February 16 – Today is the feast of Saint Juliana, also the day of her martyrdom in 305. One of the thousands of Christians killed by Emperor Diocletian for their faith. She lived in the city of Nicomedia (now present-day Turkey) and wsa betrothed by her father (himself a pagan) to a Roman official who shared her father’s contempt for the faith. When she refused to marry him, both he and her own father tortured and disfigured her before she was executed. Read more about her at Aleteia.

February 19 – Saint Conrad Confalonieri of Piacenza, whose feast day we celebrate today, was born into a wealthy family in the late thirteenth century. When a fire started at his command to flush out game raged out of control, Conrad fled. But after an innocent peasant was arrested, tortured into a confession, and sentenced to death, Conrad came forward, admitted responsibility (saving the peasant’s life), and paid for the damage. It was after this that he & his wife decided to separate. She joined a Poor Clare monastery and he joined hermits following the Third Order Rule of the Franciscans. He became known for his holiness and he eventually had to leave for a out-of-the-way part of Sicily to spend the remainder of his life (36 years) as a hermit.  Read more about him at the Franciscan Tradition website.

February 21 – I must admit that today’s saint reminds me not of the man himself, but of a professor from Mundelein seminary of the same name. If you would, please pray for Father Peter Damian, terror of his students (and a very wise and holy man!). As for his namesake, well, he was a professor too! He eventually left teaching and joined the Benedictines as a hermit, where he succeeded the abbot and founded  five other hermitages. Due to his abilities at problem-solving (especially disputes between clerics & institutions), the pope eventually made him cardinal-bishop of Ostia, where he worked hard to instill the lessons of discipline that he had learned as a hermit. Only towards the end of his life was he able to return, with the permission of the pope, to his life as a monk. Long after his death in 1072 he was declared a Doctor of the Church (1828). Read more about him at the Vatican News website.

February 22 – Almost twenty years ago, I was blessed to be able to go to Rome as a seminarian – this after spending two and a half months in the Holy Land as part of the pilgrimmage quarter at Mundelein seminary. My parents met me in the Eternal City for the first of the two weeks I spent there and we went on a wild whirlwind tour to see everything we could. Saint Peter’s basilica is of course on the list of every Catholic who visits Rome and the Chair of Saint Peter – the feast of which is celebrated today – is prominently highlighted within the basilica. This picture is not of the actual chair, but of a sculpture made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (the real chair was only recently exposed in 2024 – I’ve included a photo of that in my pastor’s insert below). Though most Catholics live far from the pope, Saint Peter’s basilica or the chair that represents the pope’s authority, today’s celebration reminds us of how the pope is a sign and symbol of our unity of faith. May we pray for Pope Francis (especially as he recovers from bronchitis) and for the universal Church! Read more at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.