St. Francis De Sales, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church

St. Francis, Count of Sales, Bishop of Geneva, patron of Catholic writers, preached the Word of God to the Calvinists and brought back 60,000 to the Catholic Faith. He founded with St. Jane Fremiot de Chantal the Order of the Visitation. He died in 1622.

Beatus Dies Natalis, Will!

Today we had a wonderful evening. Two Benedictine Monks, Brothers Basil and Benedict came over for dinner. They brought us some fantastic Italian Vino, and some chocolate made in their monestary in Norcia (the birthplace of St. Benedict). Maria is mesmorised by Brother Basil, as he is the one who dressed up as St. Nicholas this past December. She was shy at first, but Brother Benedict read her this page from her Alphabet of Saints by Robert Hugh Benson, and she warmed up right away!

B for SAINT BENEDICT, Hermit and Sage
Whose Rule has been kept by most Monks since his age.
Cyrilla, his Governess, took him from home
To learn how to read at a day-school in Rome,
Where he went to his lessons with satchel and pen
And rode back by the Tiber to supper again.
He loved contemplation so much that one day
He agreed with Cyrilla to run right away;
And for years in the mountains he fasted and prayed
Till the praise of the neighbors made BENET afraid;
So he wandered and wandered, but stayed in the end
In a cave near ROMANUS the Monk, his good friend.
Before long many Monks gathered round him to pray,
And his Rule and his Monks are still mighty to-day.
O Blessed Saint BENET, I wish I could be
Half as good for one year as you were sixty-three.