Today’s Saint

By Franciscan Media - The Church has encouraged prayer for the dead from the earliest times as an act of Christian charity. “If we had no care for the dead,” Augustine noted, “we would not be in the habit of praying for them.” Yet pre-Christian rites for the deceased retained such a strong hold on the superstitious imagination that a liturgical commemoration was not observed until the early Middle Ages ....

Franciscan Media - Margaret Mary was chosen by Christ to arouse the Church to a realization of the love of God symbolized by the heart of Jesus... Her early years were marked by sickness and a painful home situation... After considering marriage for some time, Margaret Mary entered the Order of the Visitation nuns at the age of 24... A Visitation nun was “not to be extraordinary except by being ordinary,” but the young nun was not to enjoy this anonymity.

By Franciscan Media - By Franciscan Media - Teresa lived in an age of exploration as well as political, social, and religious upheaval. It was the 16th century, a time of turmoil and reform. She was born before the Protestant Reformation and died almost 20 years after the closing of the Council of Trent.

By Franciscan Media - The most reliable information about this saint comes from his enemy Saint Hippolytus, an early antipope, later a martyr for the Church. A negative principle is used: If some worse things had happened, Hippolytus would surely have mentioned them... Callistus was a slave in the imperial Roman household.