SAINT OF THE DAY TUESDAY, 5 MAY, 2026 SAINT JUDITH OF PRUSSIA WIDOW Saint Judith of Prussia, also known as Jutta, born in Thuringia, was a member of the very noble family of Sangerhausen with which the dukes of Brunswick were related. She was espoused to a nobleman of equal rank, but in the married state she was more intent upon virtue and the fear of God than upon worldly honor. In the beginning the piety of Judith displeased her husband. But later he learned to value it and was heart and soul with her in her pious endeavors. He made a pilgrimage to the holy places in Jerusalem and died on the way. Saint Judith of Prussia received the news of his death with deep sorrow, but also with the most perfect conformity with the will of God, and resolved to spend her widowhood in a manner pleasing to God. After Saint Judith of Prussia had provided for her children, who had all been reared in the fear of God, Judith, with the consent of her confessor, disposed of the costly clothes and jewels she had until then worn in accordance with her rank, as well as all her expensive furniture. She entered the Third Order of St Francis, and wore the simple garment of a religious. She devoted herself entirely to the care of the sick, especially the lepers, and to the poor, whom she visited in their hovels and provided with all necessities. The crippled and the blind she led by the hand to her home and took care of their needs. Many people laughed at the distinguished lady who made herself the servant of the poorest. But she recognized in the poor her Divine Lord, and deemed herself happy and highly honored that she could render them such services. Once when she was at prayer, Christ Himself appeared to her and said to her lovingly: “All My treasures are yours, and yours are Mine.” That spurred Judith on to still greater devotion in serving the poor of Christ. Another time when she was ill and apparently close to death, Our Savior again appeared to her and gave her the choice of entering into glory at the time, or of suffering still more out of love for Him. Saint Judith of Prussia chose suffering. Our Lord gave her strength again to be up and about, but He now destined her for a spiritual work of mercy. On the eastern boundary of Germany, at the mouth of the Vistula, the Prussians were still living as pagans. St Adalbert, archbishop of Prague, had indeed attempted to convert them to Christianity, but all in vain; he was martyred in 997. Since 1226 the German Order of Knights labored to bring these stubborn pagans under the yoke of Christ. To offer assistance in the great labor which this undertaking required, God wished someone to pray. By divine inspiration, Saint Judith of Prussia went into this neighborhood about 1260, and built a little hermitage near a large body of water. There she prayed unceasingly for the conversion of the Prussians. The Christian inhabitants of the neighborhood sometimes beheld her raised high in the air in the fervor of her devotion. She had as her confessor the Franciscan Father John Lobedau, who died in the odor of sanctity, and later the bishop of Kulm. After Judith had lived here for four years, her holy life came to a close. With deep contrition she again confessed to the bishop all, even the smallest, faults of her entire life, received the holy sacraments, and surrendered her soul to God with the words, “It is consummated.” Her body was brought to the church at Kulm, where without being informed, so many people at once gathered as had not been seen in that city for many years. The church was filled with a wonderful odor. Since very many miracles were wrought at her grave, a special chapel was built in her honor, in which Judith has been venerated for centuries as the special patron of Prussia. PATRON: Prussia St. Judith of Prussia: Pray for us!
