cancer patients, bakers, nurses/wet nurses, jewelers, martyrs, rape victims, single laywomen, sufferers of sterility, Victims of torture, natural disasters, fire, earthquakes, eruptions of Mount Etna, and volcanic eruptions, Catania (Sicily), Gallipoli (Apulia), Molise, Malta, San Marino, Zamarramala (Segovia, Spain), Escatrón, (Zaragoza, Spain)
Saint of the Day – February 3 – Saint Blaise, Bishop and Martyr
Saint of the Day – February 1 – Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
Saint Ignatius – Born: 50 in Syria
Died: 107 (thrown to wild animals)
Patronage:
Church in eastern Mediterranean;
Church in North Africa; throat diseases
Saint of the Day – January 30 – Saint Martina, Virgin & Martyr
Saint Martina – Born: unknown
Died: martyred in 228
Patronage:
nursing mothers; Rome, Italy
Saint of the Day – January 19 – Saint Canutus, King of Denmark and Martyr
Saint Canutus: Born: ~1042
Died: ~1086
Saint of the Day – January 18 – Saint Prisca (Priscilla), Virgin and Martyr 56
Saint Prisca: Born: unknown; Died: ~275 at Rome
Saint of the Day – January 16 – Saint Marcellus I, Pope and Martyr
Saint Marcellus: Born: 255; Died: 309/310
Papacy began: 27 May 304
Papacy ended: 16 January 309/310
Saint of the Day – December 29 – Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury and Martyr
Saint Thomas Becket: Born: 21 December 1119/1120;
Died: 29 December 1170 (aged 50 or 51)
Canonized: 21 February 1173 by Pope Alexander III
Patronage: clergy; Exeter College Oxford; Portsmouth England; secular clergy
Saint of the Day – December 18 – Saints Rufus, Zosimos, and Winebald
Saints Rufus & Zosimus:
Martyred citizens of Antioch, who were brought to Rome with St. Ignatius of Antioch and shared in his martyrdom during the reign of Emperor Trajan. They died two days before Ignatius by being thrown to the beasts in the arena.
Saint Winebald:
Winebald + Benedictine abbot and missionary. The brother of Sts. Willibald and Walburga, he was born in Wessex, England, and went on a pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land with his brother and father. When their father died at Lucca, the brothers proceeded to Rome. Winebald remained in the Eternal City while his brother went on to the Holy Land. Winebald studied in Rome for seven years, went back to England, but then returned to Rome determined to enter the religious life. At the invitation of St. Boniface, he gathered together a group of English missionaries and went to Germany in 739. Winebald was ordained, labored in Thuringia and Bavaria, and then joined Wilibald in his missionary enterprise in Eichstatt, Frisia, Holland. With his brother, he founded the monastery of Heidenheim, Germany, where he served as abbot with his sister as abbess. He struggled against the local pagans and strove to make the monastery one of the leading ecclesiastical centers in Germany. Feast day: December 18.