St. Vincent Strambi, 1745 – 1824

In 1809, Napoleon issued a decree annexing Macerata as part of the French Empire. Despite orders from the French to have this decree read in all churches, Vincent refused. In a similar action, he also refused to provide the French with a list of all the men in his diocese who would be suitable for military service. In September 1808, Vincent was placed under arrest for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the French invaders and was then exiled to Mantua.

His Feast Day is September 25.

TOWARDS the end of the reign of Licinius, on a Friday, in September, in the year 642 from the death of Alexander the Great, that is, of Christ 318, a persecution was raised at Philippi, not the city so called in Macedon, which was at that time comprised in the empire of Constantine, but that called Philippopolis, anciently Eumolpias, in Thrace. Agrippa, the prefect, on a certain festival of Apollo, had commanded that the whole city should offer a great sacrifice with him. Theodota, who had been formerly a harlot, was accused of refusing to conform, and being called upon by the president, answered him, that she had indeed been a grievous sinner, but could not add sin to sin, nor defile herself with a sacrilegious sacrifice. Her constancy encouraged seven hundred and fifty men (who were, perhaps, some troop of soldiers) to step forth, and professing themselves Christians, to refuse to join in the sacrifice.

Blessed Pica Bernardone | Saint of the Day | AmericanCatholic.org

“What a tightrope Pica walked! Her son and her husband were hopelessly at odds. She watched her boy [St. Francis of Assisi] ride off to war with a pain familiar to too many mothers. And when he returned with his dreams of glory shattered, she surely worried about him. When he rejected his father’s wealth—indeed, his father himself—part of her surely rejoiced, for it was she who had tried to teach him that there are more important things in the world than earthly glory. Still, the rift between father and son must have continued to grieve her. She is surely a friend to any parent who suffers the same perplexing difficulty.”