Saint Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs

Augustine Zhao Rong was born in 1746 in Wuchuan County, Guizhou, China. At twenty he entered the Qing imperial army, and in the course of the anti-Christian persecutions he was assigned to guard imprisoned Christians. In 1785 he escorted Father Gabriel-Taurin Dufresse, a missionary under arrest, on the long journey to Beijing. Moved by the priest’s faith and charity, Zhao Rong began to seek the truth of the Gospel. After Father Gabriel was released, he baptized Zhao Rong, who received the name Augustine. Newly aflame with love for Christ, Augustine discerned a call to the priesthood. After formation, he was ordained only five years after his baptism by François Pottier, Apostolic Vicar of Szechwan. Serving faithfully, he was known for bringing many to the faith and was sent to minister in Yunnan. Under renewed persecution during the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor, Augustine was arrested, tortured, and commanded to renounce Christ. He refused, and in the winter of 1815 he died in prison from beatings, honored as the first martyred Chinese priest. His feast day is July 9.

Saint Eusanius was a Catholic priest remembered with quiet reverence by the Church, especially in the places that bear his name and honor his intercession. Though little is known of the details of his birth or early life, his witness shines through the devotion that has endured across centuries. He is associated in a special way with Castelli and Sant’Eusanio Forconese, where the faithful look to him as a patron and protector. Saint Eusanius died around the year 300, a time when the Church often faced hardship and uncertainty, and his memory invites believers to steadfastness in faith and service. Each year on July 9, his feast day, Catholics recall his priestly dedication and commend themselves to God through his prayers.

Saint Pancras of Taormina is traditionally said to have been born in Antioch in Cilicia, in the eastern Mediterranean. According to ancient Christian legend, he journeyed with his parents to Jerusalem during the time of Jesus, and later the whole family received baptism in Antioch. Seeking a life of prayer, Pancras is remembered as withdrawing to a cave in Pontus, where he was found by Saint Peter and sent, around the year 40, to Sicily to preach the Gospel. In Taormina (ancient Tauromenium) he is honored as the first bishop, a shepherd who strengthened the young Church through preaching and pastoral care. His witness was sealed in martyrdom: tradition holds that he was stoned to death by opponents of the new faith, and so he is venerated as a hieromartyr in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Devotion to him has long been especially strong in Sicily, and he is patron of Taormina, Valdina, and Zagarise. His feast day is celebrated on July 9.

Saint Veronica Giuliani was born as Orsola (Ursula) Giuliani on December 27, 1660, in Mercatello sul Metauro in the Duchy of Urbino, Italy. The youngest of seven sisters, she showed tender compassion from childhood, sharing food and even clothing with the poor. After her mother’s death when Orsola was seven, her desire for God deepened, and despite her father’s hopes for a worldly marriage, she pleaded to choose the religious life. At seventeen she entered the Capuchin Poor Clares in Città di Castello, taking the name Veronica in remembrance of Christ’s Passion. For fifty years she lived hidden in the convent, serving humbly in ordinary tasks and later guiding others with prudence as novice mistress and, from 1716, as abbess. Her intense devotion to the Crucified was marked by profound interior trials and, later, the signs of the crown of thorns and the stigmata—tested carefully by Church authorities before she was allowed to resume community life. Canonized in 1839, she is venerated as a mystic and faithful shepherd of souls, and she is patron of Mercatello sul Metauro. Her feast day is July 9.