A Blessed for today and her special miracle Blessed Caterina Cittadini (28 September 1801 - 5 May 1857) May 5 is the feast day of Blessed Caterina Cittadini, observed on the anniversary of her death in Somasca, Lombardy, in 1857. Orphaned young and raised in a Bergamo orphanage with her sister Giuditta after their father abandoned them, Caterina trained as a teacher and settled in Somasca, where the two sisters opened a school for poor and orphaned girls. After Giuditta's sudden death in 1840, Caterina continued the work alone, and from this foundation grew the Ursuline Sisters of Somasca, confirmed as a congregation of pontifical right in 1927. She is a patron of educators and the girls in their care. ◾The miracle for her beatification centred on Samuele Piovani of Verolanuova, Brescia. From December 1990, his mother Gabriella Mosconi faced a crisis pregnancy at four months: the fetus was significantly smaller than normal with severely reduced amniotic fluid, and doctors repeatedly advised terminating the pregnancy. The family refused, and on the urging of a sister of the Ursuline congregation, entrusted themselves to Caterina's intercession. After a novena, clinical examinations showed a measurable increase in amniotic fluid and the pregnancy continued. Samuele was born on 8 March 1991, but eight days after birth he suffered a serious haemorrhage in the occipital region. Physicians declared they could do nothing given the extent of the lesion. The parents prayed to Caterina Cittadini for his survival. After three months Samuele was discharged despite the grave prognosis, and at home his parents observed day by day unexpected and inexplicable improvements. The Vatican's Consulta Medica confirmed the healing as medically inexplicable, and Pope John Paul II signed the decree recognising the miracle on 20 December 1999. Samuele was in third grade with good results at the time of the beatification. Caterina was beatified on 29 April 2001 in Saint Peter's Square. Blessed Caterina, mother of the young and advocate for every fragile life, pray for us.
A young woman, just about to be married, just starting out in a brilliant career with every reason to live and enjoy life and God called her home. She did not rebel but accepted. She teaches us that we do not always have to understand ,what we are all called to do is accept and trust. What a wonderful lesson. https://thecatholictravelguide.com/...sale-italy-grave-of-blessed-sandra-sabattini/ Sandra Sabattini was born August 19, 1961 and grew up in the town of Misano Adriatico on the Adriatic coast of Italy. She was baptized the day after her birth, on Aug. 20th. When she was four years old, her family moved to the city of Rimini, to be in the parish run by her uncle, a Catholic priest. She developed a love for the Lord while she was still a young child, and she often carried a single decade rosary in her small hand. Recalling her when she was seven years old, one camp leader said: “Often I watched her when she entered the chapel alone, with a doll in one hand and a rosary in the other. She knelt in the last pew and bowed her little head. She stayed there a little, then she went out and happily rejoined the group.” While she was still in elementary school, Sabattini was sometimes found in contemplation before the tabernacle, even in the middle of the night. “She rose early, early in the morning, perhaps in the dark, to meditate alone before the Most Holy Sacrament, before others arrived in the church,” her uncle Fr. Giuseppe Bonini recalled. “The first day of the year, from one to two at night, she stayed before Jesus in adoration. She loved to pray sitting on the ground, as a sign of humility and poverty.” Besides doing well in school, Sabattini also liked to paint, play the piano, and run track. At the age of 12, she met Fr. Oreste Benzi and the group he founded, the Pope John XXIII Community, which emphasizes service to the poorest and weakest of society. Sabattini felt called to join in their activities to help people in need. In 1974, she took part in a trip to the Dolomites, a mountain range in northeastern Italy, where teens accompanied people with disabilities. The time spent in nature and helping those with disabilities left a big impression on Sabattini, who told her mother after the trip: “We broke our backs, but those are people I will never abandon.” During high school, she continued to volunteer with the John XXIII Community and assist the poor, including using money from her own savings. She also lived for a period in one of the community’s group homes, where members welcomed the marginalized, including the disabled. “I can’t oblige others to think like me, even if I think it is right,” she wrote in her journal at age 16. “I can only let them know my joy.” At 17, she met Guido Rossi, and the two started dating the year after. For their first date, Sabattini brought Rossi to a cemetery, so they could visit the graves of people who had been forgotten. They attended the John XXIII Community’s youth group together. Four years into their relationship, Sabattini wrote that dating was “something integral with vocation.” “What I experience of availability and love towards others is what I also experience for Guido, they are two things interpenetrated, at the same level, although with some differences,” she wrote in her diary. After she graduated from her scientific high school with excellent grades, Sabattini was torn between leaving immediately to be a missionary in Africa, or starting medical school. Her life tragically ended in 1984, when she stepped out of a vehicle on her way to a meeting of the Pope John XXIII Community. She, along with her boyfriend and a friend, were hit by a car. Sandra was rushed to a hospital where she spent three days in a coma before dying on May 2, 1984. Three days before the accident, Sabattini had written in her diary: “It’s not mine, this life that is developing, that is beating by a regular breath that is not mine, that is enlivened by a peaceful day that is not mine. There is nothing in this world that is yours.”
