Born in Sicily and christened Lancelot, after studying law, Andrew Avellino was ordained and henceforth only accepted pleas in the ecclesiastical courts. But he soon gave up his career at the bar and joined the Theatine Clerks Regular. His great love of the cross caused him to be given the name of Andrew. Having become…

St. Martin is the first bishop and confessor honored by the Church in the West. He was a principal apostle of Gaul, where his feast used to be kept as a holy-day of obligation with an octave and popular rejoicings. Born in Pannonia, he came to Gaul as a soldier. At the age of eighteen…

Pope from 649-654, St. Martin I was a courageous defender of the faith against heresy. He held a council at Rome which condemned the Monothelite heresy which taught that Christ had no human but only a divine will. The heretical emperor, Constans II, had him treacherously arrested and taken to Constantinople. After many sufferings and…

Foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Mother Cabrini could do all things in Him who gave her strength. At the command of Pope Leo XIII, St. Frances Cabrini was sent to the Americas to assist the Italian immigrants whose faith was threatened in the new world. She became their mother. An intrepid…

A Catholic of the Ruthenian rite, St. Josaphat was an apostle of the return of the Orthodox schismatics to the Church of Rome. At the age of twenty he became a Basilian monk, and while still young was made superior of his monastery, then archimandrite of Vilna and finally Archbishop of Polotsk. The young Archbishop's…

St. Albert, the son of a German nobleman, was studying at Padua when the Master General of the Dominicans, Jordan of Saxony, succeeded in attracting him to that Order. He was to become one of its greatest glories. After taking his degrees at the University of Paris he taught philosophy and theology at Paris and…

St. Gertrude, a Benedictine nun of the monastery of Helfta in Saxony, is one of the great mystics of the Middle Ages. She was favored by visions of our Savior and has left a marvelous account of them in a book which she called “Revelations” or “The Herald of Divine Love.” St. Gertrude introduced the…

St. Gregory was bishop of Neocaesarea in Asia Minor and was famous for the holiness of his life and his wisdom, but even more so for the numerous miracles that he wrought. Even during his lifetime he was known as “Thaumaturgus,” the wonderworker. His faith was of the sort that “can move mountains.” As a…

The whole Church celebrates today the dedication of the two great Roman basilicas of St. Peter at the Vatican and of St. Paul-Outside-the-Walls. The basilica of St. Peter stands on the site of the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, where stood Nero’s circus. It was here that St. Peter was executed. Recent excavations…

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…