SM-December

Servant of God John Peter Medaille, SJBorn: October 6, 1616 Died: December 30, 1669 Canonized : May 21, 19 25 John Peter Medaille was born in Carcassone, in southern France of a well-to-do and noble family. His father was the king’s attorney in the Carcassone courts. Nothing is known of John’s early education, but because…

Saint Peter Canisius, SJBorn : May 8, 15 21 Died : December 21, 1597 Beatified : 1864 Feast Day : 27th April Canonized : May 21, 19 25 Peter Canisius was born in Nijmegen, though a Dutch town today, was at the time of his birth in the ecclesiastical province of Cologne, had the rights…

Blessed Michael Nakashima, SJBorn : 1583 Died : Dec 25,1628 Beatified : 1867 Michael Nakashima was born in Machiai, in today’s prefecture of Kumamoto, Japan, of non-Christian parents. He was baptized at the age of eleven by Fr John Baptist de Baeza and as a young man, he took a private vow of chastity and…

Servant of God William Eberschweiler, SJBorn: December 5, 1837 Died: December 23, 1921 William Eberschweiler, the eldest of five boys of a family of seven children, was born in Puttlingen, Germany. As a child, his family moved to Bitburg where he attended the parish school and later in 1851 went to Trier for his secondary…

VENERABLE THOMAS BEDINGFELD Born: 1617 Died: Dec 21, 1678 Declared Venerable in 1886 Thomas Bedingfeld, whose family name was Downes, was born in Norfolk, England at a time when Titus Oates and Israel Tonge were plotting to destroy the Jesuits out of hatred for the Society. He went to study at the English College in…

Servant of God - Stephen Kaszap, SJBorn: March 25, 1916 Died: December 17, 1935 Stephen Kaszap was a Jesuit novice when he died, three months short of his twentieth birthday. He bore his sufferings like a young hero. He was born in Szekesfehervar, Hungary. His mother described him as a stubborn child, quick tempered and…

Servants of God - Horace Vecchi, Martin de Aranda, James de Montalban,SJDied: December 14, 1612 Today we honour three Jesuits, Frs Horace Vecchi and Martin de Aranda and Bro James de Montalban who were martyred by the Araucanian Indians in Elicura, Chile, in 1612. Fr Horace Vecchi was born in Siena, Italy and at the…

Venerable Francis de Paola Tarin, SJ Born : Oct 7, 1847 Died : Dec 12, 1910 Declared Venerable on Jan 3, 1987 Francis de Paola Tarin, the ninth of eleven children, was born in the village of Godelleta near Valencia, Spain. He first studied at his village school before he went to the Piarist Fathers…

Blessed Thomas Holland, SJBorn : 1600 Died : Dec 12, 1642 Beatified: Dec 15, 1929 Thomas Holland, an Englishman was born in Sutton, near Prescot, in Lancashire. In his youth, he spent six years at the English college at Saint-Omer in Flanders and later in 1621, at the English college in Valladolid, Spain. It was…

Servant of God Hyacinth Alegre, SJBorn: December 24, 1874 Died: December 10, 1930 Hyacinth Alegre Pujals (Also known as JACINTO ALEGRE PUJALS SJ) was born in Tarrasa, on the outskirts of Barcelona on December 24, 1874, just before midnight. He spent the first sixteen years in Tarrasa and studied at its Royal College. Since his…