Today’s Saint

By Franciscan Media - What better way to prepare for the arrival of the Christ Child than to take a brief journey to Greccio, the spot in central Italy where Saint Francis of Assisi created the first Christmas crib in the year 1223... Francis, recalling a visit he had made years before to Bethlehem, resolved to create the manger he had seen there. The ideal spot was a cave in nearby Greccio.

Franciscan Media - Abbess, artist, author, composer, mystic, pharmacist, poet, preacher, theologian—where to begin in describing this remarkable woman? Born into a noble family, she was instructed for ten years by the holy woman Blessed Jutta. When Hildegard was 18, she became a Benedictine nun at the Monastery of Saint Disibodenberg.

By Franciscan Media - Jesus asked, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”.. The words were repeated to a young teacher of philosophy who had a highly promising career in academics, with success and a life of prestige and honor before him... Francis Xavier, 24 at the time, and living and teaching in Paris, did not heed these words at once.

Franciscan Media - Andrew was Saint Peter’s brother, and was called with him. “As [Jesus] was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is now called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, ‘Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him” (Matthew 4:18-20).