Daily Martyrology for July 19

In Cappadocia, in 397, St. Macrina the Younger. She was the eldest of the ten children of St. Basil the Elder and St. Emmelia. When her fiancé died, she vowed not to marry. She helped raise her brothers, St. Basil (January 2), St. Gregory of Nyssa (January 10/March 9) and St. Peter of Sebaste. She and her mother turned their home into a monastery for women, to which she welcomed impoverished women and servants.

In Egypt, in 450, St. Arsenius. He was born in Rome, but served in the court of the Emperor Theodosius in Constantinople. He left there to become a monk at Scetis in Lower Egypt, where he lived a very solitary life. Many sayings are attributed to him and one of his letters survives. He urged monks to attachment to their cells, perseverance, abstinence from food and sleep, and constant prayer.

In 1679, near Chester, St. John Plessington. He studied for the priesthood at Valladolid, and returned to England in 1662, ministering at the shrine of St. Winefride (November 3) at Holywell. He then became tutor to a Catholic family and ministered to neighboring Catholics. He was arrested in 1679, condemned, hanged, drawn and quartered. In his speech from the scaffold, he asked God “to bless the king, grant him a prosperous reign here and a crown of glory hereafter.”

In Guadalajara, Spain, in 1936, three Carmelite martyrs, María Pilar of St. Francis Borgia, Teresa of the Child Jesus, and Marîa Angela of Saint Joseph. They were shot by the Red Militia.

Previous Day   |   Next Day   |   Pick a Day...

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