But because of her early death, people know her. Who knows how many she has inspired in her short life. Nothing is really ours.
SAINT OF THE DAY WEDNESDAY, 6 MAY, 2026 SAINT DOMINIC SAVIO (2 April 1842 - 9 March 1857) St. Dominic Savio was born in Riva, Italy, in 1842. He was one of ten children of Carlo and Birgitta Savio. Carlo was a blacksmith and Birgitta was a seamstress. When he was five years old, he learned to serve at Mass. When Don Bosco was looking for young men to train as priests for his Salesian Order, his parish priest suggested Dominic Savio. St. Dominic Savio was twelve when he met Don Bosco. He became more than a credit to Don Bosco's school. He organized a group of boys into the Company of the Immaculate Conception. Besides its religious purpose, the boys swept and took care of the school and looked after the boys that no one seemed to pay any attention to. When, in 1859, Don Bosco chose the young men to be the first members of his congregation, all of them had been members of Dominic's Company. For all that, Dominic was a normal, high-spirited boy who sometimes got into trouble with his teachers because he would often break out laughing. However, he was generally well disciplined and gradually gained the respect of the tougher boys in Don Bosco's school. In other circumstances, Dominic might have become a little self-righteous snob, but Don Bosco showed him the heroism of the ordinary and the sanctity of common sense. "Religion must be about us as the air we breathe," Don Bosco would say, and Dominic Savio wore holiness like the clothes on his back. LOVE FOR THE HOLY EUCHARIST: Mamma Margaret (mother of St. John Bosco), who had come to Turin to help her priest son, one day said to him: “You have many good boys, but no one surpasses the beauty of heart and soul of Dominic Savio”. And she explained: “I see him always praying, even remaining in Church after the others; every day he leaves recreation to visit the Blessed Sacrament; when he is in Church, he is like an angel in Heaven”. LOVE FOR MARY: On December 8, 1854, when Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Dominic consecrated himself to Mary and began to advance rapidly in holiness. In 1856, he founded the Immaculate Conception Sodality among his friends. This was a group dedicated to apostolic action and peer ministry. He called his long hours of prayer "his distractions." In 1857, at the age of fifteen, he caught tuberculosis and was sent home to recover. On the evening of March 9, he asked his father to say the prayers for the dying. His face lit up with an intense joy and he said to his father: "I am seeing most wonderful things!" These were his last words. Thought for the Day: "I can't do big things," St. Dominic Savio once said, "but I want everything to be for the glory of God." His was the way of the ordinary: cheerfulness, fidelity in little things, helping others, playing games, obeying his superiors. This heroism in little things is the stuff of holiness. DOMINIC ALWAYS KEPT THESE RULES, WHICH HE HAD WRITTEN IN A BOOK ON HIS FIRST COMMUNION DAY: 1. I will go to Confession and Communion often. 2. I will keep holy the Feast days. 3. Jesus and Mary will be my best friends. 4. I would rather die than commit a sin. PATRON: Choirboys, the falsely accused, and juvenile delinquents. PRAYER: Dear Saint Dominic, you spent your short life totally for love of Jesus and His Mother. Help youth today to realize the importance of God in their lives. You became a saint through fervent participation in the sacraments, enlighten parents and children to the importance of frequent confession and Holy Communion. At a young age you meditated on the sorrowful Passion of Our Lord. Obtain for us the grace of a fervent desire to suffer for love of Him. We desperately need your intercession to protect today's children from the snares of the world. Watch over them and lead them on the narrow road to Heaven. Ask God to give us the grace to sanctify our daily duties by performing them perfectly out of love for Him. Remind us of the necessity of practicing virtue especially in times of trial. Amen. St. Dominic Savio, you who preserved your Baptismal innocence of heart: Pray for us!
