Feast of St. Maria Goretti, Italian virgin-martyr,one of the youngest canonized saints, canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1950. Patron of chastity, rape victims, girls, youth, teenage girls, poverty, purity and forgiveness.

Feast of St. Phocas the Gardener, martyr. Phocas was a gardener living at Sinope, on the Black Sea, who aided persecuted Christians during the Diocletianic persecutions. Patron of gardeners, hospitality, agricultural workers, farmers, sailors and mariners.

Feast of St. Otto of Bamberg, medieval German bishop, missionary, chaplain to the Polish court, emperor’s chancellor and papal legate.  Supervised the construction of Speyer Cathedral and negotiated the peace treaty – the Concordat of Worms.  Called the Apostle of Pomerania.

Feast of St. Gall, Irish missionary, one of the twelve companions of Saint Columbanus. St. Gall helped to found Luxeuil Monastery. Patron of birds, geese, poultry and Sweden.

Feast of St. Theobald of Provins, hermit and monk. Patron of farmers, winegrowers, shoemakers, belt makers, charcoal-burners and bachelors.

Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles.  Peter – patron of bakers, bridge builders, butchers, fishermen.  Paul – patron of missionaries and theologians.

Feast of St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr. Greek cleric who guiding and expanding Christian communities in what is now the south of France. Bishop of Lugdunum (Lyon), his best-known work is On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis, ending the spread of Gnosticism.

Feast of St. Hemma of Gurk, noblewoman and founder of  churches and monasteries. Patron of the Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt, the State of Carinthia, Austria, invoked during childbirth and against diseases of the eye and extreme hangovers.

Feast of St. Pelagius of Cordova, martyred by the Caliph of Córdoba. Remembered in the poem by Rhoswitha of Gandersheim (Latin: Hrotsvitha Gandeshemensis) – The Passion of Pelagius written in Leonine hexameter. Patron of abandoned people, torture victims & Castro Urdiales, Spain.