Feast of St. Winebald, Benedictine Abbot, missionary, son of St. Richard the Pilgrim, brother of Sts. Willibald and Walburga, nephew of St. Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz. Founded the double monastery of Heidenheim am Hahnenkamm, Germany.

Feast of St. Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa, founder of the Handmaids of Charity in Brescia, Italy, in 1839. Died in 1855.

Feast of John of the Cross, (San Juan de la Cruz), Carmelite friar and priest, Spanish mystic, one of the thirty-six Doctors of the Church, writer of mystical Spanish literature. Patron of Contemplative life, contemplatives, mystical theology, mystics, and Spanish poets.

Feast of St. Lucy, or Santa Lucia, martyr, died during the Diocletianic Persecution. Patron-the blind, martyrs, Perugia & Syracuse, Italy, Mtarfa, Malta, epidemics, salesmen, throat infections & writers. Today’s Scandinavian festival of light signals the arrival of Christmastide.

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, appeared to St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in 1531. Patron of the Americas.

Feast of Pope Saint Damasus I, Pope and Confessor. Pope from 366 to 384. He commissioned St. Jerome to translate the Scriptures into Latin and encouraged the veneration of martyrs. Patron of Archaeologists and other popes named Damasus.

Feast of St. Eulalia of Merida, Virgin and Martyr. Roman Christian martyred in Emerita, the capital of Lusitania (Merida, Spain). Patron of snow (inclement weather) days, Merida, Spain Oviedo, Spain, runaways, torture victims, widows. Died in 304.

Feast of St. Romaric, monk and founder, Frankish nobleman, Count Palatine in the court of Merovingian king, Theodebert II, Monk at Luxeuil. Romaric and his friend St. Amatus founded a monastery later given the name of Remiremont, Vosges, France.

Feast of St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, one of the four original doctors of the Church. Born Aurelius Ambrosius, Roman governor of Liguria and Emilia. Patron of beekeepers, bishops, learning, livestock, Milan, police officers and students.

Feast of St. Nicholas Tavigli, Franciscan martyr of Jerusalem. Native of Dalmatia worked in and around Bosnia, among the Paterine heretics. The first Croatian saint canonized in the modern process.