WOMEN SAINTS AND MARTYRS SEPT. 19 - SEPT. 25

September 19


St. Emily de Rodat. Born near Rodez, France, she became a nun at Maison St. Cyr when eighteen. In 1815 after much dissatisfaction, she decided that her vocation was in teaching poor children. With the approval of Abbe Marty, her spiritual adviser, and the aid of three young assistants, she began this work in her room at St. Cyr. This was the start of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Villefranche. It grew rapidly, establishing its own mother house and branches. In time, St Emily extended its activities to caring for unfortunate women, orphans and the aged. She saw thirty eight institutions established before she died. She was canonized in 1950.

St. Maria de Cerevellon. Superior of the Mercedarians, the order of Our Lady of Ransom, also called Maria de Socos, “Mary of Help.” Born into a noble family of Barcelona, Mary formed a group that evolved into the Mercedarians. She labored among the Christian slaves of the Moors, and she is the patroness of sailors in Spain. Maria died at Barcelona. Her cult was confirmed in 1690.

St. Pomposa, 835 A.D. Martyred nun. She was a nun in a convent near Cordoba who was beheaded by the Moorish rulers of the city. Pomposa refused to deny the faith and was slain by the Muslims.

September 20

Sts. Theodore, Philippa, and Companions. Martyrs crucified during the reign of Emperor Elagabalus (r. 218-222). Theodore was a Roman soldier and Philippa was his mother. Joining them in death were the soldier Socrates and Dionysius, a one-time pagan priest.

St. Candida, 300 A.D. Martyred virgin of Carthage. She died in the persecution of Emperor Maximian.

St. Eusebia, 731 A.D. Benedictine abbess, slain with her community by the Saracens at Saint-Cyr, France. Forty nuns died with Eusebia.

Sts. Fausta and Evilasius, 303 A.D. Martyrs at Cyzicum, in Pontus. Fausta, a girl of thirteen, was tortured by her judge, Evilasius. Her courage converted him, and he died with her.

September 21

St. Agatha Kim. She was hanged from a cross by her arms and hair, driven over rough country in a cart, and then stripped and beheaded. In 1925, Laurence and his companions and many others, eighty-one in all, who had been executed for their faith, were beatified as the Martyrs of Korea. They were canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1984.

St. Maura Troyes, 850 A.D. Virgin. She was nobly born at Troyes in Champagne in the ninth century, and in her youth obtained of God by her prayers the wonderful conversion of her father, who had till then led a worldly life. After his happy death, Maura continued to live in the most dutiful subjection and obedience to her mother, Sedulia and by the fervor of her example was the sanctification of her brother Eutropius and of the whole family. The greatest part of the revenues of their large estate was converted into the patrimony of the poor. The virgin's whole time was con. secreted to the exercises of prayer, to offices of obedience or charity, in attending on her mother and serving the poor, or to her work, which was devoted to the service either of the poor or of the church; for it was her delight in a spirit of religion to make sacred vestments, trim the lamps, and prepare wax and other things for the altar. As order in what we do leads a soul to God, according to the remark of St. Austin, she was regular in the distribution of her time, in all her actions. She spent almost the whole morning in the church, adoring God, praying to her divine Redeemer, and meditating on the circumstances of his sacred life and passion. Every Wednesday and Friday she fasted, allowing herself no other sustenance than bread and water, and she walked barefoot to the monastery of Mantenay, two leagues from the town, where she prayed a long time in the church, and with the most perfect humility and compunction laid open the secrets of her soul to the holy abbot of that place, her spiritual director, without whose advice she did nothing. The profound respect with which she was penetrated for the word of God, and whatever regarded the honor of his adorable name, is not to he expressed. So wonderful was her gift of tears that she seemed never to fall upon her knees to pray hut they streamed from her eyes in torrents. God performed many miracles in her favor but it was her care to conceal his gifts, because she dreaded the poison of human applause. In her last sickness she received the extreme unction and viaticum with extraordinary marks of divine joy and love and reciting often the Lord's Prayer, expired at those words, Thy kingdom come, on the 21st of September, 850 being twenty-three years old. Her relics and name are honored in several churches in that part of France, and she is mentioned in the Gallican Martyrology. See her life written by Saint Prudentius of Troves, who was acquainted with her, also Goujet and Mezangui, Vies des Saints.

St. Hieu, 657 A.D. English abbess of Northumbria, England, who received the veil from St. Aidan. She governed Tadcaster Abbey, in Yorkshire. She may be identical with St. Bega or Bee.

September 22

St. Salaberga, 665 A.D. Abbess and founder. She was cured of blindness while still a child by St. Eustace of Lisieux. She was twice married, first to a man who died after two months and then a nobleman, St. Blandinus, by whom she had five children, including two saints. After some years, they agreed mutually to separate and assume contemplative lives. He became a hermit and she went into a nunnery at Poulangey; Salaberga was subsequently foundress of the convent of St. John the Baptist at Laon. She died there.

Sts. Digna and Emerita, 259 A.D. Roman maidens martyred in the Eternal City. They both died while praying before their judges. Their relics are in St. Marcellus Church in Rome.

St. Lioba, 781 A.D. Benedictine abbess, a relative of St. Boniface. Born in Wessex, England, she was trained by St. Tetta, and became a nun at Wimboume Monastery in Dorsetshire. Lioba, short for Liobgetha, was sent with twenty-nine companions to become abbess of Bischofheim Monastery in Mainz, Germany She founded other houses as well and served as abbess for twenty-eight years. She was a friend of St. Hildegard, Charlemagne's wife.

September 23

St. Thecla. According to a popular second century tale, Acts of Paul and Thecla, she was a native of Iconomium who was so impressed by the preaching of St. Paul on virginity that she broke off her engagement to marry Thamyris to live a life of virginity. Paul was ordered to be scourged and banished from the city for his teaching, and Thecla was ordered burned to death. When a storm providentially extinguished the flames, she escaped with Paul and went with him to Antioch. There she was condemned to wild beasts in the arena when she violently resisted the attempt of Syriarch Alexander to kidnap her, but again escaped when the beasts did no harm to her. She rejoined Paul at Myra in Lycia, dressed as a boy, and was commissioned by him to preach the Gospel. She did for a time in Iconium and then became a recluse in a cave at Meriamlik near Seleucia. She lived as a hermitess there for the next seventy-two years and died there (or in Rome, where she was miraculously transported when she found that Paul had died and was later buried near his tomb). The tale had tremendous popularity in the early Church.

Sts. Xantippa and Polyxena, 1st century. Virgins described in the pre-1970 Roman Martyrology as being disciples of the Apostles who died in Spain.

September 25

Sts. Paul and Tatta. Martyred husband and wife. Damascus who, with their sons were put to death by Roman authorities during the persecution of the Church. They died under torture.