Exaltation of the Holy Cross This feast was observed in Rome before the end of the seventh century. It commemorates the recovery of the Holy Cross, which had been placed on Mt. Calvary by St. Helena and preserved in Jerusalem, but then had fallen into the ...
Feast
Sep. 15
Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows Devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady has its roots in Sacred Scripture and in Christian piety, which always associates the Blessed Mother with her suffering Son. Today's feast was introduced by the Servites in order to ...
Memorial
Sep. 16
Memorial of Sts. Cornelius, pope and martyr and Cyprian, bishop and martyr Today the Church commemorates two friends in the service of Christ and his Church. Cornelius, a Roman, was the twenty-first Pope during the reign of the Emperor Gallus and Volusian. He had to oppose Novatian, the first ...
Memorial
Sep. 17
Optional Memorial of St. Robert Bellarmine, bishop and doctor St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) was born in Montepulciano, Italy, and died in Rome. The son of noble parents, he entered the Society of Jesus, finishing his theological studies at Louvain, Belgium. His services to the Church ...
Opt. Mem.
Sep. 18
Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time "For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. I tell you make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into ...
Sunday
Sep. 19
Optional Memorial of St. Januarius, bishop & martyr Little is known about St. Januarius. He was Bishop of Benevento in Campania. He died near Naples, about the year 305, martyred under the persecution of Emperor Diocletian. Around the year 400 the relics of St. Januarius were ...
Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist At the time that Jesus summoned him to follow Him, Matthew was a publican, that is, a tax-collector for the Romans. His profession was hateful to the Jews because it reminded them of their subjection; the publican, also, was ...
Feast
Sep. 22
Thursday of the Twenty Fifth Week in Ordinary Time According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Thomas of Villanova, a great saint of the Spanish Renaissance and a good friend of Emperor Charles V. He was a ...
Weekday
Sep. 23
Memorial of St. Padre Pio Padre Pio was born in 1887 in the small Italian village of Pietrelcina. He joined the Capuchin Friars at the age of sixteen and was ordained a priest seven years later. For fifty years at the monastery of San Giovanni Rotundo he ...
Memorial
Sep. 24
Saturday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time This is my prayer to you, my prayer for your favor. In your great love, answer me, O God, with your help that never fails: rescue me from sinking in the mud; save me from my foes. The Blessed Virgin appeared in 1218 in ...
Weekday
Sep. 25
Twenty-Six Sunday of Ordinary Time There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that ...
Sunday
Sep. 26
Optional Memorial of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, martyrs According to tradition, Saints Cosmas and Damian suffered martyrdom in Syria during the Roman persecution of Diocletian, around 303 A.D. Not much is known about them, but tradition holds they were twin brothers and medical ...
Opt. Mem.
Sep. 27
Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, priest St. Vincent de Paul (1576 - 1660) was born in Gascony, France, and died in Paris. He studied theology at Toulouse and was ordained a priest in 1600. As a young priest he fell into the hands of Mohammedan pirates who carried him ...