St Anthony Mary Claret-Feast Day October 24th. Anthony was born in Sallent in Barcelona, Spain in 1807. He was one of eleven children and the son of a wool manufacturer. At the age of 12 he became a weaver, however as a young adult he felt the call to a religious life and joined a Carthusian Seminary at Vic in Barcelona in 1829. In 1835 he was ordained as a parish priest in his native parish where he continued his theological studies. Anthony was impelled to become a missionary and joined a Jesuit novitiate in Rome but due to ill health was forced to return to Spain where he exercised a pastoral ministry in Viladrau and Girona. He was then sent as an apostolic missionary throughout Catalonia where he travelled from one mission to the other by foot and became renown for his charismatic personality and preaching. After spending 15 months in retreat in the Canary Islands in fear of his life,he returned to Spain and established the congregation of » The Missionary Sons of the Immaculate heart of Mary», he also founded the great religious library at Barcelona called » Libreria Religiosa». In 1849 he was appointed as Archbishop of Santiago in Cuba where he founded the first woman’s religious institute known as «The Religious of the Immaculate Heart of Mary». In 1857 he was recalled to Spain by Queen Isabella II and became her personal confessor. In 1869 owing to ill health he withdrew to the French Pyrenees but due to the harassment of Spanish enemies he spent his final days in a Cistercian Abbey in Narbonne where he died in 1870 aged 62.He was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1950.
Saint Evaristus-Feast Day October 27th. Saint Evaristus also known as Aristus was born in Bethlehem in the first centry AD, he came from a family with Jewish Hellenistic origins and his father was called Juda.He was elected as pope during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian suceeding Pope Clement the 1 and held this position from AD 99 until 107. He appears to be the fourth successor of Saint Peter .Evaristus is believed to have divided Rome in to several parishes assigning a priest to each one and he also appointed seven deacons to the city. Usually he is awarded with the tilte of martyr and tradition holds that he is burried near St Peters tomb in the Vatican. It is rumoured that Saint John the Apostle died during his Pontificate. Unfortunately very little data has been recorded about hsi life and work in reliable ancient documents. He is often represented with a sword because he was decapitated or with a crib due to his birth place in Bethlehem.
The Feast of St Simon and St Jude-Feast Day October 28th. Both Simon and Jude were born in the first Century AD , according to the New Testament they were two of the original apostles of Christ. They are believed to have worked together as a duo preaching the Good News of the Gospel after the death of Jesus ,in Judea , Syria and Mesopotamia. Both were martyred for their faith and they share the same tomb in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Out of the two St Jude is probably the better known and more information is given about him in the Synoptic Gospels. In St Mark and Matthew’s account he is also referred to as Thaddeus in the naming of the 12 apostles, a nickname that would have been attributed to him due to the similarity of his name to Christ’s betrayer. St Jude is believed to have been the son of Cleopas and Mary who was the cousin of the Virgin Mary and is therefore sometimes referred to as the brother of Jesus. He has become widely known as the saint of hopeless causes owing to the unfortunate similarity of his name to Judas Iscariot and is evoked by those in desperation. Simon is believed to have been born in Cana also known as Simon the Zealot ,most probably to avoid confusion with Simon Peter . He is one of the more obscure of Christ’s apostles . Some traditions hold that the apostle Simon was the same person as Simeon of Jerusalem or Simon the cousin of Jesus a close relative to St Jude. If this was so it would explain why they worked so closely together and shared the same tomb.
