Daily Martyrology for August 27

At Ostia, in 387, St. Monica. She was born of a devout family. She married Patricius, who was not baptized until 370, the year before he died. She loved her son Augustine (August 28), and prayed for him throughout his turbulent youth. She followed Augustine to Milan, where she was guided by St. Ambrose. She lived to see Augustine baptized and shared a mystical experience with him before her death at the age of 55.

In the fifth century, St. Poemen, a desert father who is celebrated for his pithy sayings. He was abbot of a monastery at Skete and in Terenuthis.

In 543, in France, St. Caesarius. He was from an aristocratic family and as a young man entered the monastery of Lérins. When he was thirty-three he became bishop of Arles. He was a frugal, pious and rigorous bishop. He required that the divine office be offered publicly and modified it so that lay people could participate. He was a popular preacher, and his sermons were widely diffused. He founded a monastery for nuns and wrote a rule for them, and one for monks as well.

In 1848, Blessed Dominic Barberi, an Italian Passionist priest who saw to the founding of four houses of his order in England, where he preached missions. He received John Henry Newman into the Catholic church at Littlemore in 1845.

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.