Born in Italy not far from Genoa, from his early years St. Paul of the Cross showed a great love for our Savior’s passion. After living for some time as a hermit he founded in Rome the Passionist Congregation, which is devoted to preaching the mystery of the Cross. His whole life was outstanding for…

St. Peter was born in Verona about 1205; his parents were Manichaeans, but he was converted and entered the Order of Preachers with the ambition not only of preaching the faith but of giving his life for it. He had his wish, for in the course of his apostolic work he was assassinated by the…

Catherina Benincasa, born in Siena, was favored with visions from the age of seven. Becoming a tertiary of the Dominican Order in 1360, she acquired great influence by her life of prayer and extraordinary mortifications as well as by the spread of her spiritual writings. Her continual appeals for civil peace and reform of the…

St. Hugh was appointed bishop of Grenoble specifically to reverse the desolate condition into which the church was sunk through the sloth and bad example of its late pastor. He found the people immersed in a profound ignorance of several essential duties of religion and plunged into vice and immorality. He endeavored by rigorous fasts…

Born at Paula in Calabria, St. Francis, after living as a hermit for five years (from the age of fourteen to nineteen) gathered around him some companions with whom he led the religious life. This was the origin of a new order, to which he gave the name of Minims, that is, “the least” in…

Born in Penna, Blessed John entered the Franciscan Order during the lifetime of St. Francis. He was sent to the provinces of Languedoc and Provence to found monasteries there. He lived in this area for about twenty-five years, showing great zeal in the apostolate, and winning admiration by his gentleness and charity. At the end…

St. Isidore who succeeded his brother St. Leander as Archbishop of Seville, was one of the great bishops of the seventh century. He was proficient in all branches of knowledge and was regarded as one of the most learned men of his time; with Cassiodorus and Boethius he was one of the thinkers whose writings…

Born at Valencia in 1350, St. Vincent entered the Dominican Order at the age of seventeen. He was a vehement orator and traveled over France, Spain and Italy harrying sinners to repentance with his stern warnings. The words of the Prophet, “Rise up ye dead, and come to judgment” which were often on his lips,…

Born of an illustrious family in Paris about 1105, St. William eventually was asked by the bishop of Roschild in Denmark to be abbot of Eskille, a monastery of regular canons which was recently reformed. Here St. William sanctified himself by a life of prayer and austere mortification but had much to suffer from the…

He was by birth a Jew and belonged to the church of Jerusalem but lived in Rome almost twenty years until 177 when he returned into the East. In 133, he wrote a History of the Church in five books, from the passion of Christ down to his own time. In it he gave illustrious…