A Blessed for today Blessed Jacinto Vera Duran (3 July 1813 - 6 May 1881) May 6 is the feast day of Blessed Jacinto Vera Duran, observed on the anniversary of his death at Pan de Azucar, Uruguay, in 1881. By a striking coincidence of the calendar, he was also beatified on May 6, in 2023, exactly 142 years after his death. Vera was born at sea in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil, while his parents were emigrating from the Canary Islands to Uruguay. Ordained in Buenos Aires in 1841, he dedicated himself entirely to missionary work across Uruguay, crossing the country on horseback and by cart and covering an estimated 90,000 miles in a lifetime of pastoral service. Exiled briefly in 1862 by a hostile government, he returned to build seminaries, religious congregations, and organised parish structures from almost nothing. Named first bishop of Montevideo when the diocese was erected in 1878, he died two and a half years later while on mission in the interior of the country, universally mourned, including by those who had opposed him. He is patron and father of the Catholic Church in Uruguay. ◾The miracle for his beatification concerned Maria del Carmen Artagaveytia, aged fourteen, who underwent surgery for appendicitis on 8 October 1936. After the operation she developed a severe post-operative infection diagnosed as retroperitoneal pelvic abscess and sepsis. Her condition deteriorated despite all available treatment until her life was considered hopeless. An uncle placed on her wound an image of the Servant of God Jacinto Vera together with a relic, and asked her and the family to pray for his intercession. That same night the pain ceased and the fever broke; by the following morning a complete recovery was certified, which the attending physicians could not explain. Maria del Carmen went on to live to the age of 87. The Consulta Medica confirmed the healing as scientifically inexplicable, and Pope Francis authorised the decree recognising the miracle on 17 December 2022. The beatification was celebrated on 6 May 2023 at the Centenario Stadium in Montevideo, presided over by Cardinal Paulo Cezar Costa as papal legate. Blessed Jacinto, pray for us.
My very favourite story about Saint Dominic Savio is that after his death he appeared in a vision to Saint John Bosco and he asked Dominic about heaven and what it is like. It was truly haunting and beautiful, it is as if a doorway to heaven was opened for a while.It reminds me in modern times of the apparitions of St Carlo Acutis to his mother. https://salesianity.blogspot.com/2015/10/st-joh-bosco-st-dominic-savio-and-dream.html St. John Bosco, St. Dominic Savio and A Dream of Heaven Saint John Bosco had a vision of Heaven in the form of a dream, which he related to his boys during one of his famous “goodnight talks.” In 1876, his recently-deceased disciple Saint Dominic Savio appeared to him in a dream. Saint John Bosco told his pupils: As you know, dreams come in one’s sleep. So during the night hours of December 6, while I was in my room – whether reading or pacing back and forth or resting in my bed, I am not sure – I began dreaming.
Marvelous Garden It suddenly seemed to me that I was standing on a small mound or hillock, on the rim of a broad plain so far-reaching that the eye could not compass its boundaries lost in vastness. All was blue, blue as the calmest sea, though what I saw was not water. It resembled a highly polished, sparkling sea of glass. Stretching out beneath, behind and on either side of me was an expanse of what looked like seashore. Broad, imposing avenues divided the plain into grand gardens of indescribable beauty, each broken up by thickets, lawns, and flower beds of varied shapes and colors. None of the plants we know could ever give you an idea of those flowers, although there was a resemblance of sorts. The very grass, the flowers, the trees, and the fruit – all were of singular and magnificent beauty. Leaves were of gold, trunks and boughs were of diamonds, and every tiny detail was in keeping with this wealth. The various kinds of plants were beyond counting. Each species and each single plant sparkled with a brilliance of its own. Scattered throughout those gardens and spread over the entire plain I could see countless buildings whose architecture, magnificence, harmony, grandeur and size were so unique that one could say all the treasures of earth could not suffice to build a single one. If only my boys had one such house, I said to myself, how they would love it, how happy they would be, and how much they would enjoy being there! Thus ran my thoughts as I gazed upon the exterior of those buildings, but how much greater must their inner splendor have been! An Enchanting Melody As I stood there basking in the splendor of those gardens, I suddenly heard music most sweet – so delightful and enchanting a melody that I could never adequately describe it. … A hundred thousand instruments played, each with its own sound, uniquely different from all others, and every possible sound set the air alive with its resonant waves. Blended with them were the songs of choristers. In those gardens I looked upon a multitude of people enjoying themselves happily, some singing, others playing, but every note, had the effect of a thousand different instruments playing together. At one and the same time, if you can imagine such a thing, one could hear all the notes of the chromatic scale, from the deepest to the highest, yet all in perfect harmony. Ah yes, we have nothing on earth to compare with that symphony. Deepest Pleasure One could tell from the expression of those happy faces that the singers not only took the deepest pleasure in singing, but also received vast joy in listening to the others. The more they sang, the more pressing became their desire to sing. The more they listened the more vibrant became their yearning to hear more… As I listened enthralled to that heavenly choir I saw an endless multitude of boys approaching me. Many I recognized as having been at the Oratory and in our other schools, but by far the majority of them were total strangers to me. Their endless ranks drew closer, headed by Dominic Savio, who was followed immediately by Father Alasonatti, Father Chiali, Father Guilitto and many other clerics and priests, each leading a squad of boys… A Most Radiant Joy Once that host of boys got some eight or ten paces from me, they halted. There was a flash of light far brighter than before, the music stopped, and a hushed silence fell over all. A most radiant joy encompassed all the boys and sparkled in their eyes, their countenances aglow with happiness. They looked and smiled at me very pleasantly, as though to speak, but no one said a word. Dominic Savio stepped forward a pace or two, standing so close to me that, had I stretched out my hand, I would surely have touched him. He too was silent and gazed upon me with a smile… At last Dominic Savio spoke. “Why do you stand there silent, as though you were almost devitalized?” he asked. “Aren’t you the one who once feared nothing, holding your ground against slander, persecution, hostility, hardships and dangers of all sorts? Where is courage? Say something!” Loving Warmth I forced myself to reply in a stammer, “I do not know what to say. Are you Dominic Savio?” “Yes I am. Don’t you know me anymore?” “How come you are here?” I asked still bewildered. Savio spoke affectionately. “I came to talk with you. We spoke together so often on earth! Do you not recall how much you loved me, or how many tokens of friendship you gave me and how kind you were to me? And did I not return the warmth of your love? How much trust I placed in you! So why are you tongue-tied? Why are you shaking? Come ask me a question or two!” Abode of Happiness Summoning my courage, I replied, “I am shaking because I don’t know where I am.” “You are in the abode of happiness,” Savio answered, “where one experiences every joy, every delight.” “Is this the reward of the just?” “Not at all! Here we do not enjoy supernatural happiness but only a natural one, though greatly magnified.” “Might I be allowed to see a little supernatural light?” “No one can see it until he has come to see God as He is. The faintest ray of that light would instantly strike one dead, because the human senses are not sturdy enough to endure it.” Here ends the narrative of Saint John Bosco’s dream.
