Onomastics to celebrate today: the saints of Wednesday, March 15

Decades ago, one could even speak of centuries ago, parents used to assign the first names of their children according to the feasts of the saints of that day, even among Catholics and Orthodox the custom of congratulating people on Your saint’s day. 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 Wednesday, March 15.

He was called Raymond Sierra oh Raymond Serrat . Although this cannot be documented, it is highly probable that he was born in Saint Gaudens de Garonne, France and the time is around the beginning of the 12th century. Some authors place his birth in Tarazona (Aragon) and others affirm that he was in Barcelona.

He appears as a canon in Tarazona, documented by the testimony of its first bishop, Don Miguel, a Benedictine monk. From there he became a monk of the Cistercian monastery of Nuestra Señora de Sacala Dei, in Gascony, and from there he was sent as before the new foundation that don Bernardo decided to make in Spain.

The new monks settled on the mountain called Yerga, with the king’s consent. In 1140, Alfonso VII donated the city of Nienzabas, which had been devastated by the Moors; Here they founded the monastery of Nienzabas, of which Raimundo was abbot when Durando died, around the year 1144. They elected him abbot because of his fame as a saint and miracle-worker. With the title and function of abbot, he already appears in the act of 1146, when the king donated to the monastery the estates of Serna de Cervera and Baños de Tudescón, current spas of Fitero.

In 1148, he attended the general chapter of the Cistercian order, as abbot; Pope Eugene III, also a Cistercian, was present at this council.

That same year, Raimundo moved the monastery to the best site of Castejón, received the royal donation of the castle of Tulungen and, in the estate donated by Don Pedro Tizón and his wife Doña Toda, founded in 1150 that of Santa María de Fitero, which will be the first abbot.

Diego de Velázquez is a monk who was once a soldier and friend of King Sancho. He and Raimundo are in Toledo in the year 1158. Diego has heard from the king of the great danger that the Plaza de Calatrava is in. entrusted years ago by Alfonso VII to the Templars, but now it is almost unattended which is for the moment the strategic key of Toledo. The danger is great because of the proximity of the Almohads. Raymond and Diego ask the king to defend the place and with the monks brought from Fitero plus an army made up of peasants and craftsmen, they manage to defend the place and drive out the Moors. As a reward, King Sancho III granted them the domain of Calatrava where Raymond founded the Order the same year. half monks obedient to the sound of the bell, half soldiers obedient to the sound of the trumpet which was subsequently approved by Pope Alexander III, by bull of September 25, 1164, when its founder had already died.

Raymond died in 1163 in Ciruelos and was buried there. In 1471 his remains were transferred to the Cistercian Monastery of Monte León in Toledo, and since the 19th century the relics of the saint have been found in the Cathedral of Toledo.

With this character is other saints and martyrs which are also celebrated this Wednesday, March 15 as follows:

Saint Clement Maria Hofbauer

Saint Leocricie

Saint Louise de Marillac

San Menigno

San Sisebuto

Saint Vincent de Coria

Saint Zacharias, Pope

Blessed Adalberto Balicki

Blessed Artemide Zatti

Blessed Guillermo Hart

Saints are the group of people (women and men) who they are venerated by the Church when they are proclaimed saints or blessed on a certain calendar date.

On the path to canonization there are four stages: the first is to be named a servant of God, the second is to be venerable; the third step is to be blessed and finally the fourth step is to be a saint.

There beatification It can only be attained by the faithful who have died with the reputation of being saints in various places and this process can be achieved in two ways: by a cause of heroic virtues and the second is martyrdom, that is- ie if the person He died for his faith.

On another side, the process of becoming a saint This involves adding the name of the sanctified person in the canon (list of recognized saints) and with this the believing community is authorized to render public and universal worship to him, while a liturgical feast is assigned to him, altars, chapels and his power to intercede with God is recognized.

Although the Church has not given an exact figure, it is estimated that there are currently up to nine thousand recognized saints. According Roman Martyrologyupdated in 2005, the Catholic Church has at least seven thousand saintsalthough the martyrs are not counted, so many believe the figure could even be as high as 20,000.

In recent history, Pope John Paul II succeeded in canonizing 388 saints, while Pope Francis broke all records after that, to date, he canonized 898 saints, 800 of them at the same time.