Ordinary Time: June 12th
Wednesday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time
Other Commemorations: St. Basilides, Martyr (RM); St. Gaspar Bertoni, Priest (RM)
» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!
For 2019, this is the beginning of the Pentecost Ember Days.
According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. John of San Facondo born in 1430 in Spain. He was a canon of the cathedral of Burgos and then entered the Hermits of St. Augustine. He was distinguished for his great devotion to the sacrifice of the Mass and for his forceful preaching. He died in 1479.
Today is also the commemoration of Sts. Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius. These four martyrs have been venerated together at Rome from very early in the Church's history.
St. Basilides
In the former liturgical calendar, there were four martyrs with a joint commemoration, Sts. Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor, and Nazarius. Because of historical difficulties, only Basilides is mentioned in the current Roman Martyrology.
Basilides was a Christian soldier in Rome, in the army of Maxentius. He was beheaded by order of Aurelius, prefect of Rome in the persecution of Diocletian in 305.
Highlights and Things to Do:
- Read more about St. Basilides:
St. Gaspar Bertoni
St. Gaspar Bertoni was born in Verona, Italy, on October 9, 1777. He lived during one of the most challenging periods of history and sought to meet the terrible problems of his time with a response suggested to him from his vivid faith and ardent charity and concern for others.
In his spirit of abandonment to God, and service to the Church, he was guided by the Holy Spirit to found a Congregation called “Stigmatines”, whom he wanted to be “Apostolic Missionaries for the Assistance of Bishops.”
He was a man of deep prayer, much devoted to the Five Wounds of Christ (the Sacred Stigmata) and the Holy Spouses, Mary and Joseph, Patrons of the Stigmatine Congregation. In the course of his lifetime, he was blessed by God with true mystical gifts, which led him to a very sublime level of union with God and service to others.
From the age of about 35, until his death at the age of 76, his life was a long succession of great physical suffering. Many times during this long period he was at the very threshold of death.
Even from his bed, and the long years that he was confined to his room, Fr. Bertoni continued his ministry, as a teacher, even as a preacher of what we might call “Directed Retreats,” and especially as minister of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and spiritual guide for the many who sought him out.
The synthesis of his response to God might be summed up in these words: a filial and confident abandonment into the hands of God, even in the most difficult circumstances of his life.
Pope John Paul II canonized Fr. Bertoni on November 1, 1989.
—Excerpted from St-Bertoni.com
Highlights and Things to Do:
- Read more about St. Gaspar:
- Read more about the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata or the Stigmatines Order.