Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Saint Bavo, born near Liège around AD 622 to a Frankish noble family and first known as Allowin, began life as a spirited young aristocrat in the region of Brabant. Though he married and had a daughter, he lived as a soldier with little discipline, drawn to the pleasures and pride of wealth. After his wife’s death, God’s mercy reached him through a sermon by Saint Amand on the emptiness of earthly riches. Struck to the heart, Bavo returned home, gave his possessions to the poor, and received the tonsure from Amand. He then followed Saint Amand as a missionary through France and Flanders, learning to serve Christ with humility. In a moving act of penance, he sought out a man he had once sold into slavery and allowed himself to be led in chains, choosing shame as a path to healing. Later he founded an abbey on his own lands and embraced monastic life, living as a recluse in great simplicity. Venerated especially in Ghent, Haarlem, Wilrijk, and Zingem, Saint Bavo is honored on October 1.

Saint Piatus was born in Benevento, Italy, and in the late third century he set out as a missionary to the lands of Gaul. Tradition holds that he was sent by the pope to preach the Gospel, especially in the cities of Chartres and Tournai, and that he was ordained by Dionysius the Areopagite—an ancient sign of the Church’s desire to root new communities in apostolic faith. Piatus devoted himself to evangelization, strengthening believers and calling many to Christ in a time when public witness could cost one’s life. During the persecutions under Emperor Maximian, Piatus sealed his ministry with martyrdom. He was killed by a brutal blow that sliced away the top of his skull, an image sometimes reflected in sacred art that portrays him holding the severed portion, a stark reminder of steadfast courage and hope beyond death. Centuries later, Saint Eligius is said to have discovered his relics and fashioned a reliquary for them, and devotion to Piatus spread, with relics also kept at Chartres Cathedral. Saint Piatus is venerated as patron of Seclin and Tournai. His feast day is October 1.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux was born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin on January 2, 1873, in Alençon, France, into a deeply faithful family. After a fragile infancy and the sorrow of losing her mother at age four, she moved with her father and sisters to Lisieux in Normandy, where her tender heart was formed through prayer, sacrifice, and ordinary family life. Feeling an early call to belong wholly to Jesus, she overcame obstacles and, at just fifteen, entered the Discalced Carmel of Lisieux in 1888, joining two of her sisters in the cloister. Hidden from the world, Thérèse lived with joyful simplicity, serving in humble duties and offering every small act in love. In her final months she endured a painful “night of faith,” yet clung to trust until she died of tuberculosis on September 30, 1897, aged twenty-four. Through her memoir, The Story of a Soul, she taught the “Little Way” of spiritual childhood, becoming the beloved “Little Flower” and later a Doctor of the Church. She is honored as patron of Children’s Backyard Rosary Circles and several communities and dioceses. Her feast day is October 1.