October 20
The saints and feasts remembered on October 20, each with a short life, a Bible passage and a prayer.
Saint Mary Bertilla Boscardin
A nun mocked as slow who nursed sick children and soldiers through war
Anna Francesca Boscardin was born in 1888 into a poor farming family in Brendola, near Vicenza in northern Italy. Her home was hard, her schooling short, and people thought her slow; she was even nicknamed “the goose.” In 1905 she joined the Sisters of St Dorothy in Vicenza, taking the name Maria Bertilla, and was first given kitchen and laundry work.
She was then trained as a nurse and sent to the hospital in Treviso, where she cared for children, including those with diphtheria. During the First World War, when air raids struck the city, she stayed with patients who could not be moved to shelter. For a time she was misunderstood by a superior and put back in the laundry, but she accepted it quietly and later returned to the children’s ward.
She died in 1922 at 34, after surgery for a tumour. She was canonised in 1961. Christians remember her because she showed that ordinary, unnoticed work done with love matters to God.
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are,
1 Corinthians 1:27–28 · BSB
A prayer
God of the humble, you chose Maria Bertilla, thought little of by others, and made her gentle hands a comfort to sick children and frightened soldiers. Give us her patience when we are overlooked, and her faithful care for those who suffer, so that our daily work may serve you. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint Cornelius the Centurion
Roman officer whose baptism opened the Church to non-Jews
Cornelius was a Roman army officer, a centurion of the Italian Cohort stationed at Caesarea in Judea, in the years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. All we know about him comes from the Acts of the Apostles, chiefly chapter 10. He was not Jewish, but he worshipped the God of Israel, prayed regularly and gave generously to the poor.
Acts tells how, in a vision, Cornelius was told to send for Peter, who was staying in Joppa. Peter, meanwhile, had his own vision, which taught him to call no one unclean. When Peter arrived, Cornelius had gathered his relatives and friends, and he fell at Peter’s feet; Peter lifted him up, saying he was only a man too. As Peter spoke about Jesus, the Holy Spirit came on everyone listening, and they were baptised.
Christians remember Cornelius as one of the first non-Jews welcomed into the Church, a turning point that opened the Gospel to every people. A later tradition makes him a bishop, but this is uncertain.
Then Peter began to speak: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism, but welcomes those from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.
Acts 10:34–35 · BSB
A prayer
God of all nations, you heard the prayers of Cornelius, a Roman soldier, and through Peter’s preaching welcomed him and his household into your family. Free us from every prejudice that divides, open our hearts to all whom you call, and make us faithful in prayer and generous in giving. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The lives are written with AI help from public-domain histories and checked before publishing; the prayers are ours. Bible quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), in the public domain. How we write.