“And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.” Luke 2:51
IT IS THE WILL OF God that all men be saints. Since family life is the normal state for most men and women, God wills that there be married saints. The sanctity of many fathers and mothers of families has been publicly recognized.
SAINT THOMAS MORE (1478-1535), born in London, was elected at the age of 26 to the English Parliament. The next year he was happily married to Jane Colt; and, before her untimely death in 1511, four children were born. Soon after her death he married a widow, Alice Middleton. In public life Thomas More rose rapidly, becoming finally Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII. He fearlessly opposed Henry’s attempt to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and to have himself named supreme head of the Church in England. He understood well that his stand was ultimately going to result in his death; so, he spent his time preparing both himself and his family for that day, which came on July 6, 1535, when he was beheaded.
SAINT ELIZABETH SETON (1774-1821) was born in New York City of non-Catholic parents. On January 25, 1794, she married William Seton. While with close friends in Italy, where her husband died, she came to know the Catholic faith, and was received into the Church in New York in 1805. She opened a school for girls in 1808 in Baltimore, and when she and the other women conducting the school formed a religious com munity, she was elected the superior of the new “Sisters of Charity.” The hospitals, and schools operated by the Sisters of Charity today owe their existence, under God, to her inspiration.
Information from The Life of Christ “Our Lord’s Life with Lesson in His Own Words for Our Life Today” The Catholic Press, Inc. 1959. © 1954 edited by Reverend John P. O’Connell, MASTD and Jex Martin, following mainly A Chronological Harmony of the Gospels by Stephen J Hartdegen OFM NIHIL OBSTAT John A McMahon; IMPRIMATUR Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Archbishop of Chicago August 1, 1953. Print.
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