Sharing recent learnings and about a few Saints

Berkeley, Friday, August 8, 2025

A few facts from things I have learned today and/or related to those, recalling from memory.

St. Dominic feast was today, 8/8.

He had red hair.

He founded the Order of Preachers. It seems that he had extremely high intellect, thanks to the Lord, our God. St. Thomas Aquinas was one of his followers.

It seems that in the 12th century, as of today, wealth was power. But the actual Catholic teaching was misunderstood.

Our Lord sent(?) us(?), or showed us, his Mercy and essence through two gigantic figures and preachers: St. Dominic of Guzman and St. Francis of Assissi.

St. Dominic came from a prominent family, I believe (?). Before he was born his mother had a dream of a dog carrying a torch with fire, announcing the Gospel. Please fact check things. I am writing from memory now, probably to keep my brain going, and or for my own accountability.

St. Dominic lived in poverty. Travel a lot. He passed away with a borrowed tunic or habit, and on a borrowed bed.

Since those times is a custom that a Franciscan friar preaches to Dominicans and a Dominican friar to Franciscans. Probably on their corresponding feast days (?).

Saint Dominic pray for me.

Saint Francis of Assisi pray for me.

I learned about the name of Saint Julian of Cuenca, Spain. He was a bishop from Cuenca, Spain around the times of the Saints mentioned above.

Santo Julian de Cuenca, ruega por mí (?).

I said me or mi, because I am writing this alone, but it should be normally with us. I keep folks in prayer.

I learned a few days ago, rather a revelation of him, and only his shoes, about Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Luigi. This happened last Saturday, 8/2 around 1 am. St. Luigi Gonzaga was born from a prominent family in Lombardia. A sort of rebelled against following the royalty related duties, and joined the Company of Jesus, founded by Saint Iñigo of Loyola. This happened in the 16th century I believe. St. Luigi Gonzaga died young, and he is a patron saint of novices and vocations (?). He took care of an infected man of the pest or illness of that time. He got infected. I believe that was the source of his death. Saint Luigi thanks renouncing to this work and give completely yourself to the service of our Lord. Saint Luigi Gonzaga wrote a book about the meditations of the Holy Angels. I will read after finishing up at least with one of my current books.

Saint Luigi Gonzaga pray for me.

I had a question, on which side of the bed husband and wife sleeps? Based on two icons I saw, including the Cana Wedding, the husband is on the left side if one see the bed from bottom to head direction. Or left side of the crucifix, if you one on the wall on the head of your bed.

Yesterday, I randomly read about the story of St. Jerome and the Lion. St. Jerome tamed a lion, who came to him asking for help because he got some thorns on his right pawn. St. Jerome healed the lion, then give him a task of take care of a donkey. This is a brief summary. The donkey was stolen by a few merchants while the lion was taken a nap. As a result, the lion stopped entered the monastery from St. Jerome. His energy, happiness was gone. The monks started to doubt if he ate the donkey. They searched on the mountains around and couldn’t find any remains of the donkey. One day, the lion saw the donkey leading a caravan of camels from a merchant. The heart of the lion was on fire, jumped to the road, and roared. The merchant flew away in fear. The lion pompous lead the donkey and the camels back to the St. Jerome, lead, monastery. To the full sense the lion was back, happy, and alive. Some time later or days later, the merchants came to the monastery to apology for their wrongdoing of taken the donkey while he was grazing on the hills. They offered to the monks half of the goods that they carried on their camel bags. What the monks accepted was oil for their lamps. The merchants offered to supply the monks with oil for their lamps for life time.

This is a paraphrasing from what I recall from the story. Please go and read, and fact checking.

My learned lesson is that the Lord sees your true generosity and charity. It was of course dangerous for St. Jerome to heal the lion, and for the monks to trust on the lion around.

St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church, lived in Dalmatia, or nearby there, and near Istria, or near Croatia, and Slovenia, I had to correct myself the Slovenia name. He lived in the year 300s. So about almost a millennia from the Saints above.

St. Jerome, pray for us.

I was listened a few months ago a popular culture podcast in the United States, which guest and host, a colleague recommended me to listen more than year ago. I had my guard on for a long time, but decided to listen recently. The guest claimed that some of the centuries did not exist. Basically, he doubted about so many things, if I understood well. But in the claim of the centuries, they can rely on church history at least. Pope Gregory XIII had a correction to make a universal, and great calendar, in the 1582.

I listened to NPR news and Bay Area news.

Yesterday, I learned about Saint Braulio, Bishop of Zaragoza during the Visigoth times (?). I have to look the year briefly. So he was Bishop of Zaragoza in the late 500s early 600s.

I do not know by heart about his feast day.

I learned that he is depicted together with Saint Isidore of Sevilla. One of my favorite saints and Doctor of the Church.

Saint Braulio pray for me.

Saint Isidore of Sevilla, please guide my academic writing and intellect.

Lord, creator of the heaven and earth, of angels, of us, and of all the species, pray for us.

I am happy I went back to recall the Saint John Henry Newman motto: heart speaks to heart. Saint Neman feast is on October 9. He will be soon a Doctor of the Holy Catholic Church.

Saint John Henry Newman pray for us.

I believe I also briefly learned about the 25 martyr saint who died in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1597.

Please pray for me.