AUGUST 9, 2025 – ST. ROMANUS, MARTYR.

• 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

SPONSOR. The person who presents a child at baptism and professes the faith in the child’s name. A sponsor serves as the official representative of the community of faith and, with the parents, requests baptism for the child. The sponsor’s function after baptism is to serve as proxy for the parents if they should be unable or fail to provide for the religious training of the child. Also called godparents, sponsors are required for baptism, even of adults. One sponsor is sufficient, of the same sex as the one baptized; but two (no more) are permitted, i.e., one man and one woman. Sponsors contract a spiritual relationship with the person baptized, but not with one another. It has been customary also to have sponsors at confirmation, but the practice is not universal. (Etym. Latin spondere, to make a solemn pledge.)

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!)

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