Feast of St. Stephen Harding, English Cistercian monk & abbot, one of the founders of the Cistercian Order. In 1119, he wrote the Carta Caritatis (Charter of Charity), an important document for the Cistercian Order, establishing its unifying principles. Died 1134. Canonized 1623.
Monthly Archives: April 2025
Feast of St. Drogo
Feast of St. Drogo, orphan, anchorite and penitential pilgrim. Patron of coffee house owners, broken bones, cattle, deafness, hernias, insanity, unattractive people, bodily ills, gallstones, illness, midwives, mute people, mutes, orphans, ruptures, sheep, shepherds and sickness.
Feast of St. Lidwina of Schiedam
Feast of St. Lidwina of Schiedam, Dutch mystic. Patron of sickness, suffering, chronically ill, ice skaters, town of Schiedam, Holland. Died 1433. Canonized 1890.
Feast of St. Hermengild
Feast of St. Hermengild, son of king Leovigild of Visigothic Spain. He married Ingund, a Chalcedonian Christian, in 579. Called a” Catholic martyr rebelling against the tyranny of an Arian father” in Pope Gregory I’s Dialogues. Patron of Seville, Spain.
Feast of St. Zeno of Verona
Feast of St. Zeno of Verona, Bishop and Martyr. A native of Mauretania (modern Morocco and Algeria), Zeno was a monk elected successor to Bishop Gricinus of Verona. Patron of fishermen, the city of Verona, newborn babies as well as children learning to speak and walk.
Feast of St. Walter of Pontoise
Feast of St. Walter of Pontoise, professor of philosophy and rhetoric before becoming a Benedictine monk at Rebais, later abbot at Pontoise. Patron of prisoners, prisoners of war, vintners, invoked against job-related stress.
Feast of St. John Baptist de la Salle
Feast of St. John Baptist de la Salle, French priest, founder, the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Patron of teachers.
Feast of St. Vincent Ferrer
Feast of St. Vincent Ferrer, Valencian Dominican missionary and logician, born Valencia, Spain. Patron of Archdiocese of Valencia, Builders, Prisoners, Construction workers, Plumbers, Fishermen and Spanish orphanages. Died 1419.
Feast of St. Benedict the Moor
Feast of St. Benedict the Moor, Italian Franciscan lay brother. Although illiterate, he became the Master of novices and later Guardian of the community in his Franciscan Friary. Patron of African missions, African Americans, black missions, Palermo and San Fratello, Sicily.
Feast of St. Richard of Chichester
Feast of St. Richard of Chichester also known as Richard de Wyche, Bishop of Chichester, chancellor of Canterbury. Richard was merciless to usurers, corrupt clergy and priests who mumbled the Mass. Patron of Coachmen, Diocese of Chichester & Sussex, England.