Born at Desenzano on Lake Garda in North Italy, St. Angela Merici received a solid Christian education whose value she appreciated to the full. She was fond of saying that the disorders of society are the result of disorder in the family, and that there are too few Christian mothers. To remedy this evil she…

Peter and Marcellinus are two Roman martyrs who suffered under the Diocletian persecution, about the year 303; the first was a priest, the second an exorcist. Their cultus was so important that after peace was restored to the Church, Constantine built a basilica in their honor, as he did for St. Peter, St. Paul, St.…

Going back to the thirteenth century, the feast of Corpus Christi was instituted by the Bishop of Liege, Belgium, for his diocese at the urgent request of St. Juliana, prioress of a convent on Mount Cornillon, near the gates of the city. A few years later Urban IV, a former arch-deacon of Liege, extended its…

The vocation of St. Francis Caracciolo is a curious one. A letter, delivered to him by mistake, informed him of the project of founding a new congregation of Minor Clerks Regular. He decided to join it and was practically the co-founder. His life, devoted to prayer and penance, was penetrated by a burning love of…

A monk of Exeter in England, St. Boniface is one of the great figures of the Benedictine Order and of the monastic apostolate in the Middle Ages. Gregory II sent him to preach the Gospel in Germany. He evangelized Hesse, Saxony and Thuringia and became Archbishop of Mainz. He well earned the title of Apostle…

St. Norbert was born at Xanten near Cologne about the year 1080. As a young cleric he resided at the court of the archbishop of Cologne and then at the court of the emperor where he allowed himself to be influenced by the spirit of the world. But he was won back by grace; caught…

Saint Robert began his religious life as a rector of a parish in the diocese of York, and after becoming a Benedictine monk, attempting to practice its primitive rule, his small monastery was accepted into the Cistercian order by St. Bernard. He was then asked to become abbot of a new Cistercian monastery in Northumberland…

Daughter of Louis VIII and of Blanche of Castille, Isabella was a worthy sister of Louis IX, born in 1225. From her mother she received a Christian education and also the love of virtue. When she had visited the poor in their hovels and looked after all their needs, she spent the rest of her…

Primus and Felician were brothers and lived in Rome many years. They lived for the poor and often spent both nights and days with the confessors in their dungeons or at the places of their torments and execution. They had escaped the dangers of many bloody persecutions and were grown old in the heroic exercise…

St. Margaret the great-niece of St. Edward the Confessor, after the battle of Hastings, fled to the court of Malcolm, the King of Scotland, whom shortly afterwards she married. She proved a model mother and exemplary queen who brought up her eight children in an atmosphere of great devotion and worked hard to improve the…

Designated by the Holy Spirit to share the charge and mission of the twelve Apostles, St. Barnabas is venerated by the Church as one of them. He played an important part in the first extension of Christianity outside the Jewish world. It was Barnabas who presented St. Paul to the other Apostles when, after his…

Born in 1430 at San Facondo in Spain, John de Gonzalez was a canon of the cathedral of Burgos and then entered the Hermits of St. Augustine. He was distinguished for his great devotion to the sacrificed of the Mass and for his forceful preaching. His sermons dealt especially with peacemaking and concord for which…

St. Basil was born at Caesarea in Cappadocia of a fervent Christian family. After studying at Constantinople and Athens he became a monk in the province of Pontus. He wrote the famous “Rules” which bear his name and were praised by St. Benedict; they are still observed to this day by the monks of the…

These martyrs were natives of Sicily. Vitus was nobly born and had the happiness to be instructed in the faith and inspired with the most perfect sentiments of his religion by his Christian nurse, Crescentia and her faithful husband Modestus. Vitus’ father, learning of his aversion to idolatry, whipped the boy and delivered Vitus to…

They were ordained by St. Irenaeus and sent by him to preach the gospel at Besancon where, after suffering many torments they were beheaded for the faith in the persecution of Severus in 211 or 212. St. Gregory of Tours says that their relics were glorified by miracles in his time and that his brother-in-law…

Gregory Barbarigo was born at Venice on September 16, 1625. His father, desiring to give him experience of diplomatic negotiations obtained for him a post with the Venetian legation which went to Munster to draw up the Treaty of Westphalia. There Providence awaited him in the person of the papal legate Fabio Chigi, who became…

Called “the Harp of the Holy Spirit,” St. Ephrem is the great classic Doctor of the Syrian church. As deacon at Edessa, he vigorously combated the heresies of his time, and to do so more effectively wrote poems and hymns about the mysteries of Christ, the blessed Virgin and the saints. He had a great…

Born in Florence in 1270 to parents who had lost all hope of being blessed with children, St. Juliana was from the illustrious Falconieri family in Italy. After her birth, her parents devoted themselves solely to the exercises of religion and built and founded at their own expense the stately church of the Annunciation of…

From his native Ireland, after being ordained a priest, St. Gobain passed into France out of a desire more perfectly to consecrate himself to God. He withdrew into the great forest near the river Oise where at the distance of two leagues from the river and from Premontre, he built himself a cell and afterwards,…

St. Aloysius Gonzaga’s outstanding quality was his radiant purity and the Church praises his perfect innocence with the words, “Thou hast made him little less than the angels.” He was baptized in the womb, because his life was in danger, and made a vow of chastity at the age of nine. When he was sixteen…

Born of a patrician Roman family at Bordeaux, St. Paulinus was successively prefect, senator and consul. His wife, wishing to consecrate herself to God, gave up rank and riches; he followed her example and went to live an austere hermit’s life at Nola in Italy. There he became a priest and then bishop of the…

The Church prepares for tomorrow’s celebration of the feast of St. John the Baptist, the Precursor or Forerunner of the Messias. This feast has kept its Vigil by reason of the importance of the exceptional mission that was John the Baptist’s. “The Prophet of the Most High,” was foretold by Jeremias and Isaias; indeed, in…

St. William was a Piedmontese hermit of the beginning of the twelfth century. He built a monastery on the summit of Monte Vergine near Naples, and established a community of hermits, to whom he gave a rule inspired in great measure by that of St. Benedict. He died in 1142.

The ancient basilica of Saints John and Paul on Mount Caelius in Rome was in the fourth century already dedicated in honor of the two martyrs whom we celebrate today. Roman tradition depicts them as two brothers, who encouraged each other to remain faithful in their sufferings. Their Mass emphasizes this profound brotherhood in fidelity…

The vigil of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul is the only one remaining of the Vigils of Apostles. By the thousands, Christian people have gone on pilgrimage to the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul. In the second and third centuries the Roman Church already stood pre-eminent by reason of her apostolicity, the infallible…