Saint Exupère

28 September

In Toulouse, at the V^e century, Saint Exupère, bishop. He sold the sacred vessels of his church to relieve the faithful who had been ruined by the invasion of the Vandals.
In Bethlehem, in 419, Saint Eustochium, virgin, daughter of Saint Paola. She was a pupil of Saint Jerome, who wrote her an epistle, a veritable code of religious life, and dedicated many of his works to her. After her mother's death, she governed the monastery she had founded.
Near Mainz, around 782, Saint Lioba, a relative of Saint Boniface, helped him with his missions in Germania by founding monasteries for new converts and the education of young girls.
In Bohemia, in 929, Saint Wenceslas, duke and martyr.
In Pavia, Blessed Bernardine de Feltre, a Franciscan and founder of the almshouses. He died exhausted from his work in 1494.
In Nagasaki, in 1637, Saint Lawrence Ruiz of Manila and his fifteen companions were martyred. Priests, religious or lay, they preached the Gospel in the Philippines, Formosa and Japan, where they shed their blood for Christ.

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Saint Wenceslas

Born to Wratislas, Duke of Bohemia, and a pagan mother named Dragomire, Wenceslas was brought up Catholic by his grandmother Ludmille. On the death of her husband, Dragomire took over the regency and persecuted the Christians together with Boleslas, her youngest son. The nobles revolted and chose Wenceslas as their duke. Wenceslas remained chaste all his life and ruled like a saint, full of kindness and charity: it is said that he sometimes carried firewood to the needy. He had great veneration for the priests and, with his own hands, he sowed the wheat and pressed the grapes that were to be used for the Holy Sacrifice. On several occasions, he was protected by angels in dangerous ventures. But Boleslas, well indoctrinated by his mother, did not give up. On 28 September 936, after inviting Wenceslas to his table, he took a few accomplices and went off to kill him in a church where he was praying.