Saints

Today we pray for all those who have died. Although prayers for the dead are inscribed in some of the early Roman catacombs, it wasn't until about 636 that the Church began keeping this day officially. At first only dead monks were specially commemorated. Odilo, Abbot of Cluny (d 1049) extended the commemoration for 'all the dead who have existed from the beginning of time to the end of time.' ... Read More

This feast was originally kept in the springtime in the Eastern Church, and dedicated to 'the martyrs of the whole world', as witnessed by John Chrysostom and Ephrem of Syria. In the West, Maximus of Turin preached on the same feast on the same day, the first day of Pentecost. On 13 May 610, Pope Boniface IV gathered up around 28 wagonloads of bones of martyrs that had been plundered from the cata... Read More

Dominican lay brother. Patron saint of race relations. Born in 1579, in Lima, Peru, Martin was the illegitimate son of a Spanish knight, John de Porres, and a free black woman, Anna Velasquez. As a boy, Martin was apprenticed to a barber-surgeon. He spent his free time helping the Dominicans in their work with the poor. Eventually he became a lay brother, working during the day with the sick as ... Read More