Today’s Saint

By Bellarmine Forum - A DOMINICAN friar from his fifteenth year, Michael Ghislieri, as a simple religious, as inquisitor, as bishop, and as cardinal, was famous for his intrepid defence of the Church’s faith and discipline, and for the spotless purity of his own life. His first care as Pope was to reform the Roman court and capital by the strict example of his household and the severe punishment of all offenders.

Zeale News - The Carthusian order was founded in 1054 by St. Bruno. They are known for their intense fasts, solitude, and discipline - as well as for the production of chartreuse. King Henry II had ordered the death of St. Thomas Beckett and established a Charterhouse there as an act of reparation. The community first went to London in 1371. They came to care for and pray for the victims of the bubonic plague that was ravaging Europe at the time.

By Bellarmine Forum - By Bellarmine Forum - St. Catherine of Siena (1380). ... CATHERINE, the daughter of a humble tradesman, was raised up to be the guide and guardian of the Church in one of the darkest periods of its history, the fourteenth century. As a child, prayer was her delight. She would say the “Hail Mary” on each step as she mounted the stairs, and was granted in reward a vision of Christ in glory. ...

By Catholic Online - St. Catherine of Siena was born during the outbreak of the plague in Siena, Italy on March 25, 1347. She was the 25th child born to her mother, although half of her brothers and sisters did not survive childhood. Catherine herself was a twin, but her sister did not survive infancy. Her mother was 40 when she was born. Her father was a cloth dyer... At the age of 16, Catherine’s sister, Bonaventura, died, leaving her husband as a widower. Catherine’s parents proposed that he marry Catherine as a replacement, but Catherine opposed this. She began fasting and cut her hair short to mar her appearance.