February 25 -- today's saints and blesseds

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Jmj

On February 25, we members of the Catholic Church family honor, in a special way, the following friends of God -- "saints" and "blesseds" whose souls are now in heaven:

Bl. Adelelmus of Engelberg (German, Benedictine abbot in Switzerland, d. 1131)
St. Aldetrudis of Maubeuge (French, granddaughter of two saints, daughter of two saints, sister of three saints, Benedictine abbess, c. 696)
St. Ananias and eight companions (Phoenician [from what is now Lebanon] ... priest, jailer, and seven guards ... martyred c. 298)
St. Avertanus of Limoges (French, Carmelite brother, d. 1380)
St. Caesarius of Nazianzos (from Asia Minor [now called Turkey], brother of St. Gregory Nazianzen, emperor's physician, died at about age 39 in 369)
Bl. Constantius Bernocchi of Fabriano [Costanzo] (Italian, Dominican prior, died at about age 70 in 1481 [beatified 1811])
Bl. Dominic Lentini of Lauria [Domenico] (Italian, diocesan priest, died at age 57 in 1828 [beatified 1997])
Sts. Donatus, Justus, Herena, and 47 companions (African, martyred in 3rd century)
St. Ethelbert of Kent (British, king for 36 years, died at about age 55 in 616)
St. Gerland of Besançon (French, bishop of Girgenti in Sicily, d. 1104)
Bl. James Carvalho of Coimbra [Diogo] and sixty companions (Portuguese, Jesuit missionary priest and sixty disciples, martyred by exposure to cold in Japan at about age 46 in 1624 [beatified 1867])
Bl. Maria Adeodata Pisani of Naples (Maltese, Benedictine sister, died at age 48 in 1855 [beatified 2001])
Bl. Sebastian Aparicio of La Gudiña ["Angel of Mexico"] (Spanish, farm laborer, maker of plows and wagons, valet, road builder, postal worker, widower, Franciscan brother from age 72, miracle worker, begged alms until death at age 98 in 1600 [beatified 1787])
St. Tarasius of Constantinople (Turkish, secretary of state, patriarch [bishop], d. 806)
Bl. Victor of Saint Gall (Swiss, Benedictine monk, hermit, d. 995)
St. Victorinus, Victor, Nicephorus, Claudian, Dioscorus, Serapion, and Papias, of Corinth (Greek, exiles to Egypt, tortured and martyred [three smashed in a mortar, others chopped to pieces, burned, beheaded, drowned] in 284)
St. Walburga of Devonshire (British, princess, daughter of St. Richard, Benedictine abbess in Germany, died at about age 68 in 779)

If you have anything to share about these holy people, please reply now -- biographical episodes, prayers through their intercession, the fact that one is your patron -- whatever moves you. If you are interested in one of these saints or blesseds and want to find out more about him/her, please ask. Additional information is sometimes available on the Internet.

All you holy men and women, saints of God, pray for us.
God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik ("jfgecik@hotmail.com), February 25, 2005

Answers

[Note: I am copying the following several (indented) messages from the old, obsolete "saints" thread for this day of the year, so that the old thread can later be deleted. JFG]


I believe that the feast day for King Ethelbert of Kent is February 24th, not the 25th. I checked several places online.

You do a wonderful job with this site. I have learned so much about so many special people. I never realized just how many martyrs there were! There are a lot of saints that I never heard of who deserve to be better known by the faithful.

-- laury -- February 25, 2004.


Thank you, Laury. I'm glad that you are benefiting from reading these lists of saints.

About St. Ethelbert of Kent and the different days on the calendar ...
In the process of reading about, and listing, perhaps 5,000 to 10,000 saints and blesseds, I have come across scores (if not hundreds) of cases of conflicting information, especially with regard to a heavenly denizen's date of commemoration. I have used dozens of different sites in my work (over the course of a few years), but four very large sites especially. These yielded the following results:
1. One site did not mention St. Ethelbert at all.
2. Two sites gave St. Ethelbert February 25, and one of them said, "feast day formerly February 24."
3. One site said that the Roman Martyrology mentions February 24, but that the saint is commemorated in his native England on February 25 or 26!
As you can see, I was faced with a choice, and I decided to go with the 25th, especially because of the statement, "feast day formerly February 24," which seemed rather firm.

God bless you.
John

-- February 26, 2004.


Thank you for the clarification.

-- laury -- February 27, 2004.


-- ("jfgecik@hotmail.com), February 25, 2005.

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