Catholic Saint of the Day

St. Albert (or St. Albertus Magnus) is the patron saint of scientists and was the teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas. He was the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. He was the first among medieval scholars to apply Aristotle's philosophy to Christian thought. The Roman Catholic Church honors him as a Doctor of the Church. He is uniquely called “The Universal Doctor”.

Saint Lawrence O'Toole, was born about the year 1125. In 1161 St. Lawrence was unanimously chosen to fill the new metropolitan See of Dublin. About the year 1171 he was obliged, for the affairs of his diocese, to go over to England to see the king, Henry II, who was then at Canterbury.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini was born in Lombardi, Italy in 1850. At the request of her Bishop, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. In 1946, she became the first American citizen to be canonized when she was elevated to sainthood by Pope Pius XII. St. Frances is the patroness of immigrants.

Saint Josaphat of Polotsk, an Eastern Rite bishop, is held up as a martyr to church unity because he died trying to bring part of the Orthodox Church into union with Rome.

On a bitterly cold day, a famous legend goes, Martin met a poor man, almost naked, trembling in the cold and begging from passersby at the city gate. Martin had nothing but his weapons and his clothes. He drew his sword, cut his cloak into two pieces, gave one to the beggar and wrapped himself in the other half. Some of the bystanders laughed at his now odd apearance; others were ashamed at not having relieved the man's misery. That night in his sleep Martin saw Christ dressed in the half of the garment he had given away, and heard him say, "Martin, still a catechumen, has covered me with is garment."

Pope Saint Leo I is one of the only two Popes in two thousand years to be called "the Great." He is perhaps most famous for persuading Attila the Hun to abandon his plans to sack the city of Rome and to withdraw his forces beyond the Danube river (452)

Most Catholics think of St. Peter’s as the pope’s main church, but they are not quite right. St. John Lateran is the pope’s church, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome where the Bishop of Rome presides. The first basilica on the site was built in the fourth century when the Roman Emperor Constantine donated land he had received from the wealthy Lateran family.

Blessed John Duns Scotus, O.F.M. is generally considered to be one of the three most important philosopher-theologians of the High Middle Ages. Scotus has had considerable influence on both Catholic and secular thought.

Patron of convulsions, epilepsy, epileptics, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. First bishop of the archdiocese of Utrecht. Known as the Apostle to the Frisians.

Saint Leonard was born to the Frankish nobility in the 5th century. He was part of the court of the then pagan King Clovis I. Clovis' was a pivotal conversion in the history of Europe and brought Christianity in full to what is now France.