Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew II, King of Hungary, and wife of Duke Louis IV of Thuringia, was widowed at the age of twenty. She had three children, and died when she was twenty-four. St. Elizabeth has remained famous for her great kindness and inexhaustible charity towards the poor and the sick. Left to herself without…

St. Felix appears to have been one of the courageous companions of St. John of Matha in the foundation of the Trinitarian Order for the redemption of captives in the hands of the Moslems. He died in 1212, at Cerfroid, the motherhouse of the Order, in the diocese of Meaux.

The three feasts of the birthday of Our Lady, the holy Name of Mary and her Presentation in the Temple correspond in the Marian cycle with the first three feasts of the cycle of feasts of our Lord; namely, Christmas, the Holy Name of Jesus and His Presentation in the Temple (February 2). The feast…

St. Cecilia is one of the most famous and most venerated of Roman martyrs. Her body was discovered in 822 and transferred to the title-church that bears her name in Trastevere in Rome. In her youth, St. Cecilia consecrated her virginity to God, yet was compelled by her parents to marry a nobleman named Valerian.…

St. Clement was converted to the faith by Sts. Peter and Paul and was so constant in his attendance on these apostles, and so active in assisting them in their ministry, that St. Jerome and other fathers call him an apostolic man. He was named pope in 91 and reigned for almost 10 years. St.…

St. John of the Cross was the great ally of St. Teresa, whose feast is on October 15, in the reform of the Carmelites; he introduced the primitive observance among the friars as she did among the nuns. For this reason he was subject to great persecution. He was a man of complete self-renunciation, great…

From time immemorial St. Catherine has been venerated at the monastery of Mount Sinai when, in the fifteenth century, the monks discovered her body. It is said of her that she was a young Christian of Alexandria who rejected the advances of the Emperor Maximinus and routed a meeting of learned men gathered together to…

St. Sylvester, the son of a lawyer, had himself studied law at Bologna before becoming a canon of Osimo, his native town. He was a zealous and fervent priest. His determination to retire into solitude was caused by the sight of the decomposing corpse of a friend. He at first lived as a hermit at…

Born in Ireland, St. Virgil traveled to France where he assisted King Pepin until that king recommended him to the see of Salzburg. Virgil trembled at the prospect, and for two years commissioned Dobda, a bishop whom he had brought with him from Ireland, to perform the Episcopal functions reserving to himself only the office…

St. Andrew, the brother of St. Peter, was the very first of the disciples to know Jesus; at the Master’s call he at once left his nets and followed Him to become a “fisher of men.” We know hardly anything of his subsequent apostolic career. The old accounts of his martyrdom depict him crucified on…