Onomastics to commemorate today: the saints of Monday, February 13

A few decades, even centuries ago, the ancestors used to name their children with the name of the saint of the day of their birth, not in vain in the famous “Mañanitas” there is a stanza that says: “Today, because it’s your birthday, we sing them to you here…”.

He onomastic alludes to the day when a saint is celebrated, although it is common for many people to use it as a synonym for birthday, which is wrong, because when they talk about it, they only allude to the list of holy names.

Like every day of the year, today also commemorates the women and men who stood out for having special connections with the deities, who did good deeds for their neighbors and who had high ethics and morals, reasons that led them to to be canonized or beatified and be among the saints.

It is the day of the saint Monday February 13.

Feast of the day: San Benigno de Todi

Benigno is one of the innumerable multitude of victims of the last bloody anti-Christian persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, at the beginning of the 4th century. The data of this Saint are very rare. We know that he was born and lived in Todi (Italy), where he was ordained a priest for his goodness and justice. He bravely endured torture and death and was buried by pious hands by the side of a road, where a Benedictine monastery was later built.

In 1904 his relics were placed on the high altar of the Church of San Silvestre. The cult of this saint has not spread much; he is almost only remembered in Todi, his hometown.

With this character is other saints and martyrs which are also celebrated this Monday, February 13 as follows:

Saint Castor of Aquitaine

San Esteban of Lyons

San Esteban de Rieti

St. Fulcran

San Gilberto de Meaux

San Gosberto

San Guimera

San Martiniano, hermitage

Saint Paul Le-Van-Loc

San Pablo Liu Hanzou

Blessed Cristina Camozzi

Blessed Eustoquia Bellini

The Catholic and Orthodox Church uses canonization to declare a deceased person a saint who during his life made sacrifices or was connected with a divine event in favor of the church.

This involves including the person’s name in the canon (list of recognized saints) and permission is granted by the Catholic Church to venerate her, acknowledging her power before God.

During Christianity, people were recognized as saints without the need for a formal process; however, this changed in the Middle Ages. In the case of Catholicism, the Church must make an exhaustive inquiry into the life of the person to be sanctified.

For the Catholic Church, there are four ways to achieve this: the way of heroic virtues; the path of martyrdom; that of exceptional causes, confirmed by an ancient cult and written sources; and the offer of life.

Catholicism is one of the most practiced religions in the world. The most recent data from the Vatican – in particular from its Ecclesial Statistical Yearbook – indicate that there are more 1,360 million Catholics in the world.

The American continent is where the most Catholics predominate, with almost half of those registered by the Vatican, being more than a quarter located in South America.

In recent years, the Vatican has realized that the presence of Catholics has grown considerably on two continents: Asia -especially the Middle East- and Africa.

In contrast, religious rates in Europe declined, while in Oceania they remained stable.