BIG C CATHOLICS

Optional Memorial - December 21st  Saint Peter Canisius was the 16th century Dutch Jesuit priest and Doctor of the Church whose brilliant theology renewed Catholicism. He was a major figure in both the Council of Trent and the Counter Reformation. His extensive catechetical treatises and powerful preaching in defense of orthodoxy won him great renown, and the Church innumerable souls. He wrote three definitive Catechisms in the span of four years explicating the Faith. These were tremendously influential, especially to those in Austria, Bavaria, and Bohemia where Catholicism was most under siege. Although claimed by both the Dutch and German Churches, Canisius is designated as the second Apostle of Germany (after Saint Boniface of Mainz). He was born at Nijmegen, Holland, in 1521 into a devout family. His father was an instructor to princes in the court of the duke of Lorraine. Peter was part of a movement for religious reform as a very young man and in 1543, after attending a

Memorial - December 3rd (In 2017, this feast is superseded by the Sunday liturgy.) Saint Francis Xavier is one of the great saints who emerged during the Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church in the mid-16th and early 17th centuries. As a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the zeal with which he undertook his missionary work was so astonishing that both contemporaries and historians alike have compared him to none other than St. Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles. He was born in Spanish Navarre on April 7, 1506. At the age of 19, he traveled to France to study at the University of Paris. There, he met and became friends with another Spaniard named Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatius, who had experienced a profound spiritual conversion years before, tried to convince Francis that his life might best be spent, not in academics, but as a missionary in service to Christ. At first, Francis was not convinced of this, but Ignatius persisted and finally won him over. T

Memorial - September 27th St. Vincent de Paul is a saint whose name is familiar even to those who do not profess the Catholic faith. This is due in large part to the organization that was begun in his name 173 years after his death. The St. Vincent de Paul Society, founded by Blessed Frederic Ozanam in 1833, took its inspiration from the life of the man whom Pope Leo XIII named patron of all charitable organizations. Many parishes continue to carry out charitable works under his spiritual patronage. Vincent was the third child born to a poor family in Gascony, France, in 1580. At the time of his birth, the Church was in the midst of the Counter-Reformation, the period of intense internal reform following the upheaval of the Protestant Reformation. Although he would later be regarded as "the conscience of France," the young Vincent, who was ordained in 1600, was more concerned at first with living a comfortable life than doing the work that God had intended for him.

Optional Memorial - September 17th (In 2017, this feast is superseded by the Sunday liturgy.) It is fitting that the month that heralds the beginning of a new school year is also the time in which the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Robert Bellarmine. A Jesuit priest during the Catholic Reformation, he won renown for his scholarship and theological insights. Bellarmine was a "Spiritual Father" to many, including Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. He was a consequential figure in the Church's renewal. He was born in Italy in 1542. His mother, Cinthia Cervini, was sister to Cardinal Marcello Cervini, who later became Pope Marcellus II. Educated by the then "new" order in the Church—the Society of Jesus—the young Bellarmine entered the Jesuits in 1560 at the age of 18. He was ordained 10 years later and became the first Jesuit professor at the Catholic University at Louvain, Belgium, where he taught theology. He remained until 1576, when he was appointed to t