• St. Andrew Bobola (1657). Martyr, Priest. (Historical)
• St. Christopher Magallanes & companions (1928). Martyr, Priest. (Current)
• St. Godric of Finchale (1170). (Historical) hermit

ST. HOSPITIUS shut himself up in the ruins of an old tower near Villafranca, one league from Nice, in Provence. He girded himself with a heavy iron chain and lived on bread and dates only. During Lent he redoubled his austerities, and, in order to conform his life more closely to that of the anchorites of Egypt, ate nothing but roots. For his great virtues, Heaven honored him with the gifts of prophecy and of miracles. He foretold the ravages which the Lombards would make in Gaul. These barbarians, having come to the tower in which Hospitius lived, and seeing the chain with which he was bound, mistook him for some criminal who was there imprisoned. On questioning the Saint, he acknowledged that he was a great sinner and unworthy to live. Whereupon one of the soldiers lifted his sword to strike him; but God did not desert His faithful servant: the soldier’s arm stiffened and became numb, and it was not until Hospitius made the sign of the cross over it that the man recovered the use of it. The soldier embraced Christianity, renounced the world, and passed the rest of his days in serving God. When our Saint felt that his last hour was nearing, he took off his chain and knelt in prayer for a long time. Then, stretching himself on a little bank of earth, he calmly gave up his soul to God on the 21st of May, 681.

REFLECTION: If we do not love penitence for its own sake, let us love it on account of our sins; for we should “work out our salvation in fear and trembling.”

WORD OF THE DAY

IMPRECATORY PSALMS. Those in which the psalmist pronounces a curse over the enemies of God and God’s people, as when David prays, "May no one be left to show him kindness, may no one look after his orphans, may his family die out, its name disappear in one generation" (Psalm 109:12-13). Such imprecations should be seen as the ardent expressions of the Oriental mind, and written under divine inspiration. They were not only statements of the human author, asking God to punish evildoers, but in prophetic terms foretold the divine intention, i.e., what God was going to do to those who resisted his will. (Etym. Latin in– + precari, to pray: imprecor, to call upon, to invoke on a person.)

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!)

May, Month of the Immaculate Heart

Maria Magnificata. Short Meditations for May, the Month on Our Lady’s Life. 21st Day — Mary at Cana.