Little is known about the life and death of Denis, first Bishop of Paris. During a 3rd century persecution, the missionary Denis was preaching at Lutetia Parisorum (now Paris) when he and two companions, perhaps a priest and a deacon, suffered martyrdom. Later, a chapel was built over their tomb (on Montmartre, "the mount of martyrs") and grew into the great abbey of Saint Denis. During the Middle Ages the cult of Saint Denis was extremely popular. Denis is patron saint of France.

Saint John Leonardi

John Leonardi, born in Lucca about 1550, during the Catholic Reformation, was an assistant pharmacist when he decided to study for the priesthood. After ordination in 1572, he worked with the sick and imprisoned. His way of life soon attracted others and together they decided to form a new congregation of secular priests, the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God. He also helped establish the forerunner to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. He died in Rome on this day in 1609, having caught the plague from those he tended.

©2011 Living with Christ, Novalis - Bayard Press Canada Inc., http://www.livingwithchrist.ca/. Reprinted with permission.