Letter from the Pastor
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August 24, 2025
August contains the feast days of some of the greatest saints in our Church. Starting with St. Alphonsus of Liguori, founder of the Redemptorist Priests, St. Dominic, founder of the Dominican Priests and Sisters, of whom staffed our school for many years, St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests. St Clare of Assisi then St. Jane Frances de Chantal, two very powerful women in the Church who founded religious orders of contemplative women religious.
Two saints who were martyred by the Nazis, on Aug. 9th, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, (Edith Stein), who was killed in Auschwitz along with all Dutch Catholics of Jewish extraction. She was a victim of anti-Semitism, a scholar, contemplative and martyr for whom the cross is the key to spiritual understanding. Also, St. Maximilian Kolbe, patron saint of those suffering from drug addiction, was also killed in Auschwitz in 1941. He was condemned to death by starvation and finally killed by lethal injection. Noted for his energy and poverty, his compassionate ministry, and his self-sacrifice.
On August 10th is the feast of the very popular St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr. He died at Rome in 258 and is honored for his almsgiving. After the apostles, he became the most celebrated martyr of the Church of Rome.
On August 20th we celebrate St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot, Doctor of the Church. He became the founder and abbot of Clairvaux and pioneered the reform and expansion of the Cistercian Order. He was the most influential churchman of his age, (12th Century) for his leadership, and for his devotion to the humanity of Christ and to the Blessed Virgin.
Then on the following day we celebrate St. Pius X, Pope; he initiated reforms of the liturgy and is noted for his promotion of frequent communion, to which he admitted young children at the age of reason-seven years old.
This week we celebrate the mother-son saints of Monica, Aug. 27th and Augustine, Aug. 28th. St. Monica was born at Tagaste, Algeria about 331; died at Ostia, Italy in 387. Before her marriage her faith bore fruit in her recovery from a drinking problem and later helped bring her husband and mother-in-law to Christianity. She undertook many years of penance and prayer for her brilliant but wayward son, St. Augustine. Following his conversion and baptism in Milan, she died at the beginning of her journey home to Africa. She is noted for her parental devotion, patience, and her persistence in prayer. On the following day we will celebrate one of the greatest minds who ever lived, St. Augustine, Bishop, Doctor of the Church.
He also was born at Tagaste in 354; and died at Hippo, Tunisia in 430. Though enrolled by his mother Monica as a catechumen, he renounced the Christian faith and espoused Manichaeism, taught in Carthage, Rome, and Milan.
He lived for fifteen years with a woman who remains unknown and with whom he had a son, named Adeodatus. Baptized in 387, together with his son, after a long inner struggle and under the influence of St. Ambrose and the prayers of his mother, Saint Monica.
Then on August 29th we remember the Passion of St. John the Baptist. The execution of John the Baptist is recorded in the gospels and is placed by the fortress of Machaerus near the Dead Sea. As early as the fifth century, a commemoration of John the Baptist was kept on this day at Jerusalem. Like our Lord, we remember the natural birth and death of St. John.
These great August Saints point us to the fact that with God’s grace and our cooperation, we too can become witnesses to God, by our deeds. We live in gratitude to God for these heroes of our faith.
We turn to them in our need...
Holy Men and Women of August, Saints of God,
pray for us and our loved ones.
Amen.