SAINT OF THE DAY THURSDAY, 7 MAY, 2026 SAINT ROSA VENERINI RELIGIOUS FOUNDRESS (1656 - 1728) Rosa Venerini was born in Viterbo, on February 9, 1656. Her father, Goffredo, originally from Castelleone di Suasa (Ancona), after having completed his doctorate in medicine at Rome, moved to Viterbo where he practiced the medical profession brilliantly in the Grand Hospital. From his marriage to Marzia Zampichetti, of an ancient family of Viterbo, four children were born: Domenico, Maria Maddalena, Rosa and Orazio. Rosa was naturally gifted with intelligence and an uncommon human sensibility. The education that she received in her family allowed her to develop her many talents of mind and heart, forming her in steadfast Christian principles. According to her first biographer, Father Girolamo Andreucci, S.I., she made a vow to consecrate her life to God at the age of seven. During the early years of her youth, she lived through a conflict between the attractions of the world and the promise made to God. Rosa overcame this crisis with trusting prayer and mortification. At age twenty, Rosa raised questions about her own future. The women of her time could choose only two orientations for their lives: marriage or the cloister. Rosa esteemed both, but she felt called to realize another project for the good of the Church and the society of her time. Urged on by prophetic interior occurrences, she committed much time in suffering and searching before reaching a resolution that was completely innovative. In the autumn of 1676, on the advice of her father, Rosa entered the Dominican Monastery of St. Catherine, with the prospect of fulfilling her vow. With her Aunt Anna Cecilia beside her, she learned to listen to God in silence and in meditation. She remained in the monastery for only a few months because the sudden death of her father forced her to return to her suffering mother. In the years immediately following, Rosa had to bear the burden of serious events for her family: her brother Domenico died at only twenty-seven years of age; a few months later her mother died, unable to bear the sorrow. In the meantime, Maria Maddalena married. There remained at home only Orazio and Rosa, by now twenty-four years old. Challenged by the desire to do something great for God, in May of 1684, the Saint began to gather the girls and women of the area in her own home to recite the rosary. The way in which the girls and women prayed, and above all, their conversation before and after the prayer, opened the mind and heart of Rosa to a sad reality: the woman of the common people was a slave of cultural, moral and spiritual poverty. She then understood that the Lord was calling her to a higher mission which she gradually identified in the urgent need to dedicate herself to the instruction and Christian formation of young women, not with sporadic encounters, but with a school understood in the real and true sense of the word.On October 24, 1716, they received a visit from Pope Clement XI, accompanied by eight Cardinals, who wanted to attend the lessons. Amazed and pleased, at the end of the morning he addressed these words to the Foundress: "Signora Rosa, you are doing that which we cannot do. We thank you very much because with these schools you will sanctify Rome". From that moment on, Governors and Cardinals asked for schools for their areas. The duties of the Foundress became intense, consisting of travels and hard work interwoven with joys and sacrifices for the formation of new communities. Wherever a new school sprang up, in a short time a moral improvement could be noted in the youth. Rosa Venerini died a saintly death in the community of St. Mark's in Rome on the evening of May 7, 1728. She had opened more than forty schools. Her remains were entombed in the nearby Church of the Gesù, so loved by her. In 1952, on the occasion of her Beatification, they were transferred to the chapel of the Generalate in Rome. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 15, 2006 at Rome. HER SPIRITUALITY: During her entire life, Rosa moved in the ocean of the Will of God. She said, "I feel so nailed to the Will of God that nothing else matters, neither death nor life. I want what He wants; I want to serve Him as much as pleases Him and no more". After her first contacts with the Dominican Fathers at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Oak Tree, near Viterbo, she definitely followed the austere and balanced spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola under the direction of the Jesuits, especially Father Ignatius Martinelli. The crises of adolescence, the perplexity of youth, the search for a new way, the institution of the schools and the communities, the rapport with the Church and the world-all were oriented to the Divine Will. Prayer was the breath of her day. Rosa did not impose on herself or her Daughters long vocal prayers, but recommended that the life of the Maestre, in the practice of the precious education ministry, be a continuous speaking with God, of God and for God. Intimate communion with the Lord was nourished by mental prayer, which the Saint considered "essential nourishment of the soul". In meditation, Rosa listened to the Teacher who taught along the roads of Palestine and in a particular way from the height of the Cross. With her gaze upon the crucifix, Rosa always felt more strongly her passion for the salvation of souls. For this reason, she celebrated and lived daily the Eucharist in a mystical way. In her imagination, the Saint saw the world as a great circle; she placed herself in the center of it and contemplated Jesus, the immaculate victim, who offered Himself from every part of the world to the Father through the Eucharistic Sacrifice. She called this means of elevating herself to God "The Greatest Circle". With incessant prayer, she participated spiritually in all the Masses being celebrated in every part of the world. She united with love the sufferings, hard work and joys of her own life to the sufferings of Jesus Christ, concerned that His Precious Blood would not be shed in vain.On August 30, 1685, with the approval of the Bishop of Viterbo, Cardinal Urbano Sacchetti and the collaboration of two friends, Gerolama Coluzzelli and Porzia Bacci, Rosa left her father's home to begin her first school, according to an innovative plan that had matured in prayer and her search for the will of God. The first objective of the Foundress was to give the girls of the common people a complete Christian formation and prepare them for life in society. Without great pretense, Rosa opened the first "Public School for Girls in Italy". The origins were humble but the significance was prophetic: the human promotion and spiritual uplifting of woman was a reality that did not take long to receive the recognition of the religious and civil authorities.
