January

Ortolana of Assisi

Mother of St. Clare

Ortolana was a noblewoman of Assisi, wife of the knight Favarone di Offreduccio and mother of three daughters: Clare, Catherine (later St. Agnes of Assisi) and Beatrice. In an age when travel was hard and dangerous, she made pilgrimages to the Holy Land, to Rome and to the shrine of St. Michael the Archangel on Monte Gargano, and her household was known for its prayer and generosity to the poor. The earliest life of St. Clare tells that while Ortolana was expecting her first child she prayed anxiously before a crucifix and heard a voice promising that she would bring forth a light to brighten the whole world. When the baby was born, she named her Chiara, “bright” or “clear.” The light proved costly to the family. Clare left home in 1212 to follow Francis, and Catherine soon followed her. The family tried hard to bring both girls home, and their uncle even tried to carry Catherine off by force. Yet in time the mother followed her daughters. After her husband’s death she entered the monastery of San Damiano, where she lived the poor, enclosed life under the guidance of her own child, and Beatrice later joined them there.

For reflection: Ortolana first taught her daughters to pray, then let them go, and at last became their pupil. Holiness sometimes means following where those we raised have gone ahead.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

St. Angela of Foligno

Penitent, Mystic and “Teacher of Theologians”

Angela was born into a prosperous family of Foligno, married young and had several sons. By her own later account she lived for comfort and the good opinion of others. Around 1285 a deep sense of her sins led her to make an honest confession, and she began, slowly and painfully, to change her life.

For reflection: Angela came to God late and through great loss. Her story is a reminder that no life is too comfortable, too worldly or too broken for conversion.

Read more: The Book of Divine Consolation · The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

St. Charles of Sezze

Lay Brother and Mystic

Giancarlo Marchioni was born to a poor farming family south of Rome. He had little schooling and spent his boyhood working in the fields and tending animals. He hoped to become a priest, but his studies went badly, and he decided instead to serve God as a lay brother among the Franciscans. He received the habit at Nazzano in 1635 and took the name Charles.

For reflection: Charles never rose above the kitchen and the friary door, yet the great of Rome came to him for wisdom. Humble work done with love is never small.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

Bl. Eurosia Fabris

“Mamma Rosa,” Wife and Mother

Eurosia Fabris was the daughter of farmers near Vicenza in northern Italy. She went to school for only two years, but she learned to read, to sew and above all to pray. As a young woman she taught the catechism to the village children and helped care for her family.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

St. Thomas of Cori

Priest and “Apostle of the Sublacense”

Francesco Antonio Placidi lost both his parents as a boy. At fourteen he was left responsible for his younger sister and earned their living as a shepherd in the hills around Cori. Only when his sisters were settled in marriage did he feel free to follow his own call, and he entered the Friars Minor, making his novitiate at Orvieto and taking the name Thomas.

For reflection: Thomas kept preaching, praying and serving even when he felt nothing. Faithfulness does not depend on feelings.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

St. Bernard of Corleone

Swordsman Turned Capuchin Brother

Filippo Latini was the son of a shoemaker in Corleone, Sicily, and learned his father’s trade. He was generous to the poor, but he was also proud and quick-tempered, and he became known as one of the finest swordsmen on the island.

For reflection: The same strength that once made Filippo dangerous became, in God’s hands, a strength for serving the sick. Grace does not erase our nature; it redeems it.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

Bl. Odoric of Pordenone

Missionary Traveler to China

Odoric entered the Friars Minor as a young man in the region of Friuli, in northeastern Italy. Around 1318 he set out from Venice on a missionary journey that would last more than ten years and carry him across most of Asia.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

St. Berard and Companions

The First Franciscan Martyrs

At the chapter of 1219, St. Francis sent friars out to many lands. Five were chosen for the Muslim lands of Spain and North Africa: Berard, who knew some Arabic and was to be their spokesman, the priests Peter and Otho, and the lay brothers Accursius and Adjutus. They traveled by way of Portugal to Seville, then under Muslim rule, where they preached openly in the streets and even in the mosque. They were imprisoned, then sent on to Morocco. There they continued to preach, were expelled, and returned. Finally they were brought before the ruler. When they refused to stop preaching or to renounce their faith, he put them to death with his own hand on January 16, 1220.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

St. Eustochia Calafato

Abbess of Montevergine

Smeralda Calafato was born on the feast of the Annunciation to a wealthy merchant family of Messina. Her mother was a devout woman who taught her to pray; her father and brothers had other plans and arranged more than one marriage for her. Smeralda refused them all. At fifteen, against her family’s fierce opposition, she entered the Poor Clare monastery of Santa Maria di Basicò in Messina, taking the name Eustochia. Her brothers were so angry that they threatened to burn the monastery down. She remained, and over the next years her prayer and penance became known throughout the city.

For reflection: Eustochia would not settle for an easier version of the Gospel. Her courage asks us what we have quietly made comfortable in our own faith.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

Bl. John Baptist Triquerie

Martyr of the French Revolution

Jean-Baptiste Triquerie was born at Laval in western France and studied at Nantes. Around the age of twenty he entered the Conventual Franciscans, then called the Cordeliers, at their friary at Olonne. He served as guardian of the community and as chaplain to several houses of Franciscan sisters, where he was valued as a wise spiritual director.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

St. Marianne Cope

Mother of the Outcasts of Molokai

Barbara Koob was born in Germany, and her family emigrated to Utica, New York, the next year, where the name became Cope. As a teenager she worked in a factory to help support her family. In 1862 she entered the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Syracuse, taking the name Marianne.

For reflection: Others had said no; Marianne said yes and stayed for thirty-five years. God often waits for one willing heart.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

St. Angela Merici

Foundress of the Company of St. Ursula

Angela Merici was born near Lake Garda in northern Italy and was orphaned at about ten. She went to live with an uncle in Salò, and as a young woman she joined the Third Order of St. Francis, living a life of prayer and penance in the world.

For reflection: Angela saw a need no one else was meeting and met it with what she had. The work begun by one woman in Brescia now reaches millions.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

Bl. Francis Zirano

Martyr of Algiers

Francesco Zirano was born in Sassari, on the island of Sardinia, and joined the Conventual Franciscans as a young man. He was ordained a priest in 1586.

For reflection: Francesco spent his life to buy back others’ freedom and finally gave his own life. Christ’s love always seeks the captive.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds

St. Hyacintha Mariscotti

From Worldly Nun to Servant of the Poor

Clarice Mariscotti was the daughter of a noble family of Vignanello, north of Rome, and was educated by the Franciscan sisters of San Bernardino in Viterbo. As she grew older, she became more interested in fine clothes and society than in prayer.

For reflection: Hyacintha spent ten years in a convent before she gave her heart to God. It is never too late to begin again in earnest.

Read more: The Encyclopedia of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds