Patriarch of Alexandria, St. Cyril, one of the metropolitan sees of the Christian Church in the East, was one of the great defenders of the faith against the heresy of Nestorius who denied the oneness of person in Jesus Christ. At the Council of Ephesus in 431, over which he presided in the Pope’s name,…
The sister of St. Benedict, St. Scholastica consecrated herself to God as a virgin and lived not far from the monastery of Monte Cassino founded by her brother. In one of their annual visits together, St. Benedict refused to prolong the spiritual conversation which each year he allowed his sister in spite of St. Scholastica’s…
Between February 11 and July 16, 1858 the Blessed Virgin appeared eighteen times and showed herself to St. Bernadette Soubirous in the hollow of the rock at Lourdes. On March 25 she said to the little shepherdess who was only fourteen years of age: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Since then, Lourdes has become a…
Today the liturgy honors seven noble Florentines who in the thirteenth century, at a time when Florence and all Italy was torn by civil strife, banded together to found, not far from Florence on Monte Senario, the Order of Servites or Servants of Mary, especially dedicated to penance and meditation on the sorrows of our…
Raised by her godmother after her mother’s death, St. Catharine was placed in a convent of Monticelli near the gates of Florence where her aunt, Louisa de Ricci was a nun. After some years her father took her home but the interruptions and dissipation gave her so much uneasiness that at age 14, with the…
Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who on finding it impossible to make him renounce his faith commanded him to be beaten with clubs and…
Faustinus and Jovita were brothers and zealous professors of the Christian religion which they preached without fear in their city of Brescia while the bishop of that place lay concealed during the persecution. We can affirm with certainty that their remarkable zeal excited the fury of the heathens against them, and procured them a glorious…
A Phrygian by birth, slave to Philemon and a person of note in the city of Colossae, Onesimus, having robbed his master, in his escape, providentially met St. Paul in his flight. In Rome St. Paul converted and baptized him and sent him with his canonical letter of recommendation to Philemon, by whom he was…
Born of a considerable family in the territory of Toulouse, St. Silvin passed his first years at the court of two successive kings, Childeric II and Theodoric III. Everything was ready for his marriage when powerfully touched by divine grace he renounced all worldly prospects and retired from court. After several devout penitential pilgrimages to…
St. Simeon was the son of Cleophas, otherwise called Alpheus, brother to St. Joseph and of Mary, sister of the Blessed Virgin. He was therefore nephew both to St. Joseph and to the Blessed Virgin, and cousin to Christ. Simeon and Simon are the same name, and this saint is, according to the best interpreters…
