Saint of the Day - November 30

The feast of St. Andrew has been kept since the fourth century on November 30. He was both Apostle and martyr, and was called to govern the Church. He was the first among the Apostles to follow and know Jesus, that is, when he was called, he immediately left his nets to become a fisher of men. He died on a special form of cross that has ever since been named for him. His head was placed in the basilica of St. Peter in 1462 where it remains to this day. He is the Patron Saint of Scotland.

-St. Andrew's Daily Missal, 1943, St. Bonaventure Publications, 1999.

St. Sylvester, November 26

St. Sylvester was born of noble parentage at Osimo, in the Marches of Ancona. Owing to his rare merit, the Canons of the cathedral of Osimo admitted him to share their dignity. When present one day at the funeral of an illustrious man, a relative of his, he was struck by the hideous appearance of the body of a man who had been so handsome, and exclaimed, "I am today what he was, and one day I shall be what he is."

He immediately gave up everything and retired into a desert where he devoted himself to penance and meditation. Later he built a church dedicated to the holy father Benedict who advised him in a vision to found a religious order, the Sylvestrines. This branch of the Benedictine Order spread in a short time and already numbered 25 houses in Italy when its founder died in 1267 at the age of 90.

-St. Andrew's Daily Missal, 1943, St. Bonaventure Publications, 1999.

"The illustrious virgin Catharine," says the Roman breviary, "was born at Alexandria. Having from youth combined the study of the liberal arts with the ardour of faith, she soon rose to high perfection both in doctrine and in holiness, and at the age of eighteen surpassed the most learned. She rebuked the Emperor Maximian for tormenting the Christians, and he, filled with admiration for her learning, assembled from all parts the most learned men, to bring her over from the faith of Jesus to the worship of idols. The contrary happened, for several were converted to Christianity by the cogency of her arguments.

"Maximian then ordered her to be scourged with rods and with whips weighted with lead. Then he had her tied to wheels armed with sharp swords. But the machine broke down and the tyrant caused her to be beheaded. She died about A.D. 310. She is one of the fourteen Auxiliary Saints. Christian philosophers, scholars, orators, and lawyers honour her as their patroness.

"Mt. Sinai, where the body of St. Catharine was carried by angels, is also the place where God's ministering angels brought His law to Moses. Let us with the Church invoke the intercession of St. Catharine so that we may reach Jesus, the law-giver of our souls."

-St. Andrew's Daily Missal, 1943, St. Bonaventure Publications, 1999.