WORK EXPANSION: The initial stages were not easy. The three Maestre (teachers) had to face the resistance of clergy who considered the teaching of the catechism as their private office. But the harshest suspicion came from conformists who were scandalized by the boldness of this woman of the upper middle class of Viterbo who had taken to heart the education of ignorant girls. Rosa faced everything for the love of God and with her characteristic strength, continuing on the path that she had undertaken, by now sure that she was truly following the plan of God. The fruits proved her to be right. The same pastors recognized the moral improvement that the work of education generated among the girls and mothers. The validity of this initiative was acknowledged and its fame went beyond the confines of the Diocese. Cardinal Mark Antonio Barbarigo, Bishop of Montefiascone, understood the genius of the Viterbo project and he called the Saint to his diocese. The Foundress, always ready to sacrifice herself for the glory of God, responded to the invitation. From 1692 to 1694, she opened ten schools in Montefiascone and the villages surrounding Lake Bolsena. The cardinal provided the material means and Rosa made the families aware, trained the teachers, and organized the schools. When she had to return to Viterbo to attend to the strengthening of her first school, Rosa entrusted the schools and the teachers to the direction of a young woman, St. Lucia Filippini, in whom she has seen particular gifts of mind, heart and spirit. After the openings in Viterbo and Montefiascone, other schools were started in Lazio. Rosa reached Rome in 1706, but the first experience in Rome was a real failure which marked her deeply and caused her to wait six long years before regaining the trust of the authorities. On December 8, 1713, with the help of Abate Degli Atti, a great friend of the Venerini family, Rosa was able to open one of her schools in the center of Rome at the foot of the Campidoglio.THE CHARISM: We can summarize the charism of Rosa Venerini in a few words. She lived consumed by two great passions: passion for God and passion for the salvation of souls. When she understood that the girls and women of her time needed to be educated and instructed in the truths of the faith and of morality, she spared nothing of time, hard work, struggle, and difficulties of every kind, as long as it responded to the call of God. She knew that the proclamation of the Good News could be received if people were first liberated from the darkness of ignorance and error. Moreover, she intuited that professional training could give woman a human promotion and affirmation in society. This project required an educating Community and Rosa, without pretense and well before its time in history, offered to the Church the model of the Apostolic Religious Community. Rosa did not practice her educational mission only in the school but took every occasion to announce the love of God. She comforted and cured the sick, raised the spirits of the discouraged, consoled the afflicted, called sinners back to a new life, exhorted to fidelity consecrated souls not observing their call, helped the poor and freed people from every form of moral slavery. "Educate to save" became the motto that urged the Maestre Pie Venerini to continue the Work of the Lord intended by their Foundress and radiate the charism of Rosa to the world: to free from ignorance and evil so that the project of God which every person carries within can be visible. This is the magnificent inheritance that Rosa Venerini left her Daughters. Wherever the Maestre Pie Venerini strive to live and transmit the apostolic concern of their Mother, in Italy as in other lands, they give preference to the poor. After having made its contribution to the Italian immigrants to the USA from 1909 and in Switzerland from 1971 to 1985, the Congregation extended its apostolic activity to other lands: India, Brazil, Cameroon, Romania, Albania, Chile, Venezuela and Nigeria. St. Rosa Venerini: Pray for us!
