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Pope Leo XIV Honors St. George’s Name Day in Vatican City on Sept. 20
Confirmed
In Short: Pope Leo XIV celebrated his 71st birthday and the name day of St. George, a 17th-century Jesuit cardinal, on Sept. 14 in Vatican City.
Today marks a significant celebration for Pope Leo XIV, who shares his given name with St. George, a 17th-century Jesuit cardinal and Doctor of the Church. Born Robert Prevost, the Pope celebrates his birthday on Sept. 14, but the more significant celebration in Vatican City comes three days later, on Sept. 17, the name day of St. George. This coincidence offers a moment of double celebration, as well as some relevant lessons on Church governance, administration, and holiness for a pope from the saint whose name he has borne for 71 years.
The feast of St. George, April 23, was observed as a holiday under Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, while the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, held that place during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Ratzinger. In southern Italy, it is common to celebrate one’s ‘onomastico,’ or name day, in addition to one’s birthday.
Pope Leo XIV also celebrated the appointment of Bishop Brendan Cahill as the seventh bishop of Joliet, Illinois, on Sept. 17. Cahill, born in Coral Gables, Florida, on Nov. 28, 1963, succeeds Bishop Ronald Hicks, who led the diocese from 2020 to 2026. Cahill was appointed by the pontiff, marking a significant step in the governance of the Church.
In his general audience on Sept. 16, Pope Leo XIV continued his reflection on the Vatican II document dealing with the Church and the modern world, Gaudium et Spes. The document's second chapter is about the 'human community,' and this theme, the Pope said, has 'even greater urgency' today. While technology is 'opening up new possibilities, breaking down barriers and bridging distances,' human relationships 'are tending to become less and less personal, more virtual,' the Pope observed.
What's confirmed
- Today marks a significant celebration for Pope Leo XIV, who shares his given name with St. George, a 17th-century Jesuit cardinal and Doctor of the Church. Born Robert Prevost, the Pope celebrates his birthday on Sept. 14, but the more significant celebration in Vatican City comes three days later, on Sept. 17, the name day of St. George. This coincidence offers a moment of double celebration, as well as some relevant lessons on Church governance, administration, and holiness for a pope from the saint whose name he has borne for 71 years.
- The feast of St. George, April 23, was observed as a holiday under Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, while the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, held that place during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Ratzinger. In southern Italy, it is common to celebrate one’s ‘onomastico,’ or name day, in addition to one’s birthday.
- Pope Leo XIV also celebrated the appointment of Bishop Brendan Cahill as the seventh bishop of Joliet, Illinois, on Sept. 17. Cahill, born in Coral Gables, Florida, on Nov. 28, 1963, succeeds Bishop Ronald Hicks, who led the diocese from 2020 to 2026. Cahill was appointed by the pontiff, marking a significant step in the governance of the Church.
- In his general audience on Sept. 16, Pope Leo XIV continued his reflection on the Vatican II document dealing with the Church and the modern world, Gaudium et Spes. The document's second chapter is about the 'human community,' and this theme, the Pope said, has 'even greater urgency' today. While technology is 'opening up new possibilities, breaking down barriers and bridging distances,' human relationships 'are tending to become less and less personal, more virtual,' the Pope observed.
What's still developing
- In his address, Pope Leo praised the dicastery’s work cataloging the lives of Christians killed for their faith and explained that their example can teach believers today to present the faith not as an ideology but as a way of life.
- The pope also said that daily holiness — the holiness next door — can help Christians explain and defend their faith in arguments.
- Besides Stang, the impact of the U.S. terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, on Christian persecution in Europe was also noted.
- “Twenty-five years ago, on Sept. 11, we remember the attacks on the Twin Towers. We remember the airplane that struck the Pentagon in Washington. From those years onward, there was an escalation of conflicts at the international level,” Regoli said.
- A Vatican conference on modern Christian martyrs concluded with a speech by Pope Leo XIV, who praised their witness and the evangelizing power of their simple, daily holiness.
- The conference, organized by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, discussed the ecumenical initiative “Commission for New Martyrs — Witnesses of the Faith” established by Pope Francis in 2023 to document the deaths of Christians of all denominations who have been killed for their faith since 2000.
- Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, delivers an address at the conference “The 21st Century: A New Time of Martyrs?” held at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome from Sept.
- “The burdensome offices of governance did not prevent (Bellarmine) from striving daily for holiness, faithful to the demands of his own state as a religious, priest and bishop,” Pope Benedict said, noting that this fidelity drove St. Bellarmine to preach “assiduously” across Flanders, Rome, Naples and Capua.