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…

Daughter of Domneva and Merwald, a son of king Penda, St. Mildred was consecrated first abbess of Minstre and at the same time received to the habit seventy young women. With humility, St. Mildred behaved as the servant of her sisters and conducted them to virtue by the authority of her example for all were…

In the year 344, Daniel a priest and Verda a virgin were apprehended in the province of the Razicheans, in Persia, by an order of the governor and put to all manner of torments for three months, almost without intermission. Among other tortures, their feet being bored through, were put into frozen water for five…

To honor the dignity of the Prince to whom Jesus committed the power of the keys, the Church instituted the feast of the Chair of St. Peter which is found in the Roman calendar at this date since the year 354. Celebration of St. Peter’s Chair means veneration, in the person of Peter, of God’s…

A man of vehemence in all his actions, St. Peter Damian, brought up in the hard school of poverty, found that he had the vocation of a reformer. He exercised it in the first place against himself as one of the hermits of Fontavellana in about 1035; but he did not remain for long hidden…

The Epistle of today gives an account of the election of St. Matthias as it has been preserved for us in the Acts of the Apostles. He had been one of the disciples during the whole of our Lord’s public life and like the others, was a witness of His resurrection. He it was who…

A physician and brother of St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Caesarius studied in Alexandria with incredible success and became the first man of his age in medicine. He perfected himself in this profession at Constantinople. He was singularly honored by Julian the Apostate, nominated his first physician and excepted in several edicts which that prince published…