The Portuguese Alejandrina Maria da Costa was born in Balazar (Porto, Portugal) in 1904. In 1918, to save her purity threatened by a man, she did not hesitate to jump out of a window from a height of four meters, hurting her spine. Her paralysis progressed until, in 1925, she became bedridden. Until 1928 she did not stop asking the Lord, through the intercession of Our Lady, for the grace of healing, but then she understood that suffering was her vocation.
During this period, the Blessed Alexandrina had the first mystical phenomena She had an extraordinary union with Jesus in the Tabernacle. From 1942 she lived only on the Eucharist. She died in Balazar on October 13, 1955, the anniversary of the last apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our Lady of Fatimato whom she was very devoted. She was beatified in 2004 by St. John Paul II.
St. Theophilus, sixth bishop of Antioch
In 169, St. Theophilus was the sixth bishop of Antioch of Syria. He was a pagan, and had accepted the faith in Jesus Christ thanks to the examples of believers and the study of the Scriptures. He wrote extensively to defend the truths of the faith against the errors and heresies of the time.
He governed his church with prudence and wisdom, and wrote several works full of erudition. The work entitled 'The Three Books a Autolytic', a pagan friend of his, who had criticized his conversion. In it, Theophilus presents arguments to defend the Christian faith through reason and Revelation. St. Theophilus fought against the heresy of Marcion. He died around 185.
On October 13, the liturgy also celebrates Saint Florentius. In Thessalonica, a city of Macedonia (in present-day Greece), after subjecting him to various torments, he was burned alive because of his Christian faith, in the 3rd century.
Also commemorated on this day are the Cordovan martyrs Faustus, Jenarius and Martial, during the persecution of Diocletian, in the 4th century.
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