Saints of the Week
Saint Dominic Savio
Feast Day: 6th May
Virtue: Innocence
Dominic was born in Riva, Italy, in 1842. When he was five years old, he learned to serve
Mass. At twelve he visited St. John Bosco and told him that he wanted to be a priest. They became good friends. Dominic entered the Oratory school, which John Bosco started.
Dominic’s schoolmates liked him because he was very kind and cheerful. He studied hard and loved to pray. But his health was poor, and after two years he had to return home.
Dominic always kept these rules, which he had written in a notebook on his First Communion Day: (1) I will go to confession and to Communion often. (20 I will keep holy Feastdays. (30 Jesus and Mary will be my best friends. (4) I would rather die than commit a sin.
When Dominic was dying, he said: “What beautiful things I see!” He was only fifteen years old. St. John Bosco wrote the story of his life.
Dominic Savio was made a saint of the Catholic Church and is honored as the patron of teenagers.
Saint: Saint John Nepomucene
Virtue: Honesty
Feast Day: 16th May
In his early childhood, John Nepomucene was cured of a disease through the prayers of his good parents. In thanksgiving, they consecrated him to the service of God.
After he was ordained, he was sent to a parish in the city of Prague. He became a great preacher, and thousands of those who listened to him changed their way of life.
Father John was invited to the court of Wenceslaus IV. He also became the queen's confessor. One day, about 1393, the king asked him to tell what the queen had said in confession. When Father John refused, he was thrown into prison.
A second time, he was asked to reveal the queen's confession. "If you do not tell me," said the king, "you shall die. But if you obey my commands, riches and honor will be yours." Again Father John refused. He was tortured. The king ordered to be thrown into the river Moldau at night. But the people discovered his body and buried it with honors. He is known as the "martyr of the confessional."