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St. Valentine of Terni (a city also known as Interamna) was a young noble who converted to Christianity. He became a bishop at a young age, and died a martyr at the age of 97. Born in Terni in 176, he was martyred in Rome on February 14, 273.

He was persecuted for having encouraged marriages between Romans and Christians.

During his trial he discussed his faith with his judge. The judge Asterius put his Faith to the test. The judge presented Valentine with his blind daughter, who was healed. Asterius destroyed the idols in his house and had his whole family and household of 44 members baptized. He then freed all Christian inmates under his charge.

Valentine was arrested again for attempting to convert the heathen. He was tortured and martyred.

From the Sermons of St Austin, Bishop of Hippo:

“The illustrious day whereon the blessed Martyr Valentin conquered, doth this day come round to us again and as the Church doth rejoice with him in his glory, so doth she set before us his footsteps to be followed. For if we suffer, we shall also reign with him. In his glorious battle we have two things chiefly to consider the hardened cruelty of the tormentor, and the unconquered patience of the Martyr the cruelty of the tormentor, that we may abhor it; the patience of the Martyr, that we may imitate it. Hear what the Psalmist saith, complaining against sin: “Fret not thyself because of the evil-doers, for they shall soon dry up like the grass.” But touching the patience which is to be shown against the evil-doers, hear the word wherewith the Apostle moveth us Ye have need of patience, that ye may receive the promise.”

Archaeologists have unearthed both Roman catacombs and an ancient church dedicated to St. Valentine. In 496 AD Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom.
The connection between the secular celebrations and his day probably have two contributing factors.

St. Valentine’s feast day coincides with the Lupercalia, an ancient Roman festival dedicated to fertility, which Pope Gelasius abolished in 496.

This connection also got a boost in the Middle Ages when it was believed that birds paired couples half way through the second month of the year.
In Chaucer’s Parliament of Foules we read:
For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.

St. Valentine is the Patron Saint of bee keepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, and young people.

Prayer

Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we who keep the birthday of thy blessed Martyr Valentine may be delivered by his prayers from all the ills that hang over us.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.
Amen.

Born Alessandra Lucrezia Romola on April 23rd, 1522, in Florence, St. Catherine entered The Third Order Dominicans.  She entered the novitiate, in 1535 at the age of fourteen (taking the name of Catherine), and professed in 1536.

She lived a life of penance and mortifications, fasting two or three days a week on bread and water, and sometimes passed the whole day without food. She mortified her body with a sharp iron chain which she wore next her skin.

For two years she suffered severe health related pains offering this suffering via meditation on the passion of Christ.  After a miraculous restoration of her health, she studied and labored to die to her senses, and to advance in the penitential life

She is most remembered for her mystical life and weekly ecstasy.  The great “Ecstasy of the Passion”, happened for the first time in February, 1542, and repeated each week afterwards for twelve years from Thursday at noon till 4 p.m. on Friday, for several years. She went through all the stages of Our Lord’s Passion, recounting all that His Blessed Mother suffered in witnessing it.  These ecstasies ceased in answer to the prayers of both Catherine and her community.

Catherine received the stigmata, the very wounds of Our Lord, on her hands, feet, side, and around her head. On Easter Sunday in 1542, she was visited by Our Lord, and He gave her a gold ring with a diamond in it as a sign that she belonged to him. To the world, her finger appeared to have a hard ring just below the surface of her skin.  Catherine saw and experienced it as a physical gold ring.

Catherine was chosen, at a very young age to be mistress of the novices, then sub-prioress, and, at the age of twenty-five was appointed perpetual prioress. Her community still exists and inhabits the convent of San Vincenzio (now commonly called Santa Caterina), and there her body still reposes. Her feast is kept on the 13th of February.

Adapted from the Catholic Encyclopedia, and Vol. II of “The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints” by the Rev. Alban Butler, the 1864 edition published by D. & J. Sadlier, & Company.

Prayer

Almighty God, you brought Catherine to holiness through her contemplation of your Son’s passion and the sorrows of Our Blessed Mother. She gave us an example of a life of penance and heroic virtue. Through her intercession, help us to become courageous witnesses and teachers of these mysteries. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, you Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

When war was raging, and the town
Was red with blood of brother bands,
Our Virgin Mother bowed her down
With bounteous hands.

Seven faithful sons she bid to share
Her dolours, all the shame and loss,
Which Jesus suffered and she bare
Beneath His Cross.

Soon as their Lady called, as nought
They deemed their palaces and wealth,
The mountains, desert places, sought
Far off, by stealth.

For others’ sins the scourge they plied
As they the way of penance trod,
By prayers and tears they turned aside
The wrath of God.

Token of love the Mother’s hand
Gave to her sons their garb of woe,
Sanctioned the pious work they planned
With wondrous show.

The vine to spread their honours wide
Her shoots in winter greenly flung;
See, those are Mary’s servants, cried
The infant tongue.

Now to the Father thanks and praise;
To Thee, O Son, the same we send;
To Thee, O Spirit, through all days,
World without end.
Amen.

On August, 15th 1233 (the Feast of the Assumption) seven noblemen of Florence ranging in age from 26 to 35, strangers to one another, were making their prayers of thanksgiving after Mass. Suddenly each seemed to be surrounded by supernatural light, Our Blessed Mother appeared to them simultaneously but invisibly to those outside the seven. Our Lady was accompanied by angels, and said: “Leave the world, retire together into solitude, that you may fight against yourselves, and live wholly for God. You will thus experience heavenly consolations. My protection and assistance will never fail you.”

