Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Martyrology commemorates the Old Testament Prophet, Elisha, the successor of Elijah. His feast day is observed by the Carmelites who claim descent from Elijah and Elisha who lived on Mount Carmel. He is also called Eliseus.

Today is the Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231), who was born at Lisbon, Portugal. He bacame a canon regular and then a Franciscan preaching the Gospel everywhere in Portugal and Italy. Both as a theologian and as a popular preacher he fought vigorously against heresy. His preaching was inspired by the love of God and of souls and had an extraordinary power of conviction; it was filled with the penetrating power of the Bible. Pope Gregory IX, who heard him preach, called him during his lifetime the Arca Testamenti, meaning "the living repository of the Holy Scriptures" and Pope Pius XII, when he proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church, declared that he based all that he said on the texts of the Gospels, and could justly be called the Evangelical Doctor. St. Anthony lived for a time in France, but chiefly in Italy, and died at Padua in 1231 at age 36, with the reputation of great sanctity. From the day of his death innumerable miracles caused the faithful to invoke him as a wonderworker of untiring benevolence.

The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Basilides (d. 304), an early Roman martyr under the persecutions of Diocletian. Tradition holds he was born to the imperial Roman nobility and a soldier, possibly an officer.