Daily Martyrology for April 24

In Switzerland, in 1622, St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, martyr. Born Mark Roy, he earned a doctorate in philosophy at Freiburg in Breisgau, then became a tutor. He earned doctorates in civil and canon law in 1611. He quickly gave up the practice of law, became a priest, and joined the Capuchins. At the request of the bishop of Chur, he was sent to the canton of Graubünden to preach to the Protestants under the auspices of the new Roman Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. One day as he finished preaching. he was assaulted by twenty armed men; refusing to renounce his faith, he was murdered.

In France, in 1969, St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier. who founded the Good Shepherd Sisters at Angers. She drew her spirituality from seventeenth-century writers such as St. John Eudes (August 19).

In 1914, at Dinan in France, the death of Blessed Benedict Menni, who was responsible for the re-foundation of the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God in Spain and France. He also founded a female branch of the order. He was a pioneer in the medical treatment of psychiatric patients.

In 1957, Blessed Mary Hesselblad. Born in Sweden of Lutheran parents, she emigrated to the United States as a young girl. She trained as a nurse. In 1902, after 20 years of deliberation, she joined the Catholic Church. She went to Rome and asked to be admitted to the Carmelite convent which occupied St. Bridget of Sweden’s old home on the Piazza Farnese. After finishing her novitiate she was allowed to take the vows and habit of a Brigittine. She toured the four surviving Brigittine monasteries and after a few years started her first house in Rome. In 1929, she occupied the house in the Piazza Farnese, after the Carmelites vacated it. In 1935 she opened a convent at Vadstena. During the war she used the house in Rome to help Jews and others threatened by the Nazis. Her order now has 37 houses.

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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.