In the year 272 in Caesarea in Palestine, St. Marinus was to succeed to the place of a centurion when another came and said that he could not have the post on account of his being a Christian. Achaeus, the governor of Palestine, receiving Marinus’ affirmative answer gave him three hours to consider whether or…
The account of the martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas forms one of the finest pages of the history of the first centuries of the Church. It shows us clearly the wonderful sentiments of these two women when they heard that they had been condemned to the wild beasts. Knowing their own weakness but relying…
After being committed to the care of the Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino at the age of five, young Thomas Aquinas decided to enter the Order of St. Dominic, whose greatest glory he is. He taught philosophy and theology with such genius that he is considered one of the leading Christian thinkers. His innocence, on…
Of Portuguese origin, St. John of God was first a shepherd, a dealer and then a soldier. At the age of forty he was converted, and devoted himself to the care of those sick in mind, showing himself in this thankless task, a real innovator and at the same time a saint of superhuman heroism.…
In the fifteenth century St. Frances, among the noble leaders of Rome, showed herself an example of what a Christian wife should be. After the death of her husband she retired from the world and lived in a monastery of Oblates that she had founded at Tor de’Specchi near the Tiber, under the Rule of…
Under the Emperor Licinius, in 320, forty soldiers of the garrison of Sebaste in Armenia refused to sacrifice to idols and were put to death out of hatred for Christ. The judge ordered the saints to be exposed, naked on the ice of a frozen pond. In order to tempt them to renounce their faith,…
He is said to have been a British king, who after the death of his queen, resigned the crown to his son and became a monk in the monastery of St. David. He then went into North Britain and joined St. Columba in preaching the gospel among the Picts who then inhabited a great part…
Senator and prefect of Rome, then in succession monk, cardinal and pope, St. Gregory governed the Church from 590 to 604. England owes her conversion to him. At a period when the invasion of the barbarians created a new situation in Europe, he played a considerable part in the transitional stage, during which a great…
An only daughter and heiress of significant fortune, St. Kennocha made an entire sacrifice of herself to God, by making her religious profession in a great nunnery in the county of Fife. By an extraordinary love of poverty and mortification, a wonderful gift of prayer and purity of singleness of heart, she attained to the…
An ardent zeal for the salvation of souls brought this servant of God from Italy to North-Britain. By preaching the word of God, St. Boniface reformed the manners of the people in the provinces of Angus, Marris, Buchan, Elgin, Murray and Ross. He died about the year 630 and was buried at Rosmark. The Breviary…
