What is a Saint?
In the Catholic Church, the saints are ordinary people like you and me who made it to heaven. They’ve done nothing that you and I cannot do, if we persevere in following Jesus Christ and living our lives according to His teaching.
Catholic devotion to the saints is nothing more than respect and admiration for the memory of the deceased heroes of the Church. We honor them as men and women of heroic virtue who can serve as our role models. They were no more perfect than are we; but, at the end of their lives – and hopefully, ours – they received from Our Lord his words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
We also ask the saints to intercede for us. Have you ever asked anyone to pray for you when you were having a hard time? That is how Catholics “pray to” the saints – we pray with saints, not to them. As the Letter of James says, “The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.”
Well-known saints like those below often are remembered in a special way on particular days during the year.
January – February – March – April – May – June
July – August – September – October – November – December
This Weeks Saints
February 22
Chair of St. Peter
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First Sunday of Lent
February 23
Blessed Josef Mayr-Nusser
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February 24
Bl. Tommaso Maria Fusco
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Forget-Me-Not Day
(Disabled Veterans)
February 25
St Walburga
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February 26
Bl Robert Drury
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February 27
St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
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February 28
Pope St. Hilary
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February 22
Feast of the Chair of St. Peter
The feast of the Chair of St. Peter is a commemoration of the founding of the Church when Christ said, “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.” It has been celebrated at Rome, Italy from the early days of the Christian era on 18 January, in commemoration of the day when Saint Peter held his first service in Rome. This feast commemorates Christ’s choosing Peter to sit in his place as the servant-authority of the whole Church. It has been celebrated at Rome, Italy from the early days of the Christian era on 18 January, in commemoration of the day when Saint Peter held his first service in Rome. The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch, commemorating his foundation of the See of Antioch, has also been long celebrated at Rome, on 22 February.
On the one hand, there is a physical object. In Rome an ancient, ornamented chair is located in the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica, and surrounded by a Bernini altarpiece. In Antioch an even more ancient chair, dating to the second century, is venerated. In 2006 Pope Benedict stated, “This is a very ancient tradition, proven to have existed in Rome since the fourth century. On it we give thanks to God for the mission he entrusted to the Apostle Peter and his Successors. The Chair of St Peter . . . is a symbol of the special mission of Peter and his Successors to tend Christ’s flock, keeping it united in faith and in charity.”
This chair represents the authority of our church’s leaders, stretching back to St. Peter. Like a committee chair, this chair refers to the occupant, not the furniture. Its first occupant stumbled a bit, denying Jesus three times and hesitating to welcome Gentiles into the new Church. Some of its later occupants have also stumbled a bit, sometimes even failed scandalously. As individuals, we may sometimes think a particular pope has let us down. Still, the office endures as a sign of the long tradition we cherish and as a focus for the universal Church.
February 27
St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
Francesco Possenti was born on 1 March 1838, in Assisi, Italy, the eleventh of thirteen children. While he was only 4 years old, his family suffered the loss of their infant daughter Rosa, 7-year old Adele; and their mother, Agnes. Although he was known for his piety, he was something of a ladies man, and was fond of music and dancing, of theater and hunting.
In 1851, he was afflicted with a serious illnesses, and promised to enter religious life if cured. He was cured, but ignored his promise. After a second illness two years later, he made the same promise, and this time actually carried it out. During a procession honoring the Virgin Mary, he heard a voice asking why he remained in his secular life. He entered a Passionist Congregation monastery in 1856, and reflecting his deep devotion, he was given the religious name of Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.
Gabriel was an excellent student, and was unfailingly cheerful and considerate of others. His superiors expected great things of him as he studied for the priesthood but around 1859 he began to exhibit symptoms of tuberculosis. He embraced his final lingering illness with joy, because it gave him the opportunity to prepare for his death. He died from tuberculosis in 1862 at age 24, in the company of his fellow Passionists, holding an image of Our Lady of Sorrows and smiling peacefully.
His life in the monastery was not exceptional; like St. Therese of Lisieux he sought holiness in prayerful and faithful attendance to the details of every day monastic life. He gained his end, not by vainly longing to do great things that might never be given him to do, not by waiting for opportunities that might never occur, but by doing with all his might whatsoever his hand found to do.
“Mary does not look to see what kind of person you have been. She simply comes to a heart that wants to love her. She comes quickly and opens her merciful heart to you, embraces you and consoles and serves you.”
St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows