Daily Martyrology for May 14

In the first century, the martyrdom of St. Matthias, apostle. He was chosen to succeed Judas.

In Ireland, in 637, St. Carthach, bishop and abbot. He founded several monasteries, spent some time at Comgall’s monastery at Bangor, and finally founded a monastery at Lismore. He died as a hermit at nearby Inch.

In Oslo in 1043, St. Hallvard, martyr. He was sailing his boat in Oslo fjord when a pregnant woman called to him to save her from her enemies. Hallvard rescued her and offered to give them the value of what she had stolen. Unsatisfied with this arrangement, one of them shot both Hallvard and the woman with arrows.

In 1856, in Indiana, Mother Théodore Guérin. She was born Anne-Thérèse in 1798 at Etables, France. She was taught at home by her devout mother. Her father, a sailor, was murdered by bandits when she was fifteen, and she spent the next ten years helping her mother. At twenty-five she joined the Sisters of Providence. She was the head of a group of sisters sent to Indiana. There she established a motherhouse at Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods and numerous schools.

In 1881, in Italy, St. Mary Mazzarello. She worked in the fields until typhoid fever weakened her. She turned to dressmaking to support herself. She and a friend took in young girls as apprentices, and this developed into a vocational school. With the help of John Bosco (January 17), she then founded the Daughters of Our Lady Help of Christians.

In 1942, in Padua, St. Leopold Mandic. Of Croatian parents, he joined the Capuchins and wanted very much to be a missionary. However, he spent most of his time in Padua, where he was a renowned confessor.

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Our daily martyrology was written by Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB. Copyright © 2008 by the Monastery of the Ascension, Jerome, ID 83338.