Saint Philip Neri (1515-1595) is known as the Apostle of Rome. With his distinctly joyous and personal manner, he was one of the influential figures of the Catholic Reformation. His special contribution was the creation of the Congregation of the Oratory.

Philip Neri was born in Florence on July 21, 1515, the son of a lawyer. As a boy, Philip befriended the Dominicans at the convent of S. Marco. In 1532 or 1533 he went to San Germano (Cassino) to learn business under the tutelage of an uncle, but, repelled by commercial affairs and feeling a pronounced desire for a life of close union with God, he left San Germano after a few months and went to Rome. There he studied philosophy and theology at Sapienza University and Sant’Agostino. He made friends easily and met regularly with some of them at the church of S. Girolamo della Carità for discussion, prayer, and the reception of Holy Communion. S. Girolamo became his home for 32 years. On May 23, 1551, after 18 years in Rome, Philip was ordained a priest. His room, the center for the intimate and prayerful meetings, became known about 1554 as the “Oratory.”

Philip, who dreaded formalism and loved spontaneity, gave his little groups a definite character. Scripture readings, short commentaries, brief prayers, and hymns were the usual program. Giovanni Palestrina wrote much of the musical setting for the scriptural texts, the motets, and the laudi spirituali, which gave rise to the term “oratorio.” This kind of apostolate suffered under the stern pontificates of Paul IV and Pius V. But Philip numbered among his friends some of the great saints of the age: Charles Borromeo, Francis de Sales, Felix of Cantalice, Camillus de Lellis, and Ignatius of Loyola. As more priests became his followers, Philip, who did not wish a tightly organized group united by religious vows, created a congregation of secular priests living in community. In 1575 Pope Gregory XIII approved the Congregation of the Oratory.

Philip’s famous walks especially won him the title Apostle of Rome. Surrounded by a laughing and joking group, he penetrated all corners of the city, radiating gaiety by his simple friendship and playful wit. Beneath his external life were the deep foundations of an intense spirit of prayer and love for the priestly offices of hearing confessions and offering the Mass. For hours at a time, he received an abundance of unusual supernatural gifts when he was wrapped in ecstasy. In 1575 S. Maria in. Vallicella became the Oratorians’ church. Philip moved there in 1583, and there he died on May 26, 1595.

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Trinity Sunday, also known as Holy Trinity Sunday, is celebrated a week after Pentecost Sunday in honor of the most fundamental of Christian beliefs—belief in the Holy Trinity.

The dogma of faith which forms the object of the feast is this: There is one God and in this one God there are three Divine Persons; the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet there are not three Gods, but one, eternal, incomprehensible God! The Father is not more God than the Son, neither is the Son more God than the Holy Spirit. The Father is the first Divine Person; the Son is the second Divine Person, begotten from the nature of the Father from eternity; the Holy Spirit is the third Divine Person, proceeding from the Father and the Son. No mortal can fully fathom this sublime truth.

The feast of the Most Holy Trinity may well be regarded as the Church’s “Te Deum” of gratitude over all the blessings of the Christmas and Easter seasons; for this mystery is a synthesis of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. This feast, which falls on the first Sunday after Pentecost, should make us mindful that actually every Sunday is devoted to the honor of the Most Holy Trinity, that every Sunday is sanctified and consecrated to the triune God. Sunday after Sunday we should recall in a spirit of gratitude the gifts which the Blessed Trinity is bestowing upon us. The Father created and predestined us; on the first day of the week He began the work of creation. The Son redeemed us; Sunday is the “Day of the Lord,” the day of His resurrection. The Holy Spirit sanctified us, made us His temple; on Sunday the Holy Spirit descended upon the infant Church. Sunday, therefore, is the day of the Most Holy Trinity.

The origins of the celebration of Trinity Sunday goes all they way back to the Arian heresy of the fourth century, when Arius denied the divinity of Christ by denying that there are three Persons in God. To stress the doctrine of the Trinity, the Fathers of the Church composed prayers and hymns that were recited on Sundays as part of the Divine Office, the official prayer of the Church. Eventually, a special version of this office began to be celebrated on the Sunday after Pentecost, and the Church in England, at the request of St. Thomas à Becket (1118-1170), was granted permission to celebrate Trinity Sunday. The celebration of Trinity Sunday was made universal by Pope John XXII (1316-34).

For many centuries, the Athanasian Creed was recited at Mass on Trinity Sunday. While seldom read today, the creed can be read privately or recited with your family to revive this ancient tradition.

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Saint Bede the Venerable was the first great English scholar. He was born in Northumbria (according to tradition, at Monkton, Durham, east of Newcastle) 672 or 673 and died at the monastery of Jarrow on May 25, 735. Almost all that is known of his life is contained in a notice added by himself to his great work Historia ecclesiastica (v, 24), which states that he was placed in the monastery at Wearmouth at the age of seven, that he became deacon in his nineteenth year, and priest in his thirtieth.

