Daily Martyrology for April 30

In Rome, in 1572, Pope St. Pius V. He joined the Dominicans at 14, and lectured for them at the University of Pavia. He held various offices in the Inquisition and was made a cardinal in 1557. As bishop of Mondovi, he was a strict reformer who practiced an ascetical way of life. At the papal election of 1566, he was the successful candidate of the reforming party led by St. Charles Borromeo. He began immediately implementing the reforms of the Council of Trent, starting with Rome itself. He called for the Christian states of Europe to oppose the advance of the Muslims in the Mediterranean, an effort which bore fruit in the battle of Lepanto. He insisted that bishops be conscientious in their pastoral charge and issued new liturgical books.

1n 1672, Blessed Marie of the Incarnation Guyart. She was born in Tours. She was married at 17 and [the couple] had one son, Claude, who became a Benedictine and her first biographer. Her husband died a year later. She worked to support herself and her son until he was twelve, then put him in the care of her sister and joined the Ursuline Convent in Tours. In 1639 she went to Quebec, where she set up a convent and school. Although her work came close to being destroyed by fire or war several times, she carried on teaching, learning the native languages of Iroquois, Hurons and Algonquins, and writing dictionaries to help with translations of the Bible and the catechism. Her convent became an advice center for the missionary enterprise in French Canada. She wrote thousands of letters of counsel and encouragement.

In 1881, in Germany, Blessed Pauline von Mallinckrodt. A teacher, Louise Hensel, who also mentored Blessed Frances Schervier (December 14) and Blessed Anna Kathariana Emmerich (February 15), encouraged her to work for the good of society. Pauline took blind children into her home, and developed the first institute for the blind in Germany. She founded the Sisters of Christian Charity. When Bismarck campaigned to subordinate all religious institutions to the state, Pauline sent sisters to New Orleans, and they eventually established a motherhouse in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

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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.