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…
Born at Lisbon in Portugal, St. Anthony became first a canon regular, then a Franciscan, and preached the Gospel everywhere in Portugal and Italy. Both as a theologian and as a popular preacher he fought vigorously against heresy. His preaching was inspired by the love of God and of souls and had an extraordinary power…
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,…
