The dogma of the divine maternity of the Blessed Virgin was defined at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Mary is the Mother of Jesus; the Son of God really took her flesh, he is really her Son. In 1931, on the fifteenth centenary of this great Council, Pius XI instituted today’s feast. The Church,…
St. Seraphim, who from early childhood looked after his father’s flocks, had acquired a love of solitude and prayer. After his father’s death he endured, with patience, continuous ill treatment from his older brother, until the age of sixteen when he entered the Capuchins. There he made great progress in all the virtues: regularity, penance,…
St. Edward, King of England from 1042 to 1066, was known as the Confessor to distinguish him from his uncle Edward the Martyr. He restored Westminster Abbey, was much addicted to alms, affable and peace-loving. His popularity spread throughout the kingdom soon after the Norman conquest, and it was the Norman dynasty which secured his…
St. Callistus I (217-222) was one of the great popes of the third century. As a deacon he was charged with the administration of the Church’s property and with gathering together the bodies of the martyrs; he organized the famous cemetery on the Appian Way, called after him San Callisto. As pope he regulated the…
St. Teresa of Avila was the born in 1515 in the rugged countryside of Castile. At the age of twenty she entered the Carmel of the Incarnation at Avila. At that time the Order followed a mitigated observance. After herself adopting a more rigorous form of life Teresa reformed her monastery and with the help…
St. Hedwig was of royal parentage and was the maternal aunt of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. She married Henry, Duke of Silesia and after his death completely renounced the world and entered the monastery of Trebnitz which she had founded. All of her children (three sons and three daughters) predeceased her save one of her…
Born in 1647 in the diocese of Autun in France, Margaret Mary entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial at the age of twenty-three. She was chosen by our Lord to remind the world of the greatness of His love. The three great revelations that she had in the chapel of her monastery are the origin…
Author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke came from Antioch and was one of the first converts to Christianity. He accompanied St. Paul on his missionary journeys. He was still with him in Rome when St. Paul was in prison awaiting death. We hear no more of him afterwards…
At sixteen, Peter, a native of Alcantara in Spain became a Franciscan at Valencia. He was a faithful follower of the primitive Rule and led a very austere life. He was one of St. Teresa’s spiritual directors and encouraged her in her reformation of the Carmelite Order. His great devotion to the passion of our…
A Canon and professor of theology at Cracow and later parish priest of Ilkusi, St. John Cantius led a life of great humility and wonderful charity. The Church honors his love of his neighbor; he even gave away his clothes and shoes, letting his cloak trail on the ground as he returned home in order…
