Daily Martyrology for January 5

In 1860, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, St. John Neuman, bishop. Born in Bohemia, he went to the seminary there. He emigrated to New York in 1836, where he was ,, ordained. He entered the Redemptorists in 1840. A popular preacher, he became a superior of the American Redemptorists and mentor to several communites of religious women. He was appointed bishop of Philadelphia in 1852. where he ministered tirelessly for eight years, promoting Catholic schools, founding the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, and writing two German catechisms.

In Egypt, around 400 AD, St. Syncletica, virgin, one of the best known desert ammas. Her life, written in the fifth century, contains a synthesis of monastic spirituality which draws upon the teaching of Evagrios of Pontus. Excerpts from her teaching are included in the collections of the sayings of the Desert monastics.

In 1956, at Madrid, St. Genoveva Torres Morales. She was an poor orphan whose leg was amputated when she was thirteen. When she came of age, she set up a household in Valencia with two other women. They supported themselves by sewing. From them developed an order known as the Angelicas, who operated boarding houses for working women.

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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.