He was trained by the abbots Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrid, and probably accompanied the latter to Jarrow in 682. There he spent his life, finding his chief pleasure in being always occupied in learning, teaching, or writing, and zealous in the performance of monastic duties.

His works show that he had at his command all the learning of his time. He was proficient in patristic literature, and quotes from Puny the Younger, Vergil, Lucretius, Ovid, Horace, and other classical writers, but with some disapproval. He knew Greek and a little Hebrew. His Latin is clear and without affectation, and he is a skilful story-teller.

His works were so widely spread throughout Europe and so much esteemed that he won the name of “the teacher of the Middle Ages.”

Bede became known as Venerable Bede soon after his death, but this was not linked to consideration for sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church. His scholarship and importance to Catholicism were recognized in 1899 when he was declared a Doctor of the Church.

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Saint Joanna was the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward (Lk. 8:3) and a disciple of Jesus, and mentioned in Luke (8.3) as providing for Jesus and the Apostles. According to Eastern tradition, when Herod had John the Baptist beheaded, he cast the head out into an unclean place. Joanna took the head and buried it with honour on the Mount of Olives, on Herod’s land. Later, in the reign of Constantine the Great, the head was found.

St. Joanna is also remembered because she was present at both the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. St. Joanna is one of the women Luke says (24.10) discovered the empty tomb on the first Easter when she went to anoint the body. She is especially venerated by the Jesuits.

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Saint Julia was born of noble parents in North Africa. When she was still quite young, her city was conquered by barbarians. Julia was captured and sold as a slave to a pagan merchant, but she did not complain or feel sorry for herself. She accepted everything, and performed the most humble tasks with wonderful cheerfulness. For Julia loved God with all her heart. In her spare time, she read holy books and prayed fervently.

One day her master decided to take her with him to France. On the way, he stopped at an island to go to a pagan festival. Julia refused to even go near the place where they were celebrating. She did not want to have anything to do with those superstitious ceremonies.

The governor of that region was very angry with her for not joining in the pagan feast. “Who is that woman who dares to insult our gods?” he cried. Julia’s owner answered that she was a Christian. He said, too, that although he had not been able to make her give up her religion, still she was such a good, faithful servant that he would not know what to do without her.

“I will give you four of my best women slaves for her,” offered the governor, but her master refused. “No,” he said, “All you own will not buy her. I would willingly lose the most valuable thing in the world rather than lose her.”

When the merchant was asleep, however, the wicked governor tried to make Julia sacrifice to the gods. He promised to have her set free if she would, but she absolutely refused. She said she was as free as she wanted to be as long as she could serve Jesus. Then the pagan ruler, in great anger, had her struck on the face and her hair torn from her head. She was next put on a cross to hang there until she died. Her feast day is May 23rd.

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Saint Rita of Cascia, Saint of the Impossible, led a life of many trials. Yet, during that life she also achieved many significant triumphs. She is also known as the ‘Peacemaker of Jesus’ for her many good deeds. She was the only child born to Antonio and Amata Lotti in a tiny hamlet near Cascia, Italy. St. Rita Miracles began the day she was baptized when bees swarmed around her cradle. They peacefully flew in and out of her mouth and all around her without harming her or anyone in her family.

By the age of twelve she wished to enter a convent but her parents felt she would be better protected if she married. They arranged a marriage for her to Paelo Mancini, a town watchman. The marriage was blessed with twin sons. Unfortunately, Paelo was an immoral, quick tempered man and Rita suffered his abuse for eighteen years before he was ambushed and stabbed to death. Their teenage sons wished to seek revenge against their father’s death. Through her prayers and interventions her sons did not act upon their revenge. Both sons died of illness within a year.

Left alone, St. Rita de Cascia sought the religious life but the Augustinian nuns in the monastery of Saint Mary Magadalen refused to let her enter the convent. Because some of their members belonged to the rival family responsible for Paelo’s murder, they feared for the peace of the convent.

Most stories of St. Rita agree she was transported to the convent by night through the intervention of her patron saints, St. John the Baptist, St. Augustine of Hippo and St Nicholas of Tolentino. When the nuns found her inside the convent walls the next morning they accepted her.

Another story of Saint Rita is that she confronted those responsible for her husband’s death and implored them to turn to lives of peace. It is said, in the end, the two rivaling families even signed a document declaring their war against each other was over.

Rita of Cascia the widowed mother who suffered great physical abuse at the hands of her husband and mental anguish at the revengeful seekings of her sons, became Sister Rita at the age of thirty-six.

