Before we rejoice in the resurrection, we pause with the dying. We cry out, “Hosanna in the highest!” as the King whom we longed for rides in on a donkey. He has a crown, yet it is made of thorns. His body is laid in a tomb by those with the courage to stay by his side.
Today is the historical feast of St. Dismas, the good thief and St. Margaret Clitherow, wife and mother who was one of the English martyrs.
According to the Roman Martyrology, the feast of St. Catherine of Sweden, the fourth child of St. Bridget of Sweden, is celebrated today.
St Toribio, or Turibius Alphonsus Mogrobejo, a Spaniard, served God from his infancy. Appointed Archbishop of Lima, he landed in South America in 1581. He died March 23, 1606, having, by his indefatigable zeal and by the boundlessness of his charity, literally renewed the face of the Church of Peru. His feast in the 1962 calendar of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated on April 27.
Today is the optional memorial of Blessed Clemens August von Galen, Bishop of Münster (1933-1946).
According to the Roman Martyrology, today is the feast of St. Photina, the Samaritan woman at the well.
St. Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the foster-father of Jesus, was probably born in Bethlehem and probably died in Nazareth. His important mission in God’s plan of salvation was “to legally insert Jesus Christ into the line of David from whom, according to the prophets, the Messiah would be born, and to act as his father and guardian” (Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy). Most of our information about St. Joseph comes from the opening two chapters of St. Matthew’s Gospel. No words of his are recorded in the Gospels; he was the “silent” man. We find no devotion to St. Joseph in the early Church. It was the will of God that the Virgin Birth of Our Lord be first firmly impressed upon the minds of the faithful. He was later venerated by the great saints of the Middle Ages. Pius IX (1870) declared him patron and protector of the universal family of the Church.
Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, was banished from his see on three occasions. With St. Athanasius and others, he belongs to the great champions of faith in the fight against Arianism. Famous as a teacher and preacher, he has left a series of catechetical instructions that constitute a priceless heirloom from Christian antiquity. Of the twenty-four extant discourses, nineteen were directed to catechumens during Lent as a preparation for baptism, while five so-called mystagogical instructions were given during Easter time to make the mysteries of Christianity better known to those already baptized.
Born near Meux, France, Louise lost her mother when she was still a child, her beloved father when she was but 15. Her desire to become a nun was discouraged by her confessor, and a marriage was arranged. One son was born of this union. But Louise soon found herself nursing her beloved husband through a long illness that finally led to his death.
