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…

Julian, the son of a nobleman of Toulouse, at that time living in Spain, was received as a novice among the Friars Minor at the age of seventeen, but to try him God allowed him to be sent away. He was later re-admitted as a lay brother. His fasting and austerities were almost frightening in…

In an incursion into the Christian territories, in 362 the Persians took by siege the castle Bethzarbe on the Tigris, massacred the garrison and led away nine thousand souls into captivity. Among these were Heliodorus, a bishop, Dausas and Mariabus, ancient priests, besides many other priests, monks and nuns. The good bishop died on the…

A rich and noble citizen of Bethlapeta in Persia, Bademus, desiring to devote himself to the service of God, founded a monastery near that city which he governed with great sanctity. God permitted him, with seven of his monks to be apprehended by the king Sapor in 376. He lay four months in a dungeon…