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Who Is Saint Rocco? Saint Rocco was born of noble parentage about 1340 A.D. in Montpellier, France. At birth it was noted that he had a red cross-shaped birthmark on the left side of his chest. As a young child, San Rocco showed great devotion to God and the Blessed mother. At an early age, his parents died leaving him an orphan under the care of his uncle, the Duke of Montpellier. Soon after, San Rocco distributed his wealth among the poor and took a vow of poverty. San Rocco dressed in the clothes of a pilgrim and departed...

"God is Love and whoever remains in Love remains in God, and God in him." –(1 John 4:16) "In perfect Love there is no fear, rather perfect Love casts out all fear." –(1 John 4:18) The Feast of St. John the Evangelist—the Apostle, the Beloved Disciple—is no doubt a great feast day of God's Love. St. John was the first to use Love as the perfect synonym for God, and as the last apostle to die as well as the author of the last book of the Bible, John is in many ways the last word on Love (with a...

It was mid-January in 1989 and Lou Holtz and the Fighting Irish National Championship team had just finished the day in Washington, D.C., being honored by outgoing President Ronald Reagan. But after going to bed that night on top of the world, Coach Holtz was awakened at 3 a.m. the next morning with the news that Bobby Satterfield, the team's popular second string defensive back, had died of an unexpected heart attack. Just as the sudden turn of events surely jolted Coach Holtz, the feast of St. Stephen, and the bloody story of the Church's first martyr's demise, startles...

As I prepared to write this blog entry, my contact lenses were killing me, and my left eye in particular felt like it was on fire. How fortuitous, then, to find not one, but two saints who had a direct connection with eye healing or vision intercession, the popular St. Lucy and the insightful St. Odilia. First, St. Lucy ... Though celebrated in song (“Santa Lucia”) and dance (notably the Swedish “Festival of Light” on her feast day), as well as commemorated in the First Eucharistic Prayer, not a lot is known of her life other than the fact...

Let it be also said that John chose the perfect nickname, for his life was one "cross" after another. Although John's grandfather was a rich silk merchant, his dad was disowned from the family fortune for marrying a poor girl, and thus John was born into poverty. When his father Gonzalo died, John was only one, and poverty soon turned into destitution. When one of his brothers died of starvation, John was sent to an orphanage. It was there John learned how to read and write, but when the orphanage tried to teach him a trade, John (who like...

Saint Sixtus [Pope and Martyr] Culture/Society MiscellaneousSource: cfpeoplePublished: August 7, 2001 Author: staffPosted on 08/07/2001 10:47:39 PDT by Lady In Blue ST. SIXTUS 257 - 258 ADThe author of the "Liber Pontificalis" calls St. Sixtus a Greek and a philosopher, but modern scholars think that Pope Sixtus is confused with another Sixtus, a Pythagorean philosopher. Whether a philosopher or not, Pope Sixtus II was a glorious martyr.St. Stephen had caused a good deal of excitement by his threat to excommunicate those bishops who did not conform in the matter of heretical baptism. St. Firmilian of Antioch had written a...