Memorial of Saints (February 2)

Feasts, Obligatory and Optional Memorials of Saints

• Presentation of the Lord
• Adalbald of Ostrevant, martyr
• Joan of Lestonnac, widow
• Cornelius

The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord is commemorated every February 2 on these calendars:

• General Roman Calendar
• Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches
• the Church of England
• the Episcopal Church in the USA
• the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

St. Joan of Lestonnac or Jeanne de Lestonnac (1556-1640 A.D.) was married and had children. When her husband died and her children were all grown-up, she entered the Cistercian monastery at Toulouse. However, she became very ill and had to leave the monastery. She returned to her birthplace at Bordeaux and lived a devout life. When a plague broke out at Bordeaux, she helped care for the sick and the victims of the plague.

Joan of Lestonnac's brother was a Jesuit in the college of Bordeaux. Together with two other Jesuit confreres, they encouraged Joan to establish a new community to teach formal education to girls. Thus was formed the Congregation of the Religious of Notre Dame of Bordeaux. In 1608 A.D., Joan and her companions received the religious habit from the Archbishop of Bordeaux. Joan was elected superior in 1610 A.D., and when she died many miracles occurred at her tomb. She was canonized in 1949 A.D. by Pope Pius XII. St. Joan of Lestonnac is the patron saint of abuse victims, people rejected by religious orders, and widows.

• Prayer to St. Joan of Lestonnac, patron saint of abuse victims, YouTube.com
• Jeanne de Lestonnac, Wikipedia.org
• St. Joan de Lestonnac, Catholic.org

Saints in the Byzantine Calendar [February 2]

• Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple (Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary or Candlemas Day)

This day, February 2, in the history of Christianity

February 2, 1945 A.D. was the day Fr. Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest, was hanged by the Nazis for his opposition to Adolph Hitler. In Fr. Delp's final message to his friends, he wrote:

"If through one man's life there is a little more love and kindness, a little more light and truth in the whole world, then he will not have lived in vain."

Beatification process
Fr. Alfred Delp's final parish in Munich sent documentation supporting the start of his official beatification process to the Archbishop of Berlin, Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky, in January 1990 A.D. Learn more at Wikipedia.org