Saint of the Day

First abbot of Bangor, Northern Ireland. St Comgall known as the 'father of the monks of Ireland. Born in 516, he was trained by St Fintan at Clonenagh. After his ordination he lived for some years as a hermit in very austere conditions, in Lough Erne.

In 558 he founded Bangor which became the largest monastery in Ireland. Together with several smaller houses the community is said to have reached 3,000.

The seventh century Antiphoner of Bangor wrote that he was 'strict, holy and constant'. His community was said to have been 'graced with the hope of salvation and made perfect in love.'

Comgall trained Columbanus and was associated with St Columba who he visited on Iona. They are said to have preached the Gospel in Inverness.

After his spiritual director died, Comgall is quoted as saying: 'My soul-friend has died and I am headless. You too are headless. For a man without a soul-friend is a body without a head.'

Comgall died in 601. He was buried at Bangor. His grave was destroyed by Vikings in 822.

Priest, writer, mystic. John was born in 1500 in New Castile to wealthy Jewish parents. He studied law at Salamanca but then gave the subject up to devote himself to prayer and penance for three years. He then went to Alcala and studied theology under Dominic de Soto. In 1525 he was ordained. He gave away his inheritance to the poor and wanted to join the missions in Mexico. Instead he was asked to re-evanglise Andalusia which had been under Moorish influence for many years.

His mission was very successful and people flocked to hear him preach. He fell foul of the Inquisition however, who found his preaching too rigorous and particularly objected to his view that the rich would be excluded from heaven. The charges were eventually dropped, and after three years imprisonment he was released to great popular acclaim.

Saint John was spiritual director to many saints, including Theresa of Avila, Francis Borgia and John of God. He wrote on many spiritual subjects. His most famous work was Audi Filia, written in 1530 for Dona Sancha Carillo, who had given up wealth and status for a life of solitary prayer.

During his last 15 years he suffered much ill health. A great admirer of St Ignatius Loyola, for a time he considered joining the Jesuits. After his death in 1569, he was buried in the Jesuit church at Montilla. He was canonised in 1970.

Founder of Christian community monasticism. St Pachomius was born near Esneh in Egypt around 290. He was the first monk, not simply bringing hermits together in groups but organising them with a proper communal life and a rule.

Details of his life are uncertain but it is said he was once a soldier who became a Christian after his release from service. For some years he put himself under the direction of an anchorite named Palemon. In 320, he went to live at Tabennisi on the Nile, in Central Egypt with a few other monks. As the community grew, Pachomius gradually organised it. A second monastery was established at Pabau and nine more followed. Two were for women.

Both St Basil the Great and St Benedict were influenced by this early saint. He died in 346.

Cistercian archbishop. Born in Dauphine, France in 1102, Peter joined the Cistercian Order at Bonneveaux at the age of 20 with his two brothers and father.

When he was 30 he was sent to serve as the first abbot of Tamie, in the Tarantaise Mountains, between Geneva and Savoy. There he built a hospice for travellers.

In 1142, he was named archbishop of Tarantaise although he was initially very reluctant to take up the office. He devoted much energy to reforming the diocese. He got rid of corrupt and immoral priests, and did much to help the poor and educate the young. Peter also established the custom of distributing bread and soup the 'May Bread' just before the harvest. This custom continued throughout Franc until the French Revolution.

After working very hard for 23 years as bishop, Peter suddenly vanished. He was discovered some time later serving as a lay brother in a Cistercian abbey in Switzerland and was persuaded to return to Tarantaise and resume his episcopal duties.

Peter of Tarantaise was an advisor to popes and kings. He defended the papacy in France and helped bring about a reconciliation between King Louis VII of France and Prince Henry II of England.

Peter was canonized in 1191. He should not be confused with Peter of Tarantaise, who became Pope Innocent V.

Saint John of Beverley

Bishop of York. This eighth century saint was born at Harpham in Humberside. He studied at Canterbury before returning to Yorkshire to become a monk at St Hilda's double monastery at Whitby. In 687 he was consecrated bishop of Hexham.

St John was known for his special care for the poor and for those with disabilities. He taught one young man to speak.

From time to time he would go on retreat to his hermitage. He founded the forest monastery of Beverley and retired there in 717. He died on this day in 721.

Both Bede and Alcuin record many miracles attributed to him. Julian of Norwich was a devotee. King Henry V said he owed his victory at Agincourt to Saint John of Beverley.

Saint Edbert

Bishop of Lindisfarne. Bede described this seventh century saint as a priest of great learning, famous for his knowledge of the Bible, and for his great generosity. He used to give a tenth of his livestock, fruit, grain and clothing to the poor each year.

While he was bishop of Lindisfarne he roofed the wooden church with lead. He also built a new shrine for St Cuthbert. Each year during Lent he would make a retreat on St Cuthbert's Isle.

St Edbert died on this day in 698, Many miracles were reported at his tomb and he was soon considered a saint locally. In 875 his relics were carried with those of St Cuthbert throughout Northumbria. His shrine was later at Durham.

Saint Jutta

Married woman. St Jutta lived in 13th century Thuringia. She enjoyed a very happy marriage and had several children. After her husband died on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land she was devastated for a time, but then devoted her remaining few years to prayer and caring for the poor and sick.

A relative of hers was the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. After her death in 1260, her hermitage near Kulmsee in Prussia, (now Chelmza in Poland) became a popular place of pilgrimage.

The English Martyrs

These forty saints died for their faith between 1535 and 1679. They were selected from 200 already beatified by earlier popes. They were canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970. In 2001 their feast was moved to this day.

Thirteen were seminary priests, ten were Jesuits, three Benedictines, three Carthusian monks, one Brigettine, two Franciscans, and one Austin friar. The rest were lay people: four men and three women.

They are: Saint John Almond; Edmund Arrowsmith; Ambrose Barlow; John Boste; Alexander Briant; Edmund Campion; Margaret Clitherow; Philip Evans; Thomas Garnet; Edmund Gennings; Richard Gwyn; John Houghton; Phillip Howard; John Jones; John Kemble; Luke Kirby; Robert Lawrence; David Lewis; Anne Line; John Lloyd; Cuthbert Mayne; Henry Morse; Nicholas Owen; John Paine; Polydore Plasden; John Plessington; Richard Reynolds; John Rigby; John Roberts; Alban Roe; Ralph Sherwin; Robert Southwell; John Stone; John Wall; Henry Walpole; Margaret Ward; Augustine Webster; Swithun Wells; Eustace White.

Saint Philip and Saint James the Younger

Apostles. St Philip was from Bethseda in Galilee. Soon after Jesus called him to be an apostle, he began to convert others, finding his friend Nathaniel and telling him that Jesus of Nazareth was the one Moses and the prophets had written about.

When the Greeks wanted to see Jesus it was Philip who they approached. At the Last Supper he asked asked: "Lord show us the Father." and Jesus replied: "He that has seen me has seen the Father. I am in the Father and the Father in me."

According to tradition, St Philip preached in Phrygia and died, or was martyred at Hierapolis.

St James was the son of Alphaeus. Little is known about him. He is sometimes said to be the same James referred to as '"the Lord's brother'. He presided over the Christian community in Jerusalem and was martyred there in around 62AD. The contemporary Jewish historian Josephus, writes that James was stoned to death.

The Epistle of St James is commonly attributed to him.

The basic mystery of Christianity after all, is not that God has created a world different from God, and in which God must be served and glorified, but rather that grace, which is identical with God has permeated the world with God's own presence. - Karl Rahner.

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