What saint is celebrated today: name days of May 4

The saints’ list changes every day and remembers those who were characterized by their good deeds. (Illustrative image Infobae)

A few decades ago, even centuries ago, ancestors used to name their children with the name of the saint of the day they were born, not in vain in the famous “Mañanitas” there is a stanza that says: “Today, because it is your saint’s day, we sing them here…”.

The name day refers to the day in which a saint is celebrated, although it is common for many people to use it as a synonym for birthday, which is wrong, since when talking about it we only refer to the list of names on the saints’ day.

As indicated in the saint calendar, today we also commemorate the women and men who stood out for having special connections with the deities, who did good deeds for their neighbors and who had high ethics and morals, reasons that led them to be canonized. or beatified and form part of the saints.

This is the saints’ day for Saturday, May 4.

Hildesheim is a city in northwestern Germany, in Lower Saxony, at the foot of the Harz mountain range, near Hannover. Today it is a large industrial and communications center; In the 13th century it was a free city of the Holy Roman Empire and before, in the 11th century, Saint Bernard turned it into an important center of Romanesque art. It was already a bishopric from the beginning of the 9th century. We remember Hildesheim because Gotthard was its Bishop.

Gotthard – or Godfrey – was born in Bavaria and we do not have data referring to his childhood. He is already known with reliable data when in 990 he was a Benedictine monk in Nieder Altaich and, later, abbot-elect of Altaich Abbey.

He toured various monasteries in the Rhine regions, introducing the discipline that restored all its original purity to the rule of Saint Benedict, somewhat relaxed in many communities, and he can justly be considered one of the most conspicuous reformers of his time.

His personality is also studied from another aspect. He is one of the animators of the culture of the 11th century. His work as his sacred builder was made possible by the confluence of enthusiasms of another great man of his contemporary, Henry II (973-1024), German king, crowned by Pope Benedict VIII as Holy Roman Emperor (1002), last of the Saxon rulers, born in Abbach, also in Bavaria, who was a quarrelsome king – war against Boleslaus to recover Bohemia from 1004 to 1018; he invaded Italy and was proclaimed king of the Lombards; and in 1021 a third military campaign in southern Italy, against the Byzantines, to subdue Capua and Salerno-, an artist emperor -providing the construction of Romanesque cathedrals- and a holy man -canonized in 1146- famous for his piety and for contributing to ecclesiastical reform.

Known as the enthusiastic reformer of sacred works, Emperor Henry II entrusted Gotthard with the reform of other monasteries, such as the abbeys of Hersfeld and Tergensee, and since in 1022 he succeeded Saint Bernard in his diocese, he was also his epigone in the continuation of Bernardine artistic projects, finishing the cathedral and the church of Saint Michael in Hildesheim.

His pastoral work was not exhausted in the stones no matter how much art could be extracted from them. He also made an effort to provide means to facilitate the education of youth, provided the simple people with schools and hospitals and founded asylums for the poor. Perhaps it is because of this direct dealing with the illness that he tried to alleviate in the sufferers, that he is used to being invoked among the many devotees of him in Austria and Prussia against gout and rheumatism. In any case, he has gone down in history above all as a great builder bishop.

He died in 1038.

Along with this character there are other saints and martyrs who are also celebrated this Saturday, May 4, such as the following:

Saint Antonina of Nicaea

Saint Cyriaco, priest and martyr

Saint Curcódomo deacon

Saint Florian

Saint Joseph Mary Rubio Peralta

Saint Pelagia virgin and martyr

Saint Silvanus of Gaza and fellow martyrs

Blessed Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Santiago

Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla

Blessed Eduardo José Rosaz

Blessed Juan Martín Moyë

Blessed Władysław of Gielniow

Pope Francis after the canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, on September 4, 2016. (AFP/ANDREAS SOLARO)

The saints are the set of people (women and men) who are venerated by the Church by being proclaimed as saints or blessed on a specific date on the calendar.

On the path to canonization there are four steps: the first is to be named as a servant of God, the second is to be venerable; The third step is to be blessed and, finally, the fourth step is to be holy.

Beatification can only be achieved by the faithful who have died with a reputation for being saints in various places and this process can be carried out in two ways: through a cause of heroic virtues and the second is martyrdom, that is, if the person died because of his faith.

On the other hand, the process to become a saint involves adding the name of the sanctified person to the canon (list of recognized saints) and this allows the believing community to worship him publicly and universally, while assigning him a liturgical festival, altars and chapels are dedicated to him and his power to intercede before God is recognized.

Although the Church has not given an exact figure, it is believed that there are currently up to nine thousand recognized saints. According to the Roman Martyrology, updated in 2005, the Catholic Church has at least seven thousand saints, although the martyrs are not counted, so many think that the number could even reach 20 thousand people.

In recent history, Pope John Paul II managed to canonize 388 saints, while Pope Francis has broken all records after today he canonized 898 saints, 800 of them at the same time.