Saint of the Day: St. Lea of Rome

Widow (Fourth Century)

Her life

+ We know very little about the life of the widow Lea, who, after her husband’s death, began to live as a nun in a Roman monastery. Lea was eventually elected to serve as the superior of the monastery.

+ Saint Jerome and Lea were friends and he praised her simplicity and spirit of self-denial in a letter to Saint Marcella: “she who was willing to be considered a food on earth has been received into the house of the Father, at the wedding feast of the Lamb.”

+ Saint Lea died around the year 383.

For prayer and reflection

“Behold a wise woman who has built her house. She feared the Lord and walked in the right path.”—Proverbs 14:1-2

Spiritual bonus

On this day, we also remember Blessed François-Louis Chartier. A priest of the diocese of Angers, France, he was martyred during the anti-Catholic violence the French Revolution on March 22, 1794. Blessed François-Louis was beatified in 1984.

Prayer

O God, the exaltation of the lowly, who willed that blessed Lea should excel in the beauty of her charity and patience, grant, through her merits and intercession, that, carrying our cross each day, we may always persevere in love for you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men and Women—For a Holy Woman)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.