After several years of living as hermits to meditating on the Passion of Christ and the sorrows of His grieving Mother, they went to their bishop. They asked him for a rule of life to follow. The bishop encouraged them to continue to pray and to ask for guidance from Our Blessed Mother. Our Lady again appeared to the men on Good Friday carrying a black habit. At her side was an angel bearing a scroll with the words “Servants of Mary” written on it. In this vision, the Blessed Mother said that she had chosen them to be her servants. She asked them to wear a black habit. This was the habit they started to wear in 1240. They were also given the rule of St. Augustine which became the rule of their new order.

They went throughout the cities preaching Christ crucified, by word and by example. When each of them died they were buried in a single grave and have been venerated as one by popular devotion.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, who, that thou mightest recall to mind the woes of thy most holy Mother, didst through the Seven blessed Fathers make thy Church herself the mother of a new household of her servants, grant unto us in mercy that we may so share their tears as to share their blessedness also.

Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

Amen

Seven Invocations to the Seven Holy Founders
of the Servite Order

O glorious Patriarchs, even in the midst of the licentiousness of your age, ye kept ever burning the divine fire of charity and a tender love for the Queen of Heaven, whereby ye were made worthy to be called by her to go apart from the world. We humbly entreat you to intercede for us, that we too, being enkindled with the fire of divine love, may be enabled to please the Most High; and to imitate the charity and patience of our Lady of Sorrows; and even in the midst of adversity to conform ourselves to the dispositions of divine Providence.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.

Ye shining examples of perfection, forsaking the world and all the prizes that it held out to you, with generous hearts ye desired to withdraw from the eyes of men, so that the Blessed Virgin herself made known to you in a dream the peace and quietude of Monte Senario. Obtain for us the grace to set at naught the deceitful and vain pleasures of earth and to devote ourselves to the practice of penance for our sins after your example; and if we are not worthy, as ye were, to serve the blessed Mother of Sorrows more especially in solitude, may we at least show our sorrow at having caused her to be so afflicted by our sins and thus renewing the bitter passion of her divine and only Son.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.

Most humble dwellers in the rocky fastnesses of Monte Senario, how admirable is your heroic humility! That ye might imitate more fully the lowly handmaid of the Lord, not only did ye forget the nobility and greatness of your ancient families, but in your generosity ye did not disdain to go begging from door to door in your own country for your scanty sustenance. Ah, obtain for us that when there is question of the service of God we may not be held back by human respect. Even as ye merited on this account in most miraculous wise to be called the Servants of Mary by the mouth of infants and sucklings, so may we too, by being a source of edification and light to our brethren on the road to heaven, show ourselves by our deeds to be the devoted servants of the august Mother of God.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.

Ye faithful Servants of the Queen of Heaven, who, when ye were bitterly weeping for the sorrows suffered by her in the life, passion and death of her dear Son, did make known to you by the miraculous vine laden in the dead of winter with great clusters of grapes, that it was her will that the Order of Servites be extended in order to spread abroad in the Church compassion for her sufferings; ah, obtain for us by your intercession an affectionate and tender compassion for our Lady of Sorrows, for in this manner even we shall be enabled to bring our brethren to groan with heartfelt sorrow for their sins, and thus become fruitful branches in her mystic vineyard.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.

Most glorious Founders of the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin, with what joy your hearts were flooded when ye were made worthy to behold visibly the Queen of Martyrs herself, who revealed to you the rule ye should keep and the habit ye should wear in memory of her sorrows as well as the palm of victory ye should obtain as the crown of your merits. We beseech you to obtain for us of the Mother of fair love the grace to know in what manner we may best serve her divine Son, in order to come thus most easily into the possession of that blessed immortality which the mercy of God hath prepared for us in paradise.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.

Most austere penitents, by your continuous and most severe mortifications, ye became every day more rich in merits and more pleasing unto the Lord. It is, therefore, no cause for wonder that heaven, in order to show how pleasing were your merits, made of Monte Senario a place of marvels, now surrounding it with flames that made it resplendent with light, again covering it with roses and lilies never seen before, that were plucked by the Angels and offered to Mary. We beseech you to intercede for us that our hearts may catch the flames of divine love and that our spirits may be cleansed from stain and become a garden rich in the flowers of virtue, worthy to be plucked by the most kind Queen of Heaven, as a lowly tribute of our devotion.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.


Angels of purity, Seraphim of love and martyrs of penance, ye blessed Patriarchs, privileged with a happy passing from this place of exile to your own true native land, one breathing forth his spirit as the Child Jesus appeared, another called audibly by Mary to his eternal repose, this one rising to glory under the appearance of a flame, that one under the aspect of a lily of purest white; ah, grant, we beseech you, that when we have come to our last hour, we may be protected by your intercession with our Lady of Sorrows in that dread moment against the wiles of the ancient serpent, and may be made worthy to breathe forth our spirits into the loving hands of the august Queen of Sorrows, and be conducted by her to eternal bliss in God, the everlasting Fountain of glory and holiness.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.

Saint Titus (13AD – 107AD) was a gentile converted to Christianity by St. Paul and later served as the Bishop of Crete where he died of old age. He is mentioned a number of times in the New Testament helping the apostolate of St. Paul.