Bishop of Gubbio, his native city, St. Ubaldus is remembered in central Italy as a bishop who was entirely devoted to the duties of his office. He led a life of exceptional austerity. The saint often defended his flock in public dangers. Hearing one day that a sedition was raised in one of the streets,…
St. Paschal, a poor shepherd boy of Aragon, at the age of twenty-four entered the Order of Discalced Franciscans as a lay brother where he became a model of austerity, obedience and absolute poverty. His meditation on the things of God was so profound that he was often in ecstasy; he had a great devotion…
A Dalmatian bishop, St. Venantius made a glorious confession of his faith and after suffering many torments was beheaded in the persecution of Decius in 250, at Camerino of Ancona in Italy. He is patron of Camerino in the Roman Marches.
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. Hospitius shut himself up in the ruins of an old tower near Villafranca, in Provence, in a peninsula which is still called from him San-Sospis. He girded himself with an iron chain, lived only on bread and dates and was honored with the gifts of prophecy and miracles. He died in 681 on which…
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…