St. Rita lived forty years as a practicing nun of poverty and doing works of mercy, charity and peace. When she entered the convent she was given one habit. She wore that habit one habit the remainder of her life and was buried in it.

One day, as Saint Rita was kneeling in prayer before a replica of the Crucified Christ. She implored, “Oh my Jesus, let me share in Thy suffering at least by one of Thy thorns.” A single thorn from the crown surrounding Jesus’ head speared directly into Sister Rita’s forehead. This wound bled until the end of her life.

The final four years of her life Saint Rita de Cascia was confined to bed as an invalid totally dependant upon the charity of her sisters. She ate little more than the Eucharist and she taught the younger sisters. In her final days, she had one request, that a cousin would bring to her a single rose from her family’s estate. It was the middle of January and the cousin thought this to be impossible. But when the cousin went to Rita’s former home she found a single rose in blossom on an otherwise bare bush in the family garden.

Saint Rita met her Divine Savior on May 22, 1457. She was Beatified by Pope Urban VIII in 1627 and Canonized by Pope Leo IV on May 22, 1900.

Because of her many trials and sacrifices throughout her life Rita the Saint is known as Rita Patron Saint of Impossible Causes and desperate situations. She’s often entreated by those suffering the afflictions of abuse, sickness, desperate causes, difficult marriages, widows and wounded people, also those suffering from sterility and infertility.

There are many stories about her acts of charity and obedience. One Saint Rita Story is that the Convent Mother, wishing to test the obedience of Rita, instructed her to water a dead and withered plant from the convent garden every day for a year. Sister Rita obediently did as she was instructed, every day. At the end of a year, to the great astonishment of her superiors, that dead plant brought forth leaves and flowers and became the most beautiful of all the grape vines in the garden. Today, 500 hundred years later, that same vine remains bountiful and beautiful. Its leaves are dried and powdered and sent all over the world to people who are suffering. Many cures have been reported by the grape leaves. Its fruit is sent to the Pope and to other Dignitaries.

The year 1450 was declared a jubilee year by Pope Nicholas V. When St. Rita asked to accompany the other nuns to Rome so she might gain the indulgences of the jubilee, her superiors told her they would permit her to go when the wound on her head healed. It is said, Saint Rita asked Jesus to heal the wound on her head so she might go to Rome with her sisters. God heard her prayer. Her forehead was healed and she was granted permission to accompany her sisters to Rome. When she returned, the moment she set foot in the chapel at Cascia the wound reappeared and remained until her death.

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Like Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, S.J., Saint Cristóbal and his 24 companion martyrs lived under a very anti-Catholic government in Mexico, one determined to weaken the Catholic faith of its people. Churches, schools and seminaries were closed; foreign clergy were expelled. Cristóbal established a clandestine seminary at Totatiche, Jalisco. Magallanes and the other priests were forced to minister secretly to Catholics during the presidency of Plutarco Calles (1924-28).

All of these martyrs except three were diocesan priests. David, Manuel and Salvador were laymen who died with their parish priest, Luis Batis. All of these martyrs belonged to the Cristero movement, pledging their allegiance to Christ and to the Church that he established to spread the Good News in society—even if Mexico’s leaders once made it a crime to receive Baptism or celebrate the Mass.

St. Magallanes Cristóbal wrote and preached against armed rebellion, but was falsely accused of promoting the Cristero Rebellion in the area. Arrested on May 21, 1927, while en route to celebrate Mass at a farm, he gave away his few remaining possessions to his executioners, gave them absolution, and without a trial, he was martyred four days later with Saint Agustín Caloca in Colotlán, Jalisco. His last words to his executioners were “I die innocent, and ask God that my blood may serve to unite my Mexican brethren.”

These martyrs did not die as a single group but in eight Mexican states, with Jalisco and Zacatecas having the largest number. They were beatified in 1992 and canonized eight years later.

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Though Our Lady has been referred to as the mother of Christians and as the mother of the Church since ancient times, the Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church is the most recent addition to the liturgical calendar, instituted by Pope Francis in 2018 in his decree B. Mariæ Virginis, Ecclesiæ Matris, quoted below:

The joyous veneration given to the Mother of God by the contemporary Church, in light of reflection on the mystery of Christ and on his nature, cannot ignore the figure of a woman (cf. Gal 4:4), the Virgin Mary, who is both the Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church.

In some ways, this was already present in the mind of the Church from the premonitory words of Saint Augustine and Saint Leo the Great. In fact the former says that Mary is the mother of the members of Christ, because with charity she cooperated in the rebirth of the faithful into the Church, while the latter says that the birth of the Head is also the birth of the body, thus indicating that Mary is at once Mother of Christ, the Son of God, and mother of the members of his Mystical Body, which is the Church. These considerations derive from the divine motherhood of Mary and from her intimate union in the work of the Redeemer, which culminated at the hour of the cross.