◾For her canonization, the Consulta Medica examined the case of an African child in 2005, who suffered from an inexplicable thoracic swelling. The child was entrusted to the intercession of the foundress by Sister Maria Jose Carregosa, a Venerini missionary who gathered patients and members of the congregation in prayer at a leprosy hospital in Ngalan, Cameroon. The healing that followed was determined by the Consulta Medica to be medically inexplicable. Pope Benedict XVI promulgated the decree and canonized Rose Venerini on 15 October 2006, together with three other saints. She had been beatified by Pope Pius XII on 4 May 1952. Saint Rose, pray for us.
I did not recognise this saint at once since she is commonly called St Rose of Viterbo and she is famous for her body being held to be incorrupt: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-incorrupt-body-of-santa-rosa
SAINT OF THE DAY FRIDAY, 8 MAY, 2026 APPARITION OF SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL GARGANO (5th Century) The Church celebrates the feast of Saint Michael on 8 May, anniversary of the apparition of Saint Michael on the Gargano and in a special way to celebrate the episode of the victory. In the year 492 a man named Gargan was pasturing his large herds in the countryside. One day a bull fled to the mountain, where at first it could not be found. When its refuge in a cave was discovered, an arrow was shot into the cave, but the arrow returned to wound the one who had sent it. Faced with so mysterious an occurrence, the persons concerned decided to consult the bishop of the region. He ordered three days of fasting and prayers. After three days, the Archangel Saint Michael appeared to the bishop and declared that the cavern where the bull had taken refuge was under his protection, and that God wanted it to be consecrated under his name and in honor of all the Holy Angels. Accompanied by his clergy and people, the pontiff went to that cavern, which he found already disposed in the form of a church. The divine mysteries were celebrated there, and there arose in this same place a magnificent temple where the divine Power has wrought great miracles. To thank God's adorable goodness for the protection of the holy Archangel, the effect of His merciful Providence, this feast day was instituted by the Church in his honor. The feast-day of the apparition of Saint Michael on 8 May was instituted by Pope Pius V (1566-1572). It is said of this special guardian and protector of the Church that, during the final persecution of Antichrist, he will powerfully defend it: “At that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince who protects the children of thy people.” PRAYER: St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who roam about the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
A Blessed for today Blessed Ulrika Nisch (18 September 1882 - 8 May 1913) May 8 is the feast day of Blessed Ulrika Nisch, observed on the anniversary of her death at Hegne on Lake Constance in 1913. Born Franziska Nisch into a family of extreme poverty in the village of Oberdorf-Mittelbiberach in Swabia, she worked from childhood as a domestic servant. In 1903 she fell seriously ill with erysipelas and was nursed by the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross; through that illness she discerned her vocation and entered the congregation at Hegne in 1904, receiving the name Ulrika. For the rest of her short life she worked in the kitchens of various houses of the congregation in Buhl and Baden-Baden, living in an interior state of prayer that those around her only gradually recognised. In 1912 she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and returned to Hegne, where she died the following year. She is honoured as a patron of those who carry out humble daily work and of the sick and suffering poor. ◾The miracle examined for her beatification concerned Hildis Burchard Gerhards of Cologne. The diagnosis was carcinoma of the gallbladder with liver metastases; the prognosis was fatal. The only therapeutic intervention possible was exploratory surgery, as no curative treatment was available. The healing was sudden with regard to the cessation of pain and the recovery of physical strength, progressive with regard to the disappearance of the abdominal swelling, and proved complete and lasting. The Consulta Medica determined it to be inexplicable on the basis of current medical knowledge. Ulrika was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 1 November 1987, the Feast of All Saints, at St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Blessed Ulrika, hidden servant and patient sufferer, pray for all who find God in the ordinary tasks of each day.
When I visited the home of Padre Pio , San Giovanni Rotundo I tried to visit Gargano , St Michael's Shrine. there was a bus picked people up once or twice a day to go at a bus stop right outside the Church. But I discovered I had missed it. I wish I had gotten there when I had a chance. Maybe some other time. One of the Great Mysteries is the Line of St Michael, which starts on Skellig Island in Ireland and ends in Gargano, Italy.
