St. Fabiola
Feast 12-27
Patron of
About
Fabiola was a noble Roman matron of the late fourth century, a woman of rank who moved in the highest circles of the imperial city yet found her worldly pleasures empty. Married first to a cruel and unfaithful husband, she obtained a civil divorce and then, against counsel, married again before her first husband had died. St. Jerome, whom she sought out in Bethlehem, rebuked her publicly, and she did penance for the rest of her life.
Fabiola gave away her wealth, founded a hospital in Rome where she nursed the sick with her own hands, and gathered the poor and wounded from the streets. She then followed Jerome to the Holy Land, living in a cell near his monastery and giving herself to Scripture, fasting, and prayer. She died in 399, mourned by Jerome as a woman of incomparable charity.
Suggested prayer
O God, who called St. Fabiola from worldly rank to the service of the poor and the healing of the sick, grant through her intercession that those who bear the wounds of broken marriages may find comfort in your mercy and courage to begin again. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Sources
Other saints to pray to
For divorced people
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St. Gummarus
Feast 10-11
difficult marriages · divorced people · the oppressed · farmers
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St. Helena, mother of Constantine I
Feast 08-18
converts · difficult marriages · divorced people · pilgrims · archaeologists
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St. Helena
Feast 08-18
divorced people · converts
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St. Richeza of Lotharingia
Feast varies
widows · divorced people · difficult marriages · nuns
