Daily Martyrology for September 26

In the late third century, in Syria, Saints Cosmas and Damian, martyrs. Little is known about them historically, but legendary stories about them are numerous. One legend has it that they practiced medicine without charging fees. They are patrons of physicians, nurses, dentists, barbers and pharmacists. They are usually portrayed with medical instruments or pharmacists' vials.

In 611, St. Colmán Elo. He was influenced by St. Columba, and founded a monastery at Lynally in Offaly, not far from Durrow.

In 1004, at Grottaferrata, St. Nilus. He was born at Rossano in Calabria. When he was thirty, he underwent a conversion. He joined a Byzantine monastery after his wife and daughter died in an epidemic, eventually becoming abbot of Sant’Adriano. During an Arab invasion, his community took refuge at Monte Cassino. Just before his death, he founded the monastery of Grottaferrata near Rome.

In 1885, at Lyons, St. Teresa Couderc. As a young girl, she wanted to join a religious community in order to devote herself to rechristianizing the countryside. She did so, and later was one of the founders of the Religious of the Cenacle, dedicated to giving retreats for women. The development of the order was very rocky, but Teresa bore all of her reversals of fortune with remarkable equanimity.

In 1899, at Gars in Bavaria, Blessed Caspar Stanggassinger. He felt called to be a priest from an early age and went to the junior seminary at Freising when he was ten years old. He joined the Redemptorists and was ordained. He was assigned to work in Redemptorist seminaries, but died of an infection when he was 28.

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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.