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.”
