2025’s Significant Anniversaries of Holy Men and Women

As we mentioned in our previous post, today marks 100 years of the canonisation of Saint Thérèse.

One of the monks of our monastery compiled a list of other anniversaries for 2025. While some of them are past, it is delightful to rejoice in the sanctoral providence of God. May He be blessed in all His designs!

Some Significant Anniversaries in 2025

January 22: The 175th anniversary of death of St. Vincent Pallotti, an ardent lover of the Queen of Heaven, his “more than most beloved Mother.” Also – interestingly – the 175th anniversary of death of another great apostle of Jesus and Mary, Bl. William Joseph Chaminade. “There is a gift of the habitual presence of Our Lady,” he wrote, “just as there is a gift of the habitual presence of God.” Also, the 175th anniversary of death of Ven. Maria Teresa Spinelli, Foundress of the Congregation of Augustinian Sisters, Servants of Jesus and Mary… One Saint, one Blessed, and one Venerable in one day – not bad at all!
January 24: The centenary of death of the Servant of God, Guy de Fontgalland, who died at a tender age (11), as Our Lord had foretold during his First Communion. “The Blessed Virgin told me,” he said to his mother, “that from your arms I would go to Hers.”
January 30: The 150th anniversary of death of Dom Prosper Guéranger, the founder of Solesmes, whose many-volume work, “The Liturgical Year,” was read in the household of St. Thérèse. No holy reading, no sanctity (oftentimes).

February 5: The 200th anniversary of death of Bl. Elisabeth Canori-Mora, who, like Bl. Anna Maria Taigi, was an extraordinary mystic and mother living in Rome.

April 8: The 75th anniversary of death of Ven. Maria Teresa Quevedo, a model of Thérèsian simplicity and Marian devotion, who was taken to Heaven by the “Queen of [her] heart” in time for the proclamation of the Dogma of the Assumption, as she had prophesied to her Carmelite Sisters during recreation. A great role model for all in general and for young girls in particular.
May 17: The centenary of St. Thérèse’s canonisation.
May 25: The 200th anniversary of the birth of the Servant of God, Marie-Véronique du Cœur de Jésus (Caroline Lioger), mystic and Foundress of the Victims of the Sacred Heart.
May 31: The centenary of the canonisation of St. John Eudes (“the marvel of his age,” to quote M. Olier), as well as St. John Vianney, who, having suffered an enormous amount, never complained, thereby indirectly highlighting his sanctity. “The Saints,” he said, “never complain.”
May/June/July: The 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea.
June 4: The centenary of death of Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati (soon to be canonised).
June 7: The centenary of death of Ven. Matt Talbot, a former alcoholic. An acquaintance of his, Mr John Gunning, confessed the following during the Enquiry into the former’s sanctity: “One day he told me that he had read of a devotion which lifted him from earth to Heaven.” He was referring to True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as explicated by St. Louis de Montfort.
June 14: The centenary of death of Ven. Meinrad Eugster, O.S.B.
June 16: The 350th anniversary of the “Great Revelation” given to St. Margaret Mary, which begins with the well-known words: “Behold this Heart Which has so loved men…”
June 24: The 75th anniversary of St. Maria Goretti’s canonisation.
July 9: The 75th anniversary of St. Mariana de Jesús Paredes Flores’ canonisation.
October 4: The 75th anniversary of death of the Servant of God, Santina Campana, who, like St. Thérèse, offered her life for priests and missionaries.
October 5: The centenary of death of St. Anna Schäffer, the German stigmatist, to whom St. Thérèse appeared in a dream on August 13, 1916, telling her, as she held her hand, that she can practice the virtue of fortitude from her bed.
October 7: The 150th anniversary of death of Ven. Marie de Sales Chappuis. In 1871, in a letter to a confidante, she foretold the triumph of the Church. As to when this would come about, she remained silent (a very prudent course of action).
October 11: The centenary of death of the Servant of God, Renata Nezzo, who said that, after having read the 11th chapter of St. Thérèse’s autobiography, Story of a Soul, there is no wonder that St. Thérèse asks for a legion of little victims of love. She sought to establish the Little Victims of Merciful Love (Piccole Vittime dell’Amore Misericordioso), a new religious Congregation which was approved in 1925 by the Archbishop of Urbino. Renata died before the Congregation got off the ground.
November 1: the 75th anniversary of the Dogma of the Assumption. Also, the 400th anniversary of the birth of St. Oliver Plunkett.

November 24: The centenary of death of Ven. Margaret Sinclair. “Margaret could well be described as one of God’s little ones,” St. John Paul II said of her, “who, through her very simplicity, was touched by God with the strength of real holiness of life…” (Address during the visit to St. Joseph’s Hospital, Edinburgh, June 1, 1982).
December 10: The centenary of a pivotal apparition in the ongoing Fatima story, in which Our Lady addressed Ven. Lucia of Fatima in those doleful words, beginning thus: “Look, my daughter, at my Heart, encircled with thorns…” Our Lady asked for loving reparation in the form of the First Five Saturdays, one of the two key conditions necessary for the conversion of Russia (the other being its consecration to Her Immaculate Heart).
December 11: The centenary of Pope Pius XI’s encyclical, Quas Primas, instituting the Feast of Christ the King.
December 20: The 400th anniversary of St. John Eudes’ priestly ordination. His writings are a “must” for any Marian devotee.