WOMEN SAINTS AND MARTYRS MAY 1 - 8

St. Zoe
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=143
Feastday: May 2
Exsuperius, also known as Hesperus, and his wife, Zoe, both Christians, were slaves of Catulus at Pamphylia, Asia Minor, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. When they refused to eat food offered to the Gods by their master on the birth of their son, they and their two sons, Syriacus and Theodulus, were tortured and then roasted to death in a furnace

St. Wiborada
Feastday: May 2
926 A.D.
Martyred nun, also listed as Guiborat and Weibrath. Born at Klingna, Aargau, Switzerland, she belonged to the Swabian nobility. When her brother Hatto entered the Benedictines at St. Gall, she went with him and worked as a bookbinder and lived for a time as a recluse. She desired to exist as a hermit and to be walled up as an anchoress. Before the monastic leaders of St. Gall would acquiesce, she was forced to endure an ordeal by fire, successfully convincing her vocal critics. Her cell was visited by many who sought out her wisdom. She was also noted for her austerities, holiness, and her gifts of prophecy One of her visions told of her own martyrdom, which came to pass when invading Magyars of Hungary murdered her in her cell.

Sts. Timothy & Martha
Feastday: May 3
298 A.D.
Martyrs, husband and wife, in Antinoe (modern Egypt). Timothy was a reader in the Egyptian Church who was ordered to hand over the Scriptures to Roman officials. When he refused, he was arrested and condemned with his wife of a mere three weeks, Maura. They were nailed to a wall and lingered for nine terrible days during which they gave encouragement to each other.

St. Adalsindis
Feastday: May 3
680 A.D.
Abbess and sister of St. Waldalenus. Adalsindis became the abbess of a convent at Beze, France, the monastery founded by her brother.

St. Pelagia of Tarsus
304 A.D.
Feastday: May 4
Martyr. According to tradition, she was a maiden of Tarsus, in Cilicia, the daughter of noble parents who arranged a marriage between her and a son of Emperor Diocletian. To delay the wedding, she went on a trip and, during the journey was baptized by one Bishop Clino. After returning, her fiance discovered her devotion to Christianity and killed himself from the shame. Pelagia was swiftly denounced to Diocletian by her mother. The emperor, who supposedly desired her for himself or another son, was willing to spare her if they wed and she renounced the faith. When she stood firm, Diocletian ordered Pelagia to be roasted to death. She is most likely based on the historical Pelagia of Antioch.

St. Jutta
1260 AD
Feastday: May 5
Widowed noblewoman of Thuringia, Germany, noted for visions and miracles. She married at fifteen and raised children. When her husband died on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Jutta moved to Prussia, becoming a recluse at Kulmsee. She is the patroness of Prussia, in eastern Germany.

St. Benedicta
6th century
Feastday: May 6
Mystic and nun. Benedicta lived in a convent founded by St. Galla in Rome. Pope St. Gregory the Great states that St. Peter appeared in a vision to warn her of her approaching death.

Blessed Rose
1728 A.D.
Feastday: May 7
Blessed Rose was born at Viterbo in 1656, the daughter of Godfrey Venerini, a physician. Upon the death of a young man who had been paying court to her, she entered a convent, but after a few months had to return home to look after her widowed mother. Rose use to gather the women and girls of the neighborhood to say the rosary together in the evenings, and when she found how ignorant many of them were of their religion, she began to instruct them.
It was not until sometime after her death that Blessed Rose's lay school teachers were organized as a religious congregation: they are found in America as well as in Italy, for the Venerini Sisters have worked among Italian immigrants since early in the twentieth century.

St. Maria Magdalen of Canossa
Feastday: May 8
Foundress of the Daughters of Charity at Verona, Italy. Born in 1774, she was the daughter of the Marquis of Canossa, who died when Maria Magdalen was three. Her mother abandoned the family, and Maria Magdalen managed her father’s estate until she was thirty-three, then founding her institute. When she died, her Daughters of Charity were widespread. She was canonized in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

WOMEN SAINTS AND MARTYRS SEPT. 05 - SEPT. 11

Bls. Marie Magdalen Desjardin and Marie Louise Vanot, Roman Catholic Nuns and Martyrs. Ursuline martyrs of the French Revolution. She was guillotined in Valenciennes with Marie Louise Vanot. In religion, Marie Magdalen was called Marie-Augustine. Marie Louise was called Natalie. Feast day is October 17th.