Saint of the Day

November 14. Saint Gertrude, a Benedictine nun, was one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Her form of spirituality was a blend of liturgical and personal prayer rooted in the Scriptures.

November 15. Saint Albert the Great was a highly influential 13th-century German Dominican. Probably best known in philosophical circles as the master of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Albert deserves recognition on his own. He was a voracious writer who composed a compendium of all knowledge.

November 16. Saint Margaret of Scotland was Scottish because her family was rescued by the King of Scotland as they fled William the Conqueror. She married the King and introduced him and his country to more cultured life. They had six sons and two daughters.

November 17. She died before her 24th birthday, but in those few years Saint Elizabeth was a wife, mother, queen, widow, the founder of a hospital, and did other charitable works of mercy. For the last three years of her life she was a Secular Franciscan and worked tirelessly for the poor.

November 18. St. Peter Basilica is probably the most famous church in Christendom and the largest in the city of Rome. St. Paul Outside-the-Walls is second in size only to St. Peter’s. Built over the presumed graves of these two saints, they are attractive places of prayer for the faithful.

February 29. Saint Oswald knew people in high places─his uncle was the archbishop of Canterbury. But even though he received “favors” from his uncle, he humbly served and gained holiness.