Onomastics to celebrate today: the saints of Tuesday, February 21

Good deeds, deadly sacrifices, and even inexplicable occurrences arising from apparent divinity, are the reasons why different individuals have been beatified and canonized by the Vatican carry with him the name of saint.

Every daymarked on the calendar, commemorates the life and death of those beings, men and women, who have dedicated their lives to the same Catholic Church which has earned them the appointment.

It is the day of the saint Tuesday, February 21.

Celebration of the day: San Pedro Damian

Dante Alighieri, in canto XXI of Paradise, places Saint Peter Damien in the sky of Saturn, intended in his Comedy for contemplative spirits. The poet puts on the lips of the saint a brief and effective autobiographical account: the predilection for frugal food and the contemplative life and the abandonment of the quiet life of the convent for the episcopal and cardinal office.

Pedro was born in Ravenna in 1007; He was the last son of a large family and as his father was an orphan from an early age, he was helped by his older brother, Damiano and this explains the nickname “Damián”.

After studying in Ravenna, Faenza and Padua, he was a professor at the University of Parma, but soon left the position and entered the Calandulense monastery of Fonte Avellana, of which he was elected prior. At that time the Church was torn by discords and schisms, a consequence of that serious damage called simony, the buying and selling of ecclesiastical offices, and also of the levity with which the clergy solved the problem of celibacy. The Church therefore needed upright and prepared men like the cultured and austere Pedro Damián.

He was at the side of six popes as “envoy messenger of peace” and above all he collaborated with Hildebrando, the great reformer who became pope under the name of Gregory VII. Pedro Damián, after several pilgrimages in the diocese of Milan, in France and in Germany, is appointed cardinal and bishop of Ostia by Stephen IX. Already old, he is called by Ravenna, his native city, to put order in the conflict started by the partisans of an antipope.

He died in Faenza (Favencia) in 1072, while returning from the last mission of peace. He was immediately venerated as a saint and his official cult was recognized in 1828 by Pope Leo XII, who also proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church for his numerous theological writings.

With this character is other saints and martyrs which are also celebrated this Tuesday, February 21 as follows:

Saint Eustace of Antioch

holy german

San Roberto Southwell

Blessed Maria Enriqueta Dominici

Beato Natal Pinot

The Catholic and Orthodox Church uses canonization to declare a deceased person a saint who during his life made sacrifices or was linked to 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 nearly 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.