WOMEN SAINTS AND MARTYRS APRIL 25-MAY 1

St. Mella
Feastday: April 25
780 A.D.
Widow and abbess. She was the mother of St. Cannech and Tigernach, and lived in Connaught, Ireland. She became the abbess of Doire­Melle, Leitrim.

St. Franca Visalta
Feastday: April 26
1218 A.D.
Cistercian nun and foundress. Born in 1170 in Piacenza, Italy, she entered the St. Syrus Benedictine Convent at the age of seven. Later elected abbess, she was ousted because of her strictness. After several years she became abbess of a convent at Montelana, which adopted the Cistercian rule. Moving the foundation to Pittoli, she died there. She was canonized by Pope Gregory X.

St. Aldo
Feastday: April 26
A native of Siena, and also known as Aude and Aldobrandesca, she gave away all her possessions on the death of her husband and devoted herself to aiding the poor. She spent the last part of her life ministering to the sick in the hospital at Siena, subjecting herself to great mortifications. She experienced visions and ecstasies during her lifetime.

St. Exuperantia
Feastday: April 26
A virgin of Troyes, France. She is venerated there, but no details of her life are extant.

St. Zita
Patron of servants
Feastday: April 27
1272 A.D.
Zita (1218-1272) + Servant and miracle worker. Born at Monte Sagrati, Italy, she entered into the service of the Fratinelli family, wool dealers in Lucca, at the age of twelve. Immediately disliked by the other servants for her hard work and obvious goodness, she earned their special enmity because of her habit of giving away food and clothing to the poor including those of her employers. In time, she won over the members of the household. According to one tradition, the other servants were convinced when one day they found an angel taking Zita's place in baking and cleaning. Throughout her life she labored on behalf of the poor and suffering as well as criminals languishing in prisons. She was also credited with a variety of miracles. Canonized in 1696, she is the patroness of servants and is depicted in art with a bag and keys, or loaves of bread and a rosary. Feast day: April 27.

St. Theodora
Feastday: April 28
Theodora, a beautiful Christian girl of Alexandria, was sentenced to a brothel during the persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian when she refused to sacrifice to the gods. She fell dead when she was rescued by Didymus; when Didymus' act was discovered, he was beheaded.

St. Valeria
Feastday: April 28
1st century
Saintly matron, supposedly the wife of St. Vitalis and mother of Sts. Gervase and Protase.

St. Catherine of Siena
Doctor of the Church
Feastday: April 29
Patron Fire prevention
1347 - 1380 A.D.
The 25th child of a wool dyer in northern Italy, St. Catherine started having mystical experiences when she was only 6, seeing guardian angels as clearly as the people they protected. She became a Dominican tertiary when she was 16, and continued to have visions of Christ, Mary, and the saints. St. Catherine was one of the most brilliant theological minds of her day, although she never had any formal education. She persuaded the Pope to go back to Rome from Avignon, in 1377, and when she died she was endeavoring to heal the Great Western Schism. In 1375 Our Lord give her the Stigmata, which was visible only after her death. Her spiritual director was Blessed Raymond of Capua. St, Catherine's letters, and a treatise called "a dialogue" are considered among the most brilliant writings in the history of the Catholic Church. She died when she was only 33, and her body was found incorrupt in 1430.

St. Ava
Feastday: April 29
Ava was the daughter of King Pepin. She was cured of blindness by St. Rainfredis, became a Benedictine nun at Dinart, Hainault, and later was elected Abbess.

St. Endellion
Feastday: April 29
6th century
Virgin recluse honored at St. Endellion, in Cornwall, England. She was the sister of St. Nectan of Hartland, and the daughter of Brychan of Brecknock.

St. Grata
Feastday: May 1
4th or 8th century
Holy woman of Bergamo, Itlay. She secured the proper burial for the remains of the Christian martyrs of her region.

St. Hope
Feastday: May 1
According to an Eastern allegory explaining the cult of Divine Wisdom, Faith, Hope, and Charity were the daughters of Wisdom, a widow in Rome. The daughters suffered martyrdom during Hadrian's persecution of Christians: Faith, twelve, was scourged and went unharmed when boiling pitch was poured on her, was beheaded; Hope, ten, and Charity, nine, were also beheaded after emerging unscathed, from a furnace; and Wisdom died three days later while praying at their graves.

St. Bertha
Feastday: May 1
680 A.D.
Abbess and martyr. Bertha was the abbess-foundress of Avenay, near Chalons-sur-Marne, in France. She was murdered and is deemed a martyr.

St. Orentius and Patientia
Feastday: May 1
240 A.D.
Martyrs of Spain. A husband and wife, they suffered for the faith in northern Spain and were traditionally thought to be the parents of St. Lawrence, The Martyr.