Memorial of Saints (January 25)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Conversion of Paul, Apostle
• Artemas, martyr
• Juventinus and Maximinus, martyrs
• Publius, abbot
• Apollo, abbot
• Praejectus or Prix, bishop
• Poppo, abbot

St. Paul the Apostle (ca. 1/5-62/67 A.D.) was a prominent early Christian missionary. Originally a persecutor of those who follow the Christian faith, he had an encounter with Christ on his way to Damascus. Blinded by the experience, his conversion to the faith began. Pious stories, religious paintings and other art forms describe his encounter with Christ as falling from the horse after a blinding light. However, the Scripture account of his encounter with Jesus in the Acts of the Apostles does not mention anything about his travelling on a horse. This may have been interpretations of a plausible truth: he was on a long trip to Damascus. But the point of his conversion was this: St. Paul was called by Christ to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.

Being healed from his blindness and after being integrated gradually into the faith communities of the apostles, St. Paul began his missionary journeys to establish Christian communities around the eastern Mediterranean. He wrote letters (or epistles) to these communities and the manuscripts that survived from then on now form part of the canon of the New Testament. After much preaching and mission work, he was eventually arrested, imprisoned and executed sometime between 62 or 67 A.D.

As a Jew and a Pharisee, Paul believed in the oneness of God and the revelation of God in the Hebrew Scriptures. Then from his conversion experience, he became convinced about the centrality of Jesus Christ and the truth of His death and resurrection. He believed and preached that "in Christ" there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile (letters to the Galatians 3:28, and Romans 3:22). This Christian conviction extended to the belief that all are saved through faith in Christ rather than the law of Moses (Romans 3:21-30). No longer under the Mosaic law, Christians were now to be guided by the Holy Spirit and by faith working through love and service to one another, in the life and example of Christ and His apostles.

St. Paul is the patron saint of Greece and Malta, and the Cursillo movement.

Saints in the Byzantine Calendar [January 25]

• Gregory, the Theologian

Memorial of Saints (January 24)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church
• Babylas, bishop and martyr
• Felician, bishop and martyr
• Messalina, martyr
• Macedonius

Related blog posts:

• St. Francis de Sales, [bishop and doctor of the Church]
• Francis de Sales, Proponent of the French School of Spirituality

St. Francis de Sales' advice to recall God's presence during the day

"...in this practice is contained one of the most sure means of your spiritual progress...In the course of the day, recall to mind the presence of God, as often as you can...Become aware of what God is doing and of what you are doing: you will realize that his eyes are turned toward you and, with unparalleled love, fixed on you all the time...keep in mind...always to recollect yourself again and again in the solitude of your heart, while outwardly dealing with others and your occupations. This spiritual solitude cannot be prevented by the many people who are around you. They are not around your heart but only around your body. So your heart can remain by itself all alone, in the presence of God alone." (Introduction to the Devout Life, II, 12)

St. Macedonius (ca. 340-430 A.D.) was a Syrian anchoret who is reputed to have performed numerous miracles of healing. One miracle attributed to him was when his prayers caused a childless mother, who had been without child for thirteen years of married life, to bear a child. That child was named Theodoret. St. Macedonius was surnamed "the Barley Eater" because he was said to have lived on barley for forty years. More on St. Macedonius at Wikipedia.org

Saints in the Byzantine Calendar [January 24]

• Xenia of Saint Petersburg

Saint Xenia (ca. 1732-1803 A.D.) lived about forty-five years after the death of her husband, and departed to the Lord at the age of seventy-one. By the 1820s A.D., many people flocked to her grave and ask her to intercede with God for them. The visitors to her grave took the earth from her grave that it had to be replaced every year. Later on, a chapel was built over her grave. Those who ask St. Xenia for her intercession receive healing from illness, and deliverance from their afflictions. She is also known for helping people who seek jobs. More on St. Xenia of Petersburg at OCA.org and at Wikipedia.org

Memorial of Saints (January 23)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Ildephonsus of Toledo, bishop
• Henry Suso, mystic
• Emerentiana, virgin and martyr
• Asclas, martyr
• Agathangelus and Clement, martyrs
• John the Almsgiver, patriarch
• Bernard or Barnard, bishop
• Lufthildis, virgin
• Maimbod, martyr

Blessed Henry Suso (ca. 1295-1366 A.D.) was the third great mystic produced by the German Dominicans in the 14th century A.D. After joining the Dominicans at an early age and influenced by Meister Eckhart, he aspired to an academic career. However, upon Eckhart's condemnation, Henry was attacked by his confreres. Henry gave up teaching, concentrated on preaching, and worked as an adviser to the Dominican nuns.

These are the written works of Blessed Henry Suso:

• The Little Book of Truth
• The Little Book of Wisdom
• The Little Book of Letters
• The Life of the Servant

The Life of The Servant is the work for which Blessed Henry is most known today. His The Little Book of Wisdom is also widely known. The Latin version of the writing is even more widely known than the German version, because the Latin version was translated into eight languages and had more than six hundred manuscripts - second to Thomas a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ.

Author's note: The three great German Dominican mystics are Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, and Henry Suso. They were major writers in the 14th century German mystic movement.

Learn more on Saints in the Roman Calendar [January 24]

Saints in the Byzantine Calendar [January 24]

• St. Clems, Priest-Martyr
• St. Agathangel, Martyr

St. Agathangel or Agathangelus was the deacon of St. Clement (d. ca. 308 A.D.), who was bishop of Ancrya, Galatia. Agathangelus was converted by Clement. At a young age, Clement already devoted himself to the education of the young and poverty-stricken. Both St. Clement and St. Agathangelus were tortured for years because of their Christian faith. Both were reportedly miraculously saved from death many times until they were finally executed by sword at Ancrya.

Today in the history of Christianity in England

January 23, 1645 A.D. is the day of death of Mary Ward. Mary founded the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary during the period of anti-Catholic persecution in England. She was inevitably imprisoned. Upon her exile to the European continent, she continued in her efforts to secure papal approval for the Institute she founded. Her detractors worked to have the Institute suppressed. Imprisoned temporarily in a convent, she returned to England where she died in 1645 A.D. The Rule of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary was finally approved by Pope Clement XI in 1703 A.D. It had a marked infuence on religious life in the European continent.