The Last Prophet’s Last Offering
John the Baptist was born about six months before his cousin, Jesus Christ. We remember the Virgin Mary, who had just conceived the Word of God, hurrying to meet her cousin Elizabeth, who was in the sixth month of her miraculous pregnancy. Elizabeth was considered far too old to conceive a […]

A Wayward Son Returns Home
He was deluded by paganism and lived a sinful lifestyle! Yet he became one of the greatest thinkers in Western history, and more importantly, a saint. St. Augustine (354-430) was a brilliant scholar and teacher even as a young man, but he was led astray by the false charms of a […]

Rewards of Persistent Prayer
St. Monica (331-387) was the mother of St. Augustine (whose feast day is August 28). Monica, her pagan and licentious husband Patricius, his cantankerous mother, and her three children (including Augustine) all lived together in North Africa.
There was plenty of potential for family strife and discord, but Monica’s patience and charity made […]

The Spanish priest St. Joseph Calasanz (1556-1648) devoted his life to the education of deprived children. Joseph was ordained in 1583 after being trained in canon law and theology. He went to Rome, where it seemed he had a promising Church career, but he was shocked by the ignorance and poor morals of the common […]

King St. Louis IX (1214-1270) reigned over France for thirty-five years. The son of Louis VIII, the young king ascended to the throne in 1235 and soon showed himself to be a just and able administrator. Louis was impartial and merciful in dispensing justice (even forgiving nobles who rebelled against his reign). He insisted on […]

The name of the Apostle St. Bartholomew is included among the lists of the Twelve Apostles, but aside from this, there’s no mention of him in the New Testament. Many scholars feel he is the same man as Nathaniel, whom St. John’s Gospel has Jesus describing as “an Israelite in whom there is no guile” […]

The first canonized saint of the western hemisphere was St. Rose of Lima (1586-1617). Isabel de Flores y del Oliva was the daughter of Spanish parents in Peru. Because her family was poor, young Rose helped support them by growing flowers and doing embroidery and other needlework.
At an early age Rose was attracted by the […]

This Feast was established by Pope Pius XII in 1954. The Holy Father taught that
Jesus Christ alone, God and man, is King in the full, proper, and absolute sense of the term. Mary also, in a restricted and only analogous way, shares in the royal dignity as the Mother of Christ who is God, as […]

Giuseppe Sarto (1835-1914), the future Pope Pius X, was one of the greatest religious figures of the early twentieth century. He was born near Venice, the second of ten children in a very poor family. Giuseppe was educated at the village school and eventually ordained a priest in 1858 (a year before the usual minimum […]

St. Bernard (1090-1153) was an important medieval theologian and a major figure in the Cistercian Order of monks. He was one of six very gifted sons of a French nobleman.
After some hesitation, Bernard joined the Cistercian Order in 1111, persuading four of his brothers and twenty-seven of his friends to come with him. Several years […]

The French priest St. John Eudes (1601-1680) founded two religious orders and encouraged devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He joined the Oratorians and was ordained a priest at the age of twenty-four.
During several plagues in Normandy, he devoted himself to the care of the sick (living in a huge cask in the middle […]

St. Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641) was born in Dijon, France. Because her mother died only eighteen months later, her father (the head of the local parliament) took on the responsibility of educating her. Jane grew up to be a lovely and refined young woman with a cheerful temperament. She married Baron de Chantal and […]

Little is known of the life of St. Philomena before the discovery of her celebrated tomb in the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome. An inscription near her tomb read “Peace be with thee, Philomena.” Near her bones was discovered a small glass vial, containing the remains of blood. Because it was a popular custom of […]

St. Stephen of Hungary (975-1038) played an important role in Christianizing his country. Stephen was born a pagan, but as a youth, he and his father, Duke Geza, were baptized by the Bohemian bishop St. Adalbert of Prague. At the age of twenty Stephen married Gisela, the sister of the Emperor St. Henry II.
In 997 […]

Holy Day of Obligation
Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, […]

As a child, Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941) had a deep devotion to Our Lady. On one occasion he had a vision in which Mary offered him either a white garment, symbolizing purity, or a red one, symbolizing martyrdom. “I choose both,” the boy replied. His heart was transfixed by Our Lady. Later he prayed that when […]

St. Pontian was a Roman Christian who served as Bishop of Rome (Pope) from 230-235; when banished to Sardinia by the Roman Emperor, he resigned so that a successor could be elected to take his place. St. Hippolytus was a presbyter, or priest, in Rome; his name literally means “a horse turned loose,” and this […]