Indeed, the Mother standing beneath the cross (cf. Jn 19:25), accepted her Son’s testament of love and welcomed all people in the person of the beloved disciple as sons and daughters to be reborn unto life eternal. She thus became the tender Mother of the Church which Christ begot on the cross handing on the Spirit. Christ, in turn, in the beloved disciple, chose all disciples as ministers of his love towards his Mother, entrusting her to them so that they might welcome her with filial affection.

As a caring guide to the emerging Church Mary had already begun her mission in the Upper Room, praying with the Apostles while awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). In this sense, in the course of the centuries, Christian piety has honoured Mary with various titles, in many ways equivalent, such as Mother of Disciples, of the Faithful, of Believers, of all those who are reborn in Christ; and also as “Mother of the Church” as is used in the texts of spiritual authors as well as in the Magisterium of Popes Benedict XIV and Leo XIII.

Thus the foundation is clearly established by which Blessed Paul VI, on 21 November 1964, at the conclusion of the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council, declared the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Mother of the Church, that is to say of all Christian people, the faithful as well as the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother” and established that “the Mother of God should be further honoured and invoked by the entire Christian people by this tenderest of titles”.

Therefore the Apostolic See on the occasion of the Holy Year of Reconciliation (1975), proposed a votive Mass in honour of Beata Maria Ecclesiæ Matre, which was subsequently inserted into the Roman Missal. The Holy See also granted the faculty to add the invocation of this title in the Litany of Loreto (1980) and published other formularies in the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1986). Some countries, dioceses and religious families who petitioned the Holy See were allowed to add this celebration to their particular calendars.

Having attentively considered how greatly the promotion of this devotion might encourage the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in the pastors, religious and faithful, as well as a growth of genuine Marian piety, Pope Francis has decreed that the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, should be inscribed in the Roman Calendar on the Monday after Pentecost and be now celebrated every year.

This celebration will help us to remember that growth in the Christian life must be anchored to the Mystery of the Cross, to the oblation of Christ in the Eucharistic Banquet and to the Mother of the Redeemer and Mother of the Redeemed, the Virgin who makes her offering to God.

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Pentecost Sunday is one of the most ancient feasts of the Church, celebrated early enough to be mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (20:16) and St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (16:8). It is the 50th day after Easter (if we count both Easter and Pentecost), and it supplants the Jewish feast of Pentecost, which took place 50 days after the Passover and which celebrated the sealing of the Old Covenant on Mount Sinai.

The Acts of the Apostles recounts the story of the original Pentecost as well (Acts 2). Jews from all over were gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feast. On that Sunday, ten days after our Lord’s Ascension, the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary were gathered in the Upper Room, where they had seen Christ after His Resurrection:

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak. [Acts 2:2-4]

Christ had promised His Apostles that He would sent His Holy Spirit, and, on Pentecost, they were granted the gifts of the Spirit. The Apostles began to preach the Gospel in all of the languages that the Jews who were gathered there spoke, and about 3,000 people were converted and baptized that day.

That is why Pentecost is often called “the birthday of the Church.” On this day, with the descent of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s mission is completed, and the New Covenant is inaugurated. It’s interesting to note that St. Peter, the first pope, was already the leader and spokesman for the Apostles on Pentecost Sunday (see Acts 2:14ff).

In years past, Pentecost was celebrated with greater solemnity than it is today. In fact, the entire period between Easter and Pentecost Sunday was known as Pentecost (and it still is called Pentecost in the Eastern churches, both Catholic and Orthodox). During those 50 days, both fasting and kneeling were strictly forbidden, because this period was supposed to give us a foretaste of the life of Heaven. In more recent times, parishes celebrated the approach of Pentecost with the public recitation of the Novena to the Holy Ghost.

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Little is known of Pope Saint John I’s life before he took office, except that he was born in Tuscany and that his father was Constantius. He was elected a week after the death of his predecessor Hormisdas.

Thanks to the recent reunification of the Eastern and Western Churches under Hormisdas, relations were very good with the Byzantine empire, but for the same reason they were strained with Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. The Byzantine emperor Justin persecuted heretics with enthusiasm, and he issued an edict against Arianism in 523. Theodoric, an Arian, distrusted the papacy’s affinity to Justin, and he pressured John to go to Constantinople and convince the emperor to withdraw the edict.

John did indeed go to Constantinople and was well-received, but the edict was not withdrawn. Upon his return to Italy, Theodoric had John arrested and imprisoned in Ravenna. Worn out by his journey and probably starved, John died in prison soon after. Pope St. John I is honored as a martyr.

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