Author Archives: Catholic Fun Facts

Born in Wadowice, Poland May 18, 1920.  As a young man he was interested in theater and poetry.  He was a strong athlete.  He was part of an underground Christian democratic organization during his school years.  They helped Jews and offered them refuge from the Nazis.  During the early 1940s he studied for the priesthood and was ordained on November 1, 1946.  At age 58 he became the first Polish pope and the youngest in 132 years.  He sought to make church doctrine clearer, to seek contacts with other faiths.  He was the first Pope to visit a synagogue trying to help end Catholic and Jewish estrangement.  He established diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Israel healing a divide that existed since 1948.  He traveled to more than 115 countries.  He used broadcasting to champion human rights.  Time Magazine named him 1994’s “Man of the year”.

FEAST DAY:  October 22

POPE’S WRITINGS

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer –

True

Today’s Question –

Natural law can evolve and change at different times and under different circumstances.  True or false?

St. Celine is best known as the mother of St. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims at the time of the conversion of the people of Gaul under Clovis.  Very few details about her life are known.  About 438, at an advanced age, she miraculously gave birth to St. Remigius.  The hermit, Montanus, who had three times foretold the birth of the saintly Bishop, received his sight. She lived a holy life of prayer and doing good works.  She died about the year 458.  She was buried near Lyons.  Her relics were destroyed during the French Revolution.

FEAST DAY:  October 21

FRAMED ART

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

The Lord speaks of peace to his people.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer –

False

Today’s Question –

The natural law is universal and extends to all people.  True or false?

Born January 3, 1694 in Ovada, in the Republic of Genoa.  He spent his infancy and youth in great innocence and piety.  He was inspired to found a congregation and in an ecstasy, he beheld the habit which he and his companions were to wear.  Bishop Gastinara of Alexandria and Paul reached the conclusion that God wished him to establish a congregation in honor of the Passion of Jesus Christ.  The Bishop vested him in the habit shown to him from on high on November 22, 1720.  St. Paul prepared the Rules of his institute.  In 1721 he applied to the Holy See for permission but he failed.  When Benedict XIV became Pope, he received permission in 1741 and 1746.  Paul built his first monastery near Obitello.  He later established a larger community at the Church of Sts John and Paul in Rome.  He remained an indefatigable missionary of Italy for fifty years.  He received great gifts in the supernatural order but believed that he was a useless servant and great sinner.  He died in 1775 at age eighty-one.  Pope Pius IX canonized him in 1867.

FEAST DAY:  October 20

CROSSES & CRUCIFIXES

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

The Lord made us, we belong to him.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer –

False

Today’s Question –

The natural moral law is not based on reason.  True or false?

St. Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, Charles Garnier, Anthony Daniel, Gabriel Lallmant, Noel Chabanel, John de Lalande and Rene Goupil, French Jesuits, preached the Gospel to Huron and Iroquois Indians in the United States and Canada.  In the years 1642, 1648, and 1649, they were martyred by the Iroquois Indians.  They were beatified June 21, 1925 by Pope Pius XI and in 1930 the same Pope canonized them.  St. Isaac Jogues labored in preaching the Gospel to the Mohawks in Canada.  He became the first European to penetrate the eastern entrance of Lake Superior.  He was taken captive by the Iroquois in 1642 and imprisoned for thirteen months.  He was cruelly tortured and lost the use of his hands.  He returned to Canada after being rescued by the Dutch two years later.  He visited Auriesville, New York in 1646 to negotiate peace with the Iroquois.  It is said that he is the first Catholic priest to set foot on Manhattan Island. The Bear Clan, which he visited on his third visit to the Iroquois, believed him to be a sorcerer and blamed him for an outbreak of sickness and the failure of their crops.  He was seized, tortured and beheaded.

FEAST DAY:  October 19

SAINT BOOKS

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Give the Lord glory and honor.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer –

True

Today’s Question –

The progress of persons is subordinate to the order of things.  True or false?

According to the Church historian, Eusebius, St. Luke, a Gentile, was born born at Antioch, Syria.  He was a physician and, according to a legend,  also a painter.  One of the earliest converts to the Faith, he later became the missionary companion to St Paul.  He accompanied Paul on part of his second and third missionary journeys, and attended during his Caesarean and Roman captivities.  Little is known with certainty of his subsequent life.  The Church ascribes the third Gospel to St. Luke.  The Gospel shows that that its author was a person of literary knowledge, a physician, and a companion of St. Paul.  The Acts of the Apostles is also ascribed to St. Luke.  His artistic skill portrayed living characters and remained an
inspiration to painters for centuries.  There is a steady movement of events from Nazareth to Jerusalem in his Gospel and from Jerusalem to Rome in the Acts.

FEAST DAY:  October 18
PATRON OF:  Painters and Doctors

THE NATIVITY: FROM THE GOSPELS OF MATTHEW AND LUKE

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer –

True

Today’s Question –

The common good requires the stability and security of a just order.  True or false?

