I sometimes wonder about these hermits who wandered into some wild place in the middle of nowhere. How on Earth did they manage? Especially in the Winter? I don;t think they could have managed without some kind of preparation. I mean you could simply turn up on a mountain or in a deep wood and hope to survive. Even if we are only going to camp for a few days we have to pack a big haversack full of stuff. There are still hermits all over the World. I read about one recently who lives in really wild woods in Romania. She has been there for many, many years. A local Forest Ranger has befriended her and helps her out as do one of two other and bring her stuff to help her out. She seems to be truly like something out of the books of the saints. Like Saint Giles. It reminds me of the Prophet Elijah to whom God caused the ravens to bring meat. Apart from anything else it shows immense trust in the Providence of God and a deep, deep spirit of detachment. Other hermits seem to live in the most lovely really comfortable places. They are very good at working with their hands and their homes are much better, for example, than my own very comfortable little place. Usually in order to make it hermits have some connection to a monastery to make things happen. It is lovely and romantic to think of people like Saint Giles; but there is also something terrible and scary about it too. There are hermits living like St Giles in the World today. I find them awesome. 1 Kings 17:4-6 You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
SAINT OF THE DAY WEDNESDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER, 2026 SAINT AGRICOLUS BISHOP (c. 630 AD - c. 700 AD) Saint Agricolus, also known as Agricola, was born around the year 630 in Avignon. His father, Saint Magnus, a Gallo-Roman senator of the gens Albina, who, after the death of his wife, became first a monk at Lérins and then bishop of Avignon. When he was 14 years old, Agricolus himself went to Lérins and acquired a great reputation for piety and learning, was advanced to the priesthood. After sixteen years as a monk, his father summoned him to the episcopal city. Here he was appointed archdeacon and distinguished himself by his preaching, by his powers of administration, and by his care for the poor, the oppressed and the sick. He became the Bishop of Avignon after the death of his father in 660. As bishop of Avignon, St. Agricolus worked all the harder for the sake of his flock. He was named Patron of Avignon in 1647. He built a church in Avignon to be served by the monks of Lerins and also a convent for Benedictine nuns. He is considered to have battle with the devil–not utilizing his own weak human will, but shielded with a crucifix, much prayer, fasting and faith in his Redeemer. One of the great miracles attributed was when there was an infestation of storks, a simple blessing of his drove away the giant birds. Another miracle was during a great plague of terrible storms, St. Agricolus's intercession resulted in good weather. Saint Agricolus died in 700 at the age of 70. PATRON: Avignon, storks, good weather, fine harvests, rain, against the bubonic plague and misfortune of all kinds. SYMBOL: St. Agricolus, is sometimes depicted with a dragon, like Saints George, Arsacius and Margaret of Antioch. He is also represented in art by a stork. PRAYER: Loving God, today we remember St. Agricolus who devoted his life to the service of the poor, the sick and the down-trodden. Let us remember all those who live in poverty, who are in need of our assistance and who are considered the outcasts of our society. May we care for them and provide what they need to live a healthy life. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
SAINT OF THE DAY THURSDAY, 3 SEPTEMBER, 2026 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT POPE AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH (c.540 - 604) St. Gregory was born at Rome in 540. He was successively senator and prefect of Rome before the age of 30. After five years he resigned and became a monk, transforming his own house into a Benedictine monastery, and founding six others. At the age of 50 he was elected pope, serving from 590 to 604. In 14 years he accomplished much for the Mystical Body of Christ. After seeing English children being sold as slaves in Rome, he sent 40 monks, including St. Augustine of Canterbury, from his own monastery to make "the Angles angels." England owes her conversion to him. At a period when the invasion of the barbarian Lombards created a new situation in Europe, he played a great part in winning them for Christ. When Rome itself was under attack, he personally went to interview the Lombard King. At the same time he watched equally over the holiness of the clergy and the maintenance of Church discipline, the temporal interests of his people of Rome and the spiritual interests of all Christendom. He removed unworthy priests from office, forbade taking money for many services, and emptied the papal treasury to ransom prisoners of the Lombards and to care for persecuted Jews and victims of plague and famine. These deeds and others made him, in the words of an antiphon in his office, "the Father of the City, the joy of the World." Gregory reformed the liturgy, and it still contains several of his most beautiful prayers. The name "Gregorian chant" recalls this great Pope's work in the development of the Church's music. His commentaries on Holy Scripture exercised a considerable influence on Christian thought in the Middle Ages. St. Gregory died on March 12, 604. His body lies at St. Peter's in Rome. PATRON: Choir boys; educators; gout; masons; music; musicians; choirs; singers; stonecutters; teachers; popes; students; scholars; against plague; against gout; against fever; England; West Indies. PRAYER: O God, who care for your people with gentleness and rule them in love, through the intercession of Pope Saint Gregory, endow, we pray, with a spirit of wisdom those to whom you have given authority to govern, that the flourishing of a holy flock may become the eternal joy of the shepherds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
