- St. Romanus (258). Martyr. (Traditional) Roman soldier that St. Lawrence converted
- St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) (1942). Martyr, Religious, Virgin. (Current)
- Sts. Marcellinus & Peter (304). Martyr. (Historical)
ROMANUS was a soldier in Rome at the time of the martyrdom of St. Laurence. Seeing the joy and constancy with which that holy martyr suffered his torments, he was moved to embrace the faith, and, addressing himself to St. Laurence, was instructed and baptized by him in prison. Confessing aloud what he had done, he was arraigned, condemned, and beheaded the day before the martyrdom of St. Laurence. Thus he arrived at his crown before his guide and master. The body of St. Romanus was first buried on the road to Tibur, but his remains were translated to Lucca, where they are kept under the high altar of a beautiful church which bears his name.
REFLECTION: We are bound to glorify God by our lives, and Christ commands that our good works shine before men. It was the usual saying of the apostle St. Matthias, “The faithful sins if his neighbor sins.” Such ought to be the zeal of every one to instruct and edify his neighbor by word and example.
WORD OF THE DAY
GRIEVOUS MATTER. Moral obligations that are binding under pain of mortal sin. The gravity of the matter is determined by the object and circumstance of the action (or omission) and is known in the first place by the teaching authority of the Church, based on divine revelation. Some sins do not admit of slight matter, and these are mortal sins “from their whole nature” (ex toto genere suo), as lust and blasphemy. In other sins the matter is not always grave, as in theft or injustice, and these are mortal “from their nature” (ex genere suo). In every case, however, for a mortal sin there is also required full advertence of the mind to the fact that the matter is serious, and full consent of the will to do or not do what a person knows is a grave command or prohibition.
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!)
