Daily Martyrology for November 13

In 1917, in Chicago, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. She was the tenth of eleven children born to farmers near Pavia. She became a school teacher, ran an orphanage, then founded an order called the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The bishop of Piacenza, Blessed Giovanni Batista Scalabrini (June 1) encouraged her to send her missionaries to minister to immigrants in America. She went to New York with six sisters. They were poor and at first unwelcome, but she gradually gained support. She worked very hard, traveling the country setting up schools, orphanages and hospitals. She returned to Italy nine times and also traveled to South America to set up schools and orphanages there.

In 867, St. Nicholas I, pope. He was a staunch defender of the independence and primacy of the bishop of Rome. He stood up to kings in defense of the marriage bond and of the right of a woman to freely choose her husband. He contended with Photius, the patriarch of Constantinople. He sent a masterful reply to questions addressed him by Boris, the ruler of the Bulgarians. He was renowned for his care for the poor.

In 1004, St. Abbo, abbot of Fleury-sur-Loire. Because of his learning, he was invited by St. Oswald (February 28) to direct the school of Ramsey. After two years he returned to Fleury, where he was soon elected abbot. He was very active in political and monastic affairs, and was killed while on a peacemaking mission to a monastery. He wrote the first life of St. Edmund, king and martyr (November 20).

In 1896, Blessed Augustina Pietrantoni, martyr. When she was twenty-two, she joined the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne Antide Thoret in Rome. She worked in hospitals, where she contracted tuberculosis. She was stabbed to death by a disgruntled former patient.

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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.