Happy Feast Day!
St. Peter Chanel - Pray for us!

Today is the feast of St. Peter Chanel. He is probably my favorite little known saint. He was a priest of the Society of Mary and the first martyr of Oceania. One of my favorite aspects of his ministry is that he evangelized door-to-door, because no one would come to church. If you know nothing about him, today is the perfect day to learn. Just to get you started, here are some quotes:

From St. Peter:
“The more we study the human heart, the more deeply we are convinced that there are sparks of virtue in the most depraved souls.”

“Whether they kill me or not, the Faith has been planted in the island. It will lose nothing by my death because it is not the work of man, but of God.”

From the investigation for his canonization:
“A man truly apostolic, who, saying good-bye to every joy and honor the world could offer, refusing to be held by his love for his mother, his friends or his country, devoted himself for the sake of eternal life to all that religion holds up as most sublime and most difficult. He allowed no labor to frighten, nor adversity to dishearten him. Danger, suffering, contradiction, and bodily weakness never for one moment discouraged him. He bent every energy to the gaining for Jesus Christ, by the light of the Gospel, souls seated in darkness and in the shadow of death. He worked like a good soldier and his reward did not fail him. In short, he merited the grace to seal with his blood the faith which had preached.”