Daily Martyrology for December 2

About 407, St. Chromatius, bishop of Aquileia. He baptized Rufinus, was a friend and correspondent of St. Jerome (September 30), and a supporter of St. John Chrysostom (September 13). At his suggestion St. Ambrose (December 7) wrote a commentary on the prophecy of Balaam. Some of Chromatius' treatises on the gospel of Matthew survive.

In 1381, at the monastery of Groenendael, Blessed John Ruysbroeck. When he was a boy, his mother, who became a Beguine, sent him to live with his uncle, John Hickaert, who was a canon in Brussels. Ruysbroeck was later ordained. After some years, he and his uncle and another man withdrew to Groenendael to lead a life of contemplation. John wrote many works, which only became well known after they were translated from Flemish into Latin. He wrote out of deep faith and mystical experience in a poetic but down-to-earth way.

In 1665, at Murcia, Spain, Blessed María Angel Astorch. When she was seven, she was miraculously saved when a nun prayed over her seemingly lifeless body. She was fluent in Latin by the age of nine. She joined the Poor Clare Capuchins, and later founded a new monastery for them at Murcia.

In 1941, in Padua, Blessed Liduina Meneguzzi. After working as a domestic, she joined the sisters of St. Francis de Sales. In 1937, at her request, she was sent to work in Ethiopia. There she worked in a hospital treating soldiers of all faiths with loving compassion, assuring them of “Father God’s” goodness.

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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.