SAINT OF THE DAY FRIDAY, 4 SEPTEMBER, 2026 SAINT ROSE OF VITERBO VIRGIN (1235 - 1252) Saint Rose was born in the spring of 1235 at Viterbo, capital of the patrimony of Saint Peter. In those days the emperor Frederick II was oppressing the Church, and many were faithless to the Holy See. But this infant at once seemed filled with grace; she never cried; with tottering steps she sought Jesus in His tabernacle; she knelt before sacred images and listened to sermons and pious conversation, retaining all she heard, and this when she was scarcely three years old. One coarse habit covered her flesh; fasts and disciplines were her delight. At the age of seven she wished to enter a monastery of nuns; but God had other designs for her, and she resolved to create a solitude in her father's house, where she would forever spend all her days. Her mortifications there seem incredible to our time of laxity; she gave herself the discipline three times a day until she fainted from fatigue and loss of blood, and she scarcely ate at all. To those who urged her to mitigate her austerities, she explained so perfectly that happiness consists in suffering for God, that no one could doubt this was so for her. Nonetheless she fell ill and nearly died of consumption. She was close to the final agony when suddenly she beheld the Mother of God, and said to those attending her: “All of you here, why do you not greet the Queen of the world? Do you not see Mary, the August Mother of my God, coming forward? Let us go to meet Her, and prostrate ourselves before Her majesty!” Everyone turned toward the door and knelt down, and the Mother of God spoke to Rose, telling her she must enter the Third Order of Saint Francis, then go out to “reprove, convince, exhort and bring back the erring to the paths of salvation. If your endeavors bring upon you sarcasm and mockery, persecution and labor, you must bear them patiently... Those who assist you will be enriched with all the graces of the Lord.” To defend the Church's rights was already Rose's burning wish. When hardly ten years old, she arose after her reception into the Franciscan habit, went down to the public square at Viterbo, called upon the inhabitants to be faithful to the Sovereign Pontiff, and vehemently denounced all his opponents. She returned to her house only to redouble her flagellations and macerations; she saw her Saviour on the Cross and nothing could arrest her ardor thereafter. So great was the power of her word and of the miracles which accompanied it, that at the end of several months the Imperial party, after threatening her in vain to stop her preaching, in fear and anger drove her from the city. Saint Rose and her parents moved to Soriano, a fortified city, where she continued to do as she had been told by the Mother of God. Then Rose went on by herself to Vitorchiano, where she had understood there was need for her, and continued to win souls by her aspect as much as by her words. She went barefoot and wore a poor tunic at all times, until after some eighteen months, when the emperor had died, she and her parents returned to Viterbo. Innocent IV was brought back in triumph to Rome and the cause of God was won. A number of young girls came to her for instruction at Viterbo, and she taught them the principles of modest prudence and faithful love of God. Rose fell ill again and recognized that her end was approaching; she prepared, rejoicing, in solitude for her glorious destiny, and died in her eighteenth year. Not long afterward, she appeared in glory to Alexander IV, and bade him to translate her intact body. He found it fragrant and beautiful, as if still in life. For more than 700 years it has remained supple and unchanged, save for its color, darkened after a fire in the chapel where it reposed. PATRON: people in exile; people rejected by religious orders; Franciscan youth; Viterbo, Italy. PRAYER: God our Father, for love of you Saint Rose gave up everything to devote herself to a life of penance. By the help of her prayers may we imitate her selfless way of life on earth and enjoy the fullness of your blessings in heaven. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Wow! 18 year old and already a saint! She reminds me of Saint Teresa of the Andes another young saint. One of the signs of the times is child and teen saints who died young already very saintly. Victim souls. I suspect that many of them like St Carlo Acutis seem to have offered themselves up for the sake of the Church; "I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the Pope, and for the Church."
