Memorial of Saints (November 10)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Leo the Great, pope and doctor of the Church
• Andrew Avellino, confessor
• Theocrista, virgin
• Aedh Mac Bricc, bishop
• Justus of Canterbury, bishop

Leo: (died 461 A.D.); eminent pastor and preacher; defender of the Roman primacy; combatted Pelagianism and Manichaeism; his Tome on Christ's two natures was adopted by the Council of Chalcedon 451 A.D.; many of his prayers are found in the Sacramentary; saved Rome from marauding Huns and Vandals.

St. Leo was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XIV in 1754 A.D. because of his writings and sermons. Chief among the writings was his Tome, a famous letter he wrote to the Archbishop of Constantinople, Flavian, that expressed the Christian doctrine that Christ had two natures in one person: the human and the divine. Aside from the Tome, St. Leo produced also one hundred forty-three letters. It was his sermons that the Church prizes so much that it included them in the Office of Readings for such main feasts as Christmas and Epiphany. Five sermons of Leo on the Beatitudes are also included in the Office of Readings. A total of twenty-six of his sermons are thus excerpted in the Office of Readings - the same number as that of St. Ambrose's, and second only to St. Augustine's eighty-two sermons. Learn more

Memorial of Saints (November 9)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Dedication of St. John Lateran
• Theodore Tiro
• Benignus or Benen, bishop
• Vitonus or Vanne, bishop

The Dedication of St. John Basilica, or St. John Lateran in Rome is to honor this basilica built by Emperor Constantine and consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324 A.D. It is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Rome and dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, St. John the Baptist and to the Most Holy Savior. From the 4th to the 14th century A.D. it was the official seat of the Popes. St. John Lateran is called the "mother and head of all churches in Rome and the world."

St. Theodore Tiro (d. ca. 360 A.D.) was a recruit, a "tiro", in the Roman army at Pontus on the Black Sea. He was brought before the governor because he refused to participate in the pagan rites of his comrades. He was then set free temporarily but he took the opportunity to put in flames the pagan temple of Cybele. He was again brought before the judges and tortured. After the examination, he was condemned to death. After being burned to death in a furnace his cult became popular in the East and he became known as one of the best "warrior saints".

Memorial of Saints (November 8)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• The Four Crowned Martyrs
• Cybi or Cuby, abbot
• Deusdedit, priest
• Tysilio or Suliau, abbot
• Willehad, bishop
• Godfrey of Amiens, bishop

St. Cybi (ca. 6th century A.D.), a.k.a. Cuby, was born in Cornwall, England. He is a cousin of St. David of Wales. He refused to be made King and went to Monmouthshire. Then he left for Ireland where he spent four years with St. Enda on Aranmore. After a dispute with a priest named Fintan, he went to southern Meath. At Meath, he founded a monastery on the island of Anglesey, near Wales, and evangelized the area. This is where he spent his last years until his death.