St. Peter Celestine was Pope only for a few months. He was about seventy when he was dragged from his monastic solitude and made to accept the heavy charge of head of the Church; the Holy See had been vacant for twenty-seven months; he could not refuse. But a few months later he voluntarily resigned…

Born in 1380, St. Bernardine of Siena at an early age left the world in order to lead a hermit’s life; then, at the age of twenty-two, he entered the Franciscan Order, one of whose glories he is. Having been made General of the Order, he resigned this charge in order to devote himself to…

St. Rita (Margarita) after eighteen years of married life, lost, by death, her husband and her two sons. Called afterwards to the religious state, she professed the Rule of St. Augustine at Cascia her native town, near Spoleto, in Central Italy. In a life-long and terrible malady her patience, cheerfulness and union by prayer with…

Julia was a noble virgin at Carthage who when that city was taken by Genseric in 439 was sold for a slave to a pagan merchant of Syria. Under the most mortifying employments for her station, by cheerfulness and patience she found, besides her sanctification, a present happiness and comfort which the world could not…

A native of the kingdom of Leon in Spain, St. John embraced in his own country the austere order of the Barefooted Observantine Franciscans. Being sent by the authority of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide to preach the faith in the kingdoms of Fez and Morocco, he discharged himself with such great zeal that the…

In the eleventh century the Church, held in subjection by lay princes, was ravaged by grave disorders in the moral life of the clergy. But it was not long before a movement for reform began to take shape. To this a monk of Cluny, Hildebrand, gave his adhesion. He was the principal advisor of Alexander…

Born in Florence in 1515, St. Philip Neri lived all his life in Rome and was one of the most influential persons of his times. He was a man of original character and happy disposition, but his soul was burning with an ardent and unbounded love of God and for people of all conditions, with…

Born at Jarrow in Northumberland, England, Bede was entrusted as a young lad to the care of St. Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth. Having himself become a monk, Bede, “the most observant and the happiest of monks,” was also one of the most learned churchmen of his time. He wrote very full commentaries on Holy…

A Florentine of the noble family of Pazzi, St. Mary Magdalen became a Carmelite nun at the age of sixteen. She practiced great mortification for the salvation of infidels and sinners, taking as her motto: “to suffer, not to die.” She died in 1607, and her body, which she had so greatly mortified, still remains…