St. Irenaeus was born in Asia Minor about the year 140. It is not known when he came to Gaul. He was a priest of the Church of Lyons during the persecution of 177 when St. Pothinus, first bishop of the city and the first martyr of Lyons, was put to death. Irenaeus succeeded him…

In 1900 in China several thousand Christians, victims of the Boxers’ hatred, bore witness to the Catholic faith by a glorious death. Among them 2,418 were put to death in the Vicariates forming the mission entrusted to the Friars Minor. The cause of their beatification was introduced in 1926. To facilitate the conduct of the…

St. Antony Mary Zaccaria was the founder of the Clerks Regular of St. Paul, later called the Barnabites from the name of their principle church in Rome. He also founded a congregation of nuns which no longer exists. He was a great admirer of St. Paul and was himself imbued with the teaching of the…

St. Maria Goretti is a modern martyr for purity and an excellent example for our youth today.  In 1902, when not yet twelve years old, she defended her virginity  against the evil intentions of an eighteen year old youth by telling him such actions would be a sin and displeasing to God.  After receiving multiple…

Saints Cyril and Methodius were born at Salonica. Cyril was a philosopher of some note and a priest. Methodius was governor of a Slavonic colony in Macedonia when in 863 the Emperor of Constantinople sent them to the Moravians who were asking for the light of the Gospel. Both possessed the requisite preparation for successfully…

Daughter of Peter III of Aragon, St. Elizabeth of Portugal was named after her great-aunt, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, whose virtues had to undergo a series of heavy trials which she endured with heroism. On more than one occasion she went to considerable pains to bring about peace between her children and their father. After…

St. Veronica was born at Mercatello, in the duchy of Urbino in Italy in 1660. Few Saints have received such extraordinary favors from Our Lord, as this holy Abbess of the Poor Clares at Citta di Castello. She received the stigmata several times, her head showed the marks of the crown of thorns and she…

The seven brothers were the sons of St. Felicitas, a noble Christian widow in Rome. After the death of her husband she and her sons were such an edifying example of the practice of Christianity and charity that many idolators were moved to renounce the worship of their false gods, and to embrace the faith…

St. Pius I succeeded St. Hyginus to the papacy in 142. The conflicts which St. Pius sustained, which included condemning heretics Valentinus and Marcion, obtained for him the title of martyr. He also is the contemporary of the Roman apologist St. Justin. He was buried at the foot of the Vatican hill on July 11,…

John Gualbert was born at Florence around 995. One Good Friday, accompanied by armed retainers, he met his brother’s murderer, unarmed and alone; he was about to slay him when the murderer fell at his feet begging forgiveness for the love of Christ crucified. John was touched by grace, recalling our Lord’s command to love…

This Saint, who was rightfully surnamed “the Apostle of America,” is one of the greatest missionaries that the Franciscan Order has produced. He was born at Montilla (Spain) and was educated by the Jesuits. At the age of twenty he put on the Franciscan habit and was ordained a priest. He preached first in Spain,…

St. Bonaventure was born at Bagnorca near Viterbo in 1221. Having joined the Franciscan Order he went to Paris for his studies where his master was Alexander of Hales. He was made General of his Order and deserves to be reckoned its second founder for his work in consolidating an institution that was as yet…

Successively Duke of Bavaria, King of Germany and Emperor, Henry II devoted himself to the spread of religion by rebuilding churches and founding monasteries. Until the end of his life he displayed on the throne the virtues of a great saint. Together with his wife, St. Cunegunda, whose dowry he mortgaged for the purpose, he…

The only son of a rich senator of Rome, in the fifth century St. Alexis was given a careful education in charity by his parents. Fearing lest temporal honors might divide his heart from noble objects, after complying with the will of his parents and marrying a rich and virtuous lady, on the day of…

St. Camillus, entirely without means of existence and from his early youth suffering from an incurable wound in his foot, experienced the horrors of the Roman hospitals in the sixteenth century in which the nursing and other staff were drawn from the dregs of the population. He effected a great change for the better, for…

In the seventeenth century St. Vincent de Paul was the instrument of a wonderful renewal of spirituality among the priests of France, a great and zealous apostle and a hero of charity. In turn he was parish priest, chief chaplain to the galley-slaves and missioner in the countryside; he was eager to relieve all forms…

Born in Venice, Jerome founded a religious congregation of Clerks Regular to devote themselves to the education of youth in orphanages and colleges. Inspired with a great love of the poor he was lavish in his giving of alms and opened many places of refuge for them. He died of the plague in 1537 at…

Born on July 22, 1559 in the city whose name he took, Saint Laurence of Brindisi entered the Friars Minor Capuchin at Venice. As a learned professor of sacred Scripture and theology he emerged as a keen controversialist against the Lutheran heresy. He spurred on the Christian troops at grips with the Ottoman army and…

The sinner who St. Luke tells us was delivered from seven devils, Mary Magdalen ever remains for the Church the penitent who was transformed by repentance and love of Christ. She formed part of the group of holy women who followed Jesus until the end of His life and she was the first to whom…

Ravenna venerates its first bishop in St. Apollinaris who died a martyr for his Church. St. Apollinaris was a disciple of St. Peter who also named him bishop of Ravenna. According to St. Peter Chrysologus, he was a martyr by the torments he endured for Christ, which he survived at least some days. It is…

She suffered many torments and a cruel death for the faith in the persecution of Diocletian about 307, at Tyro, a city, which stood formerly in an island in the lake of Bolsero in Tuscany, but has been long since swallowed up by water. Her relics are now at Palermo in Sicily. She is much…

Known as the Greater in order to distinguish him from the other Apostle St. James, St. James is our Lord’s cousin and St. John’s brother. With Peter and John he was one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration as later he was also of the agony in the garden. He was beheaded in Jerusalem in…

He was physician to the emperor Galerius Maximianus and a Christian but by an impious, idolatrous court was deceived. He often heard the false maxims of the world applauded and was unhappily seduced into an apostasy. A zealous Christian called Hermolaus awakened his conscience to a sense of his guilt and brought him again into…

Today’s feast commemorates together several saints, who lived at different times and in different countries. Saints Nazarius and Celsus were first century martyrs, whose bodies were found by St. Ambrose in 395. The town of St. Nazaire in France is named after Nazarius. St. Victory I was pope from 189 to 198; he regulated the…

Jesus liked to stay at the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, his friends at Bethany when He was in Judea. In one of these visits with which Jesus honored them, St. Luke tells us that St. Martha showed great solicitude to entertain and serve Him. She forgot the privilege of her rank and riches…

They were Persians, but coming to Rome, courageously confessed the faith of Christ in the persecution of Decius in 250. The Christians at Rome did not treat them as strangers but as brethren united to them in the hope of the same blessed country; and after their death carefully deposited their bodies in the house…

Born at Loyola in the Spanish Basque country in 1491, St. Ignatius was of a somewhat fiery and warlike nature so that it was not surprising that he adopted a military career; on being wounded in the leg at the siege of Pampeluna he was obliged to undergo a long convalescence during which the grace…