Saints for today

In the Maronite and Byzantine churches
St. Sozen
This holy Martyr was a shepherd in Lycaonia. Born a pagan, named Tarasius, he received holy Baptism and was renamed Sozon. Filled with zeal for the truth, he taught his countrymen to desist from the worship of idols. Once he entered the temple of Artemis in Pompeiopolis of Cilicia, cut off the golden hand of the idol, and breaking it in pieces, distributed it among the poor. When he saw that many were being unjustly punished for the theft, of his own accord he gave himself up to Maximian the Governor. He was beaten with rods until his bones were broken. According to some, he suffered martyrdom in 288; according to others, in 304.

In the Roman church
St. Cloud
On the death of Clovis, King of the Franks, in the year 511 his kingdom was divided between his four sons, of whom the second was Clodomir. Thirteen years later he was killed fighting against his cousin, Gondomar, leaving three sons to share his dominions. The youngest of these sons of Clodomir was St. Clodoald, a name more familiar to English people under its French form of Cloud from the town of Saint-Cloud near Versailles. When Cloud was eight years old, his uncle Childebert plotted with his brother, to get rid of the boys and divide their kingdom. The eldest boy, Theodoald was stabbed to death. The second, Gunther fled in terror, but was caught and also killed. Cloud escaped and was taken for safety into Provence or elsewhere.

Childebert and his brother Clotaire shared the fruits of their crime, and Cloud made no attempt to recover his kingdom when he came of age. He put himself under the discipline of St. Severinus, a recluse who lived near Paris, and he afterwards went to Nogent on the Seine and had his heritage where is now Saint-Cloud. St. Cloud was indefatigable in instructing the people of the neighboring country, and ended his days at Nogent about the year 560 when he was some thirty-six years old. St. Cloud's feast day is September 7th.

Iraqi priest shot dead in Baghdad

Armed guards posted outside Iraqi churches have not deterred attackers
An Iraqi priest has been killed in a drive-by shooting by unidentified gunmen in central Baghdad.
Fr Adel Youssef, an Assyrian Orthodox priest, was gunned down near his home in the capital's Karrada district.
His death follows the discovery of the body of Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul last month, two weeks after he was kidnapped.
Iraqi Christians repeatedly complain of being targeted by Islamist militants, and many have fled Iraq since 2003.
Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, head of the Chaldean Catholics - Iraq's largest Christian denomination - said Iraqi Christians were shocked by Saturday's killing.
Fleeing Christians
"We are praying and asking God for security in Iraq," Cardinal Delly told Reuters.
What can we do? How many people have been killed?
Cardinal Emmanuel DellyChaldean patriarch
Christians besieged in Iraq
The cardinal said the Church was "ready to forgive the people who committed these crimes for the sake of the single family of Iraq".
"What can we do? How many people have been killed? Christians, Muslims, Sabaens, people who have dedicated themselves to serving this country but they are killed."
Many Christians have fled as a result, and their number, believed to have been around 800,000 five years ago, has dwindled since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Shortly after the murder of Archbishop Rahho, Pope Benedict XVI had issued an anguished plea for Iraq's Christians, and called for an end to bloodshed in the country.
Elsewhere in Baghdad on Saturday, a bomb exploded on a minibus, killing three people.

-BBC