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

Feast of St. 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 of Syracuse (Santa Lucia), martyred during the Diocletianic Persecution. Patron of the blind, martyrs, salesmen, writers, Syracuse, Italy and Mtarfa, Malta. Today’s Scandinavian festival of light signals the arrival of Christmastide.

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Mother of the Americas, the celestial missionary of the New World and Empress of the Americas,. She appeared to St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin at the Hill of Tepeyac (now The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe) in 1531. Patron of the Americas.

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

Feast of St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, Mexican convert visited by the Virgin Mary. First indigenous saint from the Americas. Patron of indigenous people.

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, Bishop, model for Santa Claus. Patron of children, sailors, fishermen, merchants, broadcasters, brewers and pharmacists.

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