Thursday of the Twenty-third Week of Ordinary Time

Saint John Leonardi was born in 1541 in Diecimo, in the Republic of Lucca, Italy, the youngest of seven children in a middle-class family. Drawn from childhood to solitude, prayer, and meditation, he first trained in Lucca for a decade as a pharmacist’s assistant, a background that later made him a beloved patron of pharmacists, druggists, and apothecaries. Hearing a deeper call, he pursued the priesthood and was ordained in 1572. As a priest he devoted himself to forming young people in the faith and gathered laymen to serve Christ in hospitals and prisons. In the spirit of the Church’s renewal after the Council of Trent, he promoted devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Forty Hours, and frequent Holy Communion. In time he founded a community that became the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca, while also assisting reforms and missionary formation in Rome, where he was guided by Saint Philip Neri. He died on October 9, 1609, after contracting influenza while caring for the sick. His feast day is October 9.

Nicholas of Tolentino was born around 1245 in Sant’Angelo in Pontano, Italy, the long-awaited child of parents who had prayed for a son at the shrine of Saint Nicholas of Myra. As a young man he entered the Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine, and after years of study was ordained a priest. Gifted as a preacher and gentle in the confessional, he became known for a quiet holiness marked by fasting, compassion, and tireless pastoral care. Sent to Tolentino around 1274, Nicholas spent the rest of his life serving a city troubled by civil conflict. He fed the poor, visited prisoners, and worked as a peacemaker, always insisting that any good done through him was God’s work. Devotion remembers his prayers for the suffering souls in Purgatory and the “Saint Nicholas Bread,” blessed and shared with the sick in hope and trust in Mary’s intercession. He died after a long illness on September 10, 1305, and was canonized in 1446. He is especially invoked for the holy souls and is patron of places including Adra, Albi, Arsita, Auditore, Barzizza, Campisico, Cas Concos des Cavaller, Jerez, Modugno, and Monterubbiano. His feast day is September 10.

Saint Sofia of Sicily, honored especially in Sortino, is remembered as an early Christian witness from the third century. Little is known of her life in detail: her birthplace and daily work have not come down to us, and the story of her years remains largely hidden. Yet the Church continues to keep her memory with gratitude, recognizing in her the quiet strength of a disciple who belonged to the first generations after the Apostles. Born in 192 and dying in 221, Sofia’s brief life points to the faith that took root in Sicily in the Church’s earliest centuries. On September 10, the faithful celebrate her feast, commending to her intercession the people of Sortino and all who seek steadfast trust in Christ amid obscurity.

Saint Sosthenes of Chalcedon was born in Chalcedon in the year 201 and lived to an advanced age, dying around 400. Though little is known about the details of his life, his memory endures in the Church’s calendar, where he is honored on September 10. The very fact that his name has been preserved across the centuries invites the faithful to trust that God’s grace works not only through widely recorded deeds, but also through hidden fidelity known fully to the Lord. Venerated especially under the title “San Sostene,” he stands as a quiet witness from the early centuries of Christianity, encouraging believers to persevere in faith and to seek holiness in whatever circumstances Providence allows.