St. Ignatius was a convert to the Faith and a disciple of St. John the Evangelist.  St. Peter appointed him Bishop of Antioch according to St. Chrysostom.  Ignatius governed the See of Antioch for forty years.  During the persecution under Domitian, he longed to shed his blood for Christ, but it was not to be.  When the Emperor, Trajan, came to Antioch in the year 107, Ignatius was seized and brought to him.  Because he confessed Christianity, he was taken to Rome in chains to be thrown to the wild beasts.  The people of Smyrna and Troas and other places along the way, welcomed him.  When he arrived in Rome, the faithful of the city had come out to meet him.  He arrived just as the public spectacles in the ampitheater were drawing to a close.  He was thrust into the ampitheater hurriedly and the lions devoured him.  “May I become agreeable bread to the Lord.” he exclaimed as he was dying.  His remains are venerated in a church in Rome.

FEAST DAY:  October 17

ST. IGNATIUS MEDAL

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer –

False

Today’s Question –

Some social situations and institutional structures can also be called sinful.  True or false?

St. Hedwig was the daughter of the Duke of Croatia.  She was born in 1174 in Bavaria.  She was married to Henry I of Silesia and Poland.  She gave him seven children.  After the birth of her last child, they vowed to live in continency.  Her great zeal for religion and her penitential mortifications led her to live like a hermit amidst her husband’s court.  Her entire fortune was donated to the Church, and the poor. She founded the Cistercian convent of Trebnitz and upon her husband’s death, she entered the convent.  She founded many other convents.  She died in October 1243.

FEAST DAY:  October 16

STATUES

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

The Lord has made known his salvation.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer –

c) To serve individuals and the human community.

Today’s Question –

Moral virtues are not acquired by human effort, but by God’s grace alone.  True or false?

Born in Avila, Spain, in 1515.  Her mother died when Teresa was twelve and her father placed her in a convent.  She returned home, determined to become a nun.  She joined the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation and made her profession in 1534.  She made great progress in the way of perfection and enjoyed mystical revelations.  She met much resistance when she reformed the order but she succeeded with undaunted courage.   She wrote books filled with sublime doctrine, the fruit of her own spiritual life.  She died at Avila in 1852.

FEAST DAY:   October 15
PATRON OF:   People in need of grace, headaches, bodily ills

ST. TERESA OF AVILA MEDAL

Responsorial Psalm

Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer-

True

Today’s Question-

What should be the primary aim of economic life?

a) to increase profit; b) to multiply goods; c) to serve individuals and the human community

St. Callistus, a Roman by birth, was a slave of a Christian master early in life.  He panicked and fled after inadvertently losing some of his master’s money.  He was captured and cast into a dungeon.  His master freed him and hoped that his honest and intelligent slave would be able to make some money and give back what he had lost.  While trying to do just this, he was accused as a Christian and condemned to the Sardinian mines.  His release was obtained and he was taken into the service of Pope Victor.  The Pope was impressed with him especially by his devotion to the Sardinian martyrs.  He became a deacon and later secretary to Pope Zephyrinus.  He was put in charge of the Christian cemetery on the Appian Way.  After Zephyrinus’ death, Callistus was chosen to be Pope and governed the Church for five years and two months.    During the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus, Christians were able to build churches for the public exercise of their religion.  Callistus was a wise and firm shepherd.  He instituted the fast on Ember Days, decreed that ordinations     take place during Ember Weeks, established the practice of absolution of all sins, including those which rigorists considered irremissibly.  He founded the Church of St. Mary Beyond the Tiber and provided for the burial of martyrs.  He was martyred, probably at the hands of a mob, in 222.

FEAST DAY:  October 14

HOLY WATER FONTS

Responsorial Psalm

Let your mercy come to me, O Lord.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer-

False

Today’s Question-

Sin hurts human nature and human community

True or false

St. Gerald was born into a noble family.  He was born in 855, and succeeded his father as Count of Avergne when he died.  He inherited a considerable estate and gave much of his revenue away to the poor.  He avoided all extravagance and worldly pomp.   He was filled with love of God and lived a simple and prayerful life.  He fulfilled all his duties as a wealthy nobleman and dealt with everyone fairly.  Rather than the worldly pursuits, he prayed and meditated and rose at two o’clock every morning, recited a portion of the Divine Office and heard Mass.  He founded a Benedictine monastery at Aurillac after he returned from a pilgrimage to Rome.  He was persuaded not to join the monastery by St. Gausbert, Bishop of Cahors, who said that his true vocation lay in working in the world for the glory of God.  He was afflicted with blindness seven years before his death which he bore with Christian resignation.  He died in 909.  St. Odo of Cluny wrote his biography and St. Gerald became known throughout France.

FEAST DAY:  October  13
PATRON OF:  Disabled people

ST. RAPHAEL ARCHANGEL

Responsorial Psalm

Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer-

Justice

Today’s Question-

A person is not responsible for an evil action if misled by the bad example of another?

True or false?