St. Gregory Barbarigo

In the 1962 Missal, the Feast of St. Gregory Barbarigo falls on June 17th. Previously, this day was a feria and often falls during the Octave of Corpus Christi or the Octave of the Sacred Heart. St. Gregory Barbarigo was Italian Cardinal Archbishop of Padua renowned for giving away his own household goods for the relief of the poor, and for traveling to every village throughout his diocese to teach and preach.

Matins Reading from the 1961 Breviary:

Gregory Barbarigo, born at Venice of a very old family, obtained his degree in Canon and Civil Law Magna cum Laude at the college of Padua. While attending the peace congress of Muenster at the age of nineteen, he met the papal legate Fabio Chigi, and with his encouragement decided to became an ecclesiastic, and was admitted to holy orders. When Fabio Chigi became pope under the name of Alexander VII, he appointed Gregory bishop of Bergamo, and soon raised him to the college of Cardinals, transferring his to the See of Padua. In entering upon his episcopal duties, he strove to model himself upon St. Charles Borromeo. It was his lifelong endeavor to extirpate vices and cultivate virtues in obedience, to the warnings and decrees of the sacred synod of Trent. In both dioceses he enlarged the seminaries. At Padua especially he improved the library, and the press, which published books for distribution among the peoples of the Near East. He strenuously fostered Catechetical instruction and zealously traveled to every village of the diocese to teach and preach. He was distinguished for his works of charity and the holiness of his life. So generous was he to the needy and poor, that he even give away his household goods, his clothes and his bed to help them. Finally, after a brief illness, he fell asleep peacefully in the Lord on June 18, 1697. Renowned for his merits and his virtues, he was inscribed among the Blessed by Clement XIII and among the Saints by John XXIII.

St. Barbarigo's beatification was celebrated in 1761 under Pope Clement XIII, while Pope John XXIII canonized the late cardinal in 1960. John XXIII held Barbarigo as a great role model and fostered a devotion to him since the pope had hailed from Bergamo. His liturgical feast was affixed to 17 June and remains so in the General Roman Calendar of 1960 celebrated by Traditional Catholic priests who keep the 1962 Missal. In 1969, his feast was moved to 18 June as part of the General Roman Calendar of 1969, where it remains for priests who offer the Novus Ordo.

Collect:

O God, who willed that Blessed Gregory, Your Confessor and Bishop, be renowned for the care of his flock and compassion for the poor; favorably grant that we who honor his merits may imitate the example of his charity. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.