• Bl. Raymond of Capua (1399). (Historical)
• St. Faustina Kowalska (1938). Religious, Virgin. (Current)
• St. Flora of Beaulieu (1347). Religious, Virgin. (Historical)
• St. Placid and Companions (541). Martyr, Religious. (Traditional)

ST. PLACID was born in Rome, in the year 515, of a patrician family, and at seven years of age was taken by his father to the monastery of Subiaco. At thirteen years of age he followed St. Bernard to the new foundation at Monte Cassino, where he grew up in the practice of a wonderful austerity and innocence of life. He had scarcely completed his twenty-first year when he was selected to establish a monastery in Sicily upon some estates which had been given by his father to St. Benedict. He spent four years in building his monastery, and the fifth had not elapsed before an inroad of barbarians burned every thing to the ground, and put to a lingering death not only St. Placid and thirty monks who had joined him, but also his two brothers, Eutychius and Victorinus, and his holy sister Flavia, who had come to visit him. The monastery was rebuilt, and still stands under his invocation.

REFLECTION: Adversity is the touchstone of the soul, because It discovers the character of the virtue which it possesses. One act of thanksgiving when matters go wrong with us is worth a thousand thanks when things are agreeable to our inclinations.

WORD OF THE DAY

ROMAN PRIMACY. The supreme and full power of jurisdiction possessed by divine right by the Bishop of Rome over the whole Church in matters of faith and in matters pertaining to the discipline and government of the Church spread throughout the world. This power is not merely symbolic but real and truly episcopal; it is ordinary in belonging to the office; it is immediate and not dependent on any other human authority; and it affects each and every church, each and every pastor, and every single one of the faithful.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

October, Month of the Rosary

Maria Magnificata. Short Meditations for October, the Month of the Rosary. 5th Day — The Birth of Mary.