In Rome, probably in the third century, the martyrdom of St. Cecilia. There is no solid historical information about this revered saint. Her legend says that before her wedding to Valerian, a pagan, she sat quietly, singing to God in her heart. For this reason she is venerated as the patron of musicians. She converted Valerian and followed him to martyrdom. An attempt to suffocate her failed, but she died from an attempted beheading.
In the first century, St. Philemon, to whom Paul wrote a short letter, appealing to Philemon to be generous toward Onesimus, a slave.
In 1901, Blessed Thomas Reggio, bishop of Genoa. He came from an aristocratic family and received a good education, but gave up his worldly prospects to become a priest. A few years after he was ordained, he founded the first Catholic newspaper. He worked tirelessly as bishop of Ventimiglia, a very poor diocese at the time, and later as bishop of Genoa.
Our daily martyrology was written by Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB. Copyright © 2008 by the Monastery of the Ascension, Jerome, ID 83338.