The Dialog

St. Therese Couderc

Fesast Day: September 26

Born to a French farm family, Marie-Victoire Couderc joined a new religious teaching order, but was sent to manage a mountain

St. Therese Couderc

hostel for women pilgrims at the shrine of St. John Francis Regis.

It became a successful retreat house under her guidance, and the order split into a teaching ministry, the Sisters of St. Regis, and a retreat ministry, the Congregation of Our Lady of the Cenacle.

Mother Therese was superior of the Cenacle sisters until 1838, when Jesuit advisers began replacing her with a succession of wealthy women.

She lived out her days as an ordinary nun, suffering deafness and painful arthritis at the end.

She wrote that “the surrendered soul has found paradise on earth,” and was canonized in 1970.

St. Vincent Strambi

Feast Day: September 25

Vincent joined the Passionists as priest in 1768. Over three decades he served as a leader of the congregation, ultimately as

St. Vincent Strambi (CNS)

provincial.

In 1801, he became bishop of Macerata in central Italy. Vincent reformed the diocese by caring for his priests. He built a seminary, staffed it with gifted teachers, and taught there himself.

Vincent also fostered a renewal of worship in his churches.

In 1808, he refused to swear allegiance to Napoleon and was forced into exile.

But when Napoleon abdicated in 1814, Vincent returned to Macerata.

In the final decade of his life he personally turned an Austrian army away from the province and cared for people suffering from famine and a typhoid epidemic, all while continuing his reforms.

Robert of Knaresborough

Feast Day: September 24

Robert sought his vocation first as a priest and then as a monk.

(CNS)

But reckoning neither as his call, he decided to live in solitude as a hermit.

Robert first made his home in a cave in the forest of Knaresborough.

Then over the years, benefactors provided him hermitages, land and some animals.

Robert used these gifts to provide for the poor, often providing housing for the destitute.

His favorite service was obtaining the release of men from prison.

Finally, he returned to his cave at Knaresborough, where he died on Sept. 24, 1218.

Saint watchers regard Blessed Robert along with St. Elizabeth of Hungary as one of the most popular and prominent saints of the 12th and 13th centuries.

St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Feast Day: September 23

Born in an Italian farming village, Francesco Forgione gained worldwide fame as Capuchin friar Padre Pio, who bore the stigmata,

St. Padre Pio is depicted in a stained-glass window at St. Patrick Church in Smithtown, N.Y. Relics of the Capuchin priest who bore the stigmata of Jesus will be on public display in several U.S. dioceses and archdioceses in May and again in the fall. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz) See PADRE-PIO-RELICS-TOUR April 27, 2017.

or wounds of Christ, invisibly from the time of his ordination in 1910 and visibly from 1918.

As his renown as a confessor grew, the Vatican investigated the genuineness of his stigmata and ministry of prayer and healing.

At San Giovanni Rotondo, he built a hospital to treat patients using prayer and science, as well as a pilgrimage and study complex.

Shortly before his death, the stigmata disappeared. He was canonized in 2002.

Saint Matthew

Feast Day: September 21

One of the Twelve Apostles, this tax collector is called Matthew in one Gospel (Mt 9:9) and Levi in two others (Mk 2:14 and Lk

St. Matthew (CNS)

5:27).

Scripture scholars believe they are the same man because the call and shared meal with Jesus are similar in all three accounts.

He sometimes is credited with writing the Gospel of Matthew, but most scholars think this unlikely. And there is no evidence for early church traditions that Matthew evangelized in Judea, Parthia or Ethiopia, or that he was martyred in Persia.

St. Andrew Kim Taegon

Feast Day: September 20

Andrew was among the 103 Korean Martyrs — 92 Koreans and 11 Europeans — killed during a persecution in 1839-66.

Statue depicting Andrew Kim Tae-gon (Wikimedia Commons)

Born to parents who were Catholic converts, Andrew completed seminary studies in Macao and in 1845 was the first native Korean to become a Catholic priest with his ordination in Shanghai.

After returning to Korea, he tried to smuggle more missionaries into the country but was arrested in 1846.

He spent three months in prison, then was beheaded.

His father also was among the Korean Martyrs canonized in 1984.

Emily de Rodat

Feast Day: September 19

Described by one French contemporary as “a saint, but a headstrong saint,” Emily was brought up by her grandmother.

St. Emily de Rodat (CNS)

From the age of 17 she practiced charitable works and entered three different convents but did not stay in any of them.

With support from Abbe Marty, in 1815 she opened a free school to teach poor children at Villefranche-de-Rouergue; the Congregation of the Holy Family and 38 additional foundations grew from this first one.

Mother Emily, outwardly dour and intensely prayerful, led her congregation for 30 years.

Catherine of Genoa

Feast Day: September 15

Caterina Fieschi wanted to be a nun like her older sister, but instead was married at 16 to Giuliano Adorno.

Their arranged union was not happy for Caterina; her husband had a child with his mistress and

St. Catherine of Genoa (CNS)

wasted much of their fortune.

But in 1473 Caterina had a vision of Christ carrying his cross which changed her life.

Thereafter, she devoted her life to prayer and caring for the poor in the slums of Genoa, Italy.

Giuliano also changed, becoming a Franciscan tertiary.

They both worked at the largest charity hospital in Europe, with Caterina advancing from volunteer to director.

She also wrote about mysticism and was canonized in 1737.

St. Joseph of Copertino

Feast Day: September 18

Because this Italian Franciscan was seen to levitate and move through the air, usually toward a

“S. Giuseppe da Copertino si eleva in volo alla vista della Basilica di Loreto”, by Ludovico Mazzanti (Wikimedia Commons)

tabernacle or statue of Mary, he is a patron saint of airline pilots, crews and passengers, as well as astronauts and test-takers.

A poor, unschooled peasant from Copertino, Joseph entered a friary in 1620.

He was dismissed for failing to complete even simple tasks, but joined another friary through family connections. There he learned to read his missal and breviary, and he approached exams by praying hard.

He was ordained in 1628.

The “flights,” which he could not control, prompted investigations by two Inquisitions; Joseph was exonerated, but could not celebrate Mass publicly or participate in public functions.

He was canonized in 1767.

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

September 14

Emperor Constantine erected a basilica on the Jerusalem site where Jesus had died and risen; it was

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem (Wikimedia Commons)

dedicated Sept. 13, 335.

Over time, a custom developed: On the day after the anniversary of the dedication, a relic of the wood of the true cross was brought out for veneration.

This feast evolved from that custom, first in the Eastern church and later in the Western church.

It is also called the feast of the Triumph of the Cross:

Through Christ’s action, a symbol of humiliation and defeat was turned into a symbol of liberation and triumph.