Tarsicius is the patron of first communicants, altar boys, and a confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament. Tarsicius is believed to have been a deacon in Rome.
Around the year 255, as he was carrying the Blessed Sacrament along the Appian Way to give Communion to imprisoned Christians, bystanders seized him. He was beaten to death with […]

St. Clare of Assisi (1193-1253) was born of a noble family, twelve years after the birth of her famous townsman St. Francis, who had a major influence on her life. At the age of eighteen, Clare left home secretly and, with Francis’ help, arranged to reside in a Benedictine convent. Her family’s attempts to persuade […]

St. Lawrence was a third-century deacon and martyr in the Church of Rome. Nothing is known of his early life; as a young man, his honesty and faith prompted Pope St. Sixtus II to place him in charge of distributing Church funds to the poor.
During the persecution ordered by the Emperor Valerian in the year […]

Edith Stein was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) on 12 October 1891, the youngest of eleven children of a devout Jewish family. She died in the Auschwitz gas chamber on 9 August 1942, having been sent to the death camp when she refused to deny her Jewish heritage.
In 1916 she completed her doctoral […]

The founder of the Dominican Order, St. Dominic (1170-1221), was born in Spain, where he was well educated in preparation for the priesthood. Dominic was ordained in 1206, and when his bishop, Diego, was appointed a papal emissary to the Albigensians, Dominic was chosen to accompany him. The Albigensians were a heretical group in southern […]

Many early Christians were martyred by the Roman Empire, including the third-century Pope St. Sixtus and several other members of the Church of Rome. Sixtus was elected Bishop of Rome (Pope) in 257; that same year the Emperor Valerian issued a decree forbidding Christians to hold assemblies (thereby making it impossible for them to celebrate […]

Jesus Christ took three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John, up on a mountain, where Moses and Elijah appeared and Jesus was transfigured before them; His face and clothes becoming white and shining as light, and a voice came out of heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; […]

Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major (Our Lady of the Snows), Rome in 435 on the Esquiline Hill.
Today the Church celebrates the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major. The Basilica is the first church in Rome dedicated to Mary the Mother of God. Founded by Pope Liberius in the 4th century, […]

St. John Mary Vianney (1786-1859), the patron saint of parish priests, was the son of a French farmer. As a boy, he desired to be a priest, but it seemed this would be prevented by academic difficulties; however, John overcame this obstacle with the help of a tutor. He was considered a devout but otherwise […]

Saint Lydia was born in Thyatira, a town famous for its dye works. She was a seller of purple dye and was St. Paul’s first convert at Philippi. The following is from the Acts of the Apostles:
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one that worshipped God, […]

The fourth-century bishop Eusebius of Vercelli (ca. 283-371) was born in Sardinia and raised in Rome; he served as a priest there for some years, and was appointed Bishop of Vercelli, a town in northern Italy, in 340. Eusebius devoted himself to the care of the people; he was especially concerned with improving the sanctity […]

St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) was a rising young lawyer in Naples, but losing an important case prompted him to forsake the law and to become a priest instead. Alphonsus soon gained a reputation as a great preacher (though he later claimed that all his sermons could be understood by even the simplest person in the […]

One of the greatest figures of the sixteenth century, St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) was born in Spain and served as a soldier as a young man. During a long recovery from a wound suffered in battle, he began reading the Lives of the Saints as a way of combating boredom. Deeply moved by what […]

St. Peter Chrysologus (ca. 406-450) was a fifth-century bishop and teacher; he was given the nickname “Chrysologus” (”golden speech”) because of his eloquence, but aside from a collection of homilies, none of his writings have survived. At a young age Peter was appointed bishop of the city of Ravenna in Italy, where he worked tirelessly […]

Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were numbered among Jesus’ closest friends. Martha and her family lived in Bethany, a small town outside Jerusalem, and Jesus and the Apostles often visited their home. One legend states that Lazarus was very wealthy and influential, and that he and his sisters provided considerable practical and financial support to the […]

St. Samson was born in Wales around the year 485 and is considered one of the greatest missionaries to come from the British Isles. At the age of seven, his parents dedicated him to the service of God in gratitude for his birth after a long period of childlessness. He was enrolled under St. Illtud […]

At the beginning of the Moslem rule in Cordova, Spain, during the 8th century, Christians were allowed to practice their Faith; later, however, when the domination became complete, the Mohammedan leaders began a systematic persecution of the Christians. One of the most prominent martyrs of the day was the Archbishop of Toledo, St. Eulogius, who […]

