Saint of the day and Feast days - Part 2

[Shin]

Perhaps this is one profession that God favors for saints?

[odhiambo]

January 8
Today we remember
Saint Theophilus and
Saint Helladius
Among many other Saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Theophilus and Saint Helladius.
Martyrs.
Theophilus and Helladius were two martyrs put to death in Libya.
Theophilus was a deacon; Helladius was a lay man. Both men were martyred on an unknown date in Libya, North Africa.
They were burned to death in a furnace.
Saint Theophilus,
Pray for us!
Saint Helladius,
Pray for us!

[Shin]

In a furnace!

St. Theophilus, St. Helladius, pray for us!

It's also St. Apollinaris the Apologist's day. He died around the year of Our Lord 175! And was the bishop of Heirapolis, in Phrygia. Phrygia was part of Anatolia -- Modern day Turkey is where this was. Which would be south of the Black Sea and southeast of Thrace or where Constantinople was built.

He was, "Held in high regard by other early saints including Saint Jerome and the historian Theodoret. Noted for writing a defense of the faith to Emperor Marcus Aurelius that reminded the Emperor of a miraculous victory that resulted from the prayers of Christian soldiers, and of his promise of protection for Christians. Worked and wrote against all the major heresies of his time, refuting them by logically destroying the heresy‘s philosophical roots" - PSI

'We therefore grossly deceive ourselves in not allotting more time to the study of divine truths. It is not enough barely to believe them, and let our thoughts now and then glance upon them: that knowledge which shows us heaven, will not bring us to the possession of it, and will deserve punishments, not rewards, if it remain slight, weak, and superficial. By serious and frequent meditation it must be concocted, digested, and turned into the nourishment of our affections, before it can be powerful and operative enough to change them, and produce the necessary fruit in our lives. For this all the saints affected solitude and retreats from the noise and hurry of the world, as much as their circumstances allowed them.'

St. Apollinaris the Apologist

[odhiambo]

'We therefore grossly deceive ourselves in not allotting more time to the study of divine truths. It is not enough barely to believe them, and let our thoughts now and then glance upon them: that knowledge which shows us heaven, will not bring us to the possession of it, and will deserve punishments, not rewards, if it remain slight, weak, and superficial. By serious and frequent meditation it must be concocted, digested, and turned into the nourishment of our affections, before it can be powerful and operative enough to change them, and produce the necessary fruit in our lives. For this all the saints affected solitude and retreats from the noise and hurry of the world, as much as their circumstances allowed them.'
St. Apollinaris the Apologist

Amen!
Saint Apollinaris, pray for us!

[odhiambo]

January 9
Today we remember
Saint Peter of Sebaste
Among many other Saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Peter
Bishop of Sebaste
Peter was born in 340 in Caesarea, Cappadocia. He was the son of Saint Basil the Elder and Saint Emmelia. Brother of Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, and Saint Macrina the Younger. He was the youngest of ten children. Their father died when he was an infant, so he was raised and educated by Saint Macrina. Peter entered the Armenian monastery founded by his parents and headed by his brother Basil as abbot. He was ordained in 370, and was named bishop of Sebaste, Armenia in 380.
He worked to eliminate Arianism in his see. He also attended the General Council of Constantinople in 381.
Peter died in 391 in Sebaste.
Saint Peter of Sebaste,
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

January 10
Today we remember
Pope Saint Agatho
Among many other Saints

[odhiambo]

Pope Saint Agatho
Agatho was a sicilian, reportedly from Palermo. He was married for twenty years and was a successful businessman when he became a monk at Saint Hernes monastery in Palermo, Sicily. He could have been a widower by then or his wife entered a convent. He succeeded Donus as Pope on June 27, 678.
As Pope, Saint Agatho was active in combating the heresy of Monothelitism. The most important event in his pontificate was the Council of Constantinople, November 680 to September 681. He sent legates to this Council and a letter that condemned the monothelite heresy and expounded the traditional Catholic beliefs in the two wills of Jesus Christ, one divine and one human. Most of the bishops there, led by Patriarch George of Constantinople, accepted the Pope's stand saying: “Peter has spoken to Agatho"
The Monothelite heresy was condemned and Constantinople was reunited to Rome in what is now known as the Sixth General Council of the Church.
By the time the decrees of the Council reached Rome, however, Agatho had died 10 January 681 in Rome.
Pope Saint Agatho was called "Thaumaturge", from the Greek for wonder worker or miracle worker.
He was canonized pre-Congregation
Pope Saint Agatho,
Pray for us!

[Shin]

Pope St. Agatho pray for us!!!

A wonderworker! Like St. Philomena!!

Don't we have a nice Saint of the Day thread going Brigid??

 

[odhiambo]

January 11
Today we remember
Saint Vitalis of Gaza
Among many other Saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Vitalis of Gaza.
Vitalis was a monk in Gaza, Israel in the seventh century. When he was 60 years old, he felt the urge to go to Alexandria, Egypt and to work there and save the prostitutes in the area. He responded to this “call” and traveled to Alexandria. He found work as a laborer and used his earnings to indeed rescue prostitutes from their way of life. Controversy arose, however from the method he chose to reform these women.
Every evening Saint Vitalis would hire a prostitute with his wage of the day. All he wanted from the prostitute, if she was agreeable, was to teach and pray for her and to request her to spend that night without sin. He also requested that what went on between them not be made public. No wonder, therefore, that tongues wagged.
Vitalis died in 625 in Alexandria, Egypt. According to SQPN, he was struck in the head by a man who saw him leaving a brothel. He, however, managed to return to his hut where he died.
After his death, he was completely cleared of any impropriety.
He was canonized Pre-Congregation
Saint Vitalis of Gaza.
Pray for us!

[Patricia]

St Vitalis of Gaza, pray for us!! Brave Saint to do the unthinkable knowing that there would be gossip about him!

[odhiambo]

January 12
Today we remember the
Martyrs of Ephesus
Among many other saints

[odhiambo]

Martyrs of Ephesus
In the year 762, Forty two monks were martyred at a monastery in Ephesus, modern Turkey. They were put to death by the Iconoclast Emperor Constantine V, for refusing to embrace the decree of the emperor to destroy all icons. According to Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints,  another source gives the number of martyrs as thirty-eight.
Their names have not come down to us.
Martyrs of Ephesus
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

January 13
Today is the Feast of
The Baptism of the Lord


A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Isaiah 40: 3 - 5