Monday 7th, Ss. Sixtus II and his Companions. Pope Sixtus and four deacons were put to death in 258. St Cajetan, 1480-1547, founded the Theatines to renew sacramental life in the Church.
Tuesday 8th, St. Dominic, 1170-1221, a Spaniard who founded the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) to counteract the Albigensian heresy.
Wednesday 9th, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), virgin and martyr, Patron of Europe, was born in 1891 at Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), the youngest of seven children of a Jewish family. A brilliant student, she gained her doctorate in philosophy at twenty-five. Became a Catholic in 1922 and a Carmelite nun. Both Jewish and Catholic, she fled to Holland when the Nazis came to power but she was captured and sent to Auschwitz where she died in its gas chamber on 9th August 1942.
Thursday 10th, St Lawrence, deacon and martyr, died 258, is seen as the cheerful giver since he was one of the seven deacons of the Roman Church in charge of the material needs of the faithful. Gifted with a sense of humour, he met his death cheerfully on a gridiron. From earliest times seen not only as a patron saint of the poor, but also of cooks.
Friday 11th, St Clare, virgin, born at Assisi in 1193, died 1253. She followed Saint Francis in his life of poverty and was founder and ruler of the Poor Clares. She led an austere life, abounding in works of piety and charity. Patron of television.
Saturday 12th, Dedication of St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Cathedral for the Diocese of Cloyne. Today the dedication is celebrated as a solemnity in Cobh and as a feast in the churches of the diocese.