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke trace Jesus’ genealogy, but neither of them mention the Virgin Mary’s parents by name, nor is there any reference to them elsewhere in the New Testament. A second-century apocryphal (unofficial) writing, the Protoevangelium of James, professes to give an account of Mary’s birth, and it is the source of […]

James, the son of Zebedee and the brother of St. John, is called St. James the Greater (so as to distinguish him from the other Apostle named James — a cousin of Jesus). Like their father, James and John were fishermen in Galilee. Soon after Jesus called Peter and Andrew (themselves fishermen and brothers) as […]

These three servants of God all died for the Faith near Durham, England, in 1594 and are known as the Durham Martyrs.
John Boste was born about 1544, educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, and became a fellow there. At the age of 22 he joined the Catholic Church with the intention of becoming a priest. In […]

St. Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373) was a religious foundress noted for combining a life of mysticism with charitable activities in the secular world. Beginning at the age of seven, she had visions of the crucified Lord; at the age of fourteen, she was married to Ulf Godmarsson, a Swedish nobleman. They had eight children, including […]

Our knowledge of St. Mary Magdalene, one of Christ’s most devoted followers, is based entirely on the Gospels, which portray her as a disciple of Jesus and as one of the women who followed and ministered to Him in Galilee (Luke 8:1-2). She was from Magdala, a small town on the northern edge of the […]

St. Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1619) was a Capuchin priest known for his great scholarship and powerful preaching. His parents died when he was a child, and his uncle arranged for him to study at the College of St. Mark in Venice. At the age of sixteen Lawrence joined the Capuchins (a branch of the Franciscan […]

These two nuns, martyrs of the Spanish Civil War, were beatified by Pope John Paul II on May 10, 1998. The following is excerpted from L’Osservatore Romano, published on the day of their beatification:
Rita Dolores Pujalte Sanchez was born in Aspe, Spain, on February 19, 1853. Her parents, Antonio Pujalte and Luisa Sanchez, gave her […]

Although there is some question about his early life, it seems that St. Arsenius was born in Rome around the year 354, became a deacon, and later tutor to the sons of the Emperor Theodosius I of Constantinople. He lived at court amid great wealth and pomp, had splendid apartments, rich clothes, and a host […]

St. Frederick, grandson of King Radbon of the Frisians, was educated by the clergy of the church of Utrecht, and later became a priest known for his great piety and learning. He was placed in charge of instructing catechumens and was eventually elected Bishop of Utrecht around the year 825.
The new bishop at once began […]

In September of 1792, by decree of the French Revolution’s National Assembly, the Carmelites of Compiègne, France, had been cast out of their convent and forced to live as private citizens. Though they had been required to give up their religious habits and wear lay clothes, the nuns bravely continued to follow their Rule and […]

The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the patronal feast of the Carmelite order. Following is an excerpt from the Carmelite Constitutions of 1995:
Mary, overshadowed by the Spirit of God, is the Virgin of the new heart, who gave a human face to the Word made flesh. She is the Virgin of wise […]

St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) was a great Franciscan bishop and theologian. He was born in the town of Bagnorea in central Italy, and as a youth was cured of a serious illness through the prayers of St. Francis of Assisi. This, and the fact that one of his teachers at the University of Paris was a […]

Known as the “Lily of the Mohawks,” the American Indian Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) was born near the banks of the Mohawk River in modern-day New York State (close to the spot where the French Jesuit missionaries Saints René Goupil, Isaac Jogues, and Jean de la Lande had been martyred a few years earlier). When Kateri […]

The son of the Duke of Bavaria (a region of southern Germany), St. Henry (973-1024) was educated by the Bishop of Ratisbon, St. Wolfgang, and in 995 he succeeded his father as duke. Otto III, the Holy Roman Emperor (ruler of Germany and northern Italy), was his cousin, and upon Otto’s death in 1002, Henry […]

John Gualbert (or Gualberto) was born in Florence around the year 993. Born into a noble family, John lived a life of leisure and amusement while he trained to be a soldier. Tragedy struck while he was still a young man: His older brother Hugo was murdered, and John made it his mission to avenge […]

The founder of the Benedictine Order, St. Benedict (ca. 480-547) came from a distinguished Italian family (his sister was St. Scholastica). He studied in Rome as a young man, but disturbed by the city’s sinful and chaotic nature, he chose to live as a hermit at the age of twenty. Soon afterwards some monks asked […]