St. John Damascene was the great defender of the veneration of images against the iconoclasts, the destroyers of statues and pictures of the saints. He was a learned theologian and carefully gathered together and transmitted to us the teaching of the Greek Fathers and is thus one of the most trustworthy witnesses to oriental tradition.…
A native of Capistrano, St. John became a Franciscan and was one of the great organizers of the struggle against the Mohammedans in the 15th century, when they threatened to overrun the whole of Europe. Mohammed II had taken Constantinople and was already marching against Belgrade, when Pope Callixtus III called St. John Capistran to…
St. Gundleus was the eldest son to the king of the Dimetians in South-Wales. After the death of his father, though the eldest son, he divided the kingdom with his six brothers who nevertheless respected and obeyed him as if he had been their sovereign. He married Gladusa and was father of St. Canoc and…
Born in 525 in Palestine, St. John obtained at a very young age the surname Scholastic. At age sixteen he renounced all the advantages which the world promised him to dedicate himself to God in a religious state. He retired to Mount Sinai which from the time of the disciples of St. Antony and St.…
In a long Christian persecution, King Varanes caused St. Benjamin to be beaten and imprisoned. He had lain a year in the dungeon when an ambassador from the emperor obtained his enlargement on condition he should never speak to any of the courtiers about religion. Benjamin declared that he could not detain the truth in…
St. Hugh was appointed bishop of Grenoble specifically to reverse the desolate condition into which the church was sunk through the sloth and bad example of its late pastor. He found the people immersed in a profound ignorance of several essential duties of religion and plunged into vice and immorality. He endeavored by rigorous fasts…
Born at Paula in Calabria, St. Francis, after living as a hermit for five years (from the age of fourteen to nineteen) gathered around him some companions with whom he led the religious life. This was the origin of a new order, to which he gave the name of Minims, that is, “the least” in…
Born in Penna, Blessed John entered the Franciscan Order during the lifetime of St. Francis. He was sent to the provinces of Languedoc and Provence to found monasteries there. He lived in this area for about twenty-five years, showing great zeal in the apostolate, and winning admiration by his gentleness and charity. At the end…
St. Isidore who succeeded his brother St. Leander as Archbishop of Seville, was one of the great bishops of the seventh century. He was proficient in all branches of knowledge and was regarded as one of the most learned men of his time; with Cassiodorus and Boethius he was one of the thinkers whose writings…
Born at Valencia in 1350, St. Vincent entered the Dominican Order at the age of seventeen. He was a vehement orator and traveled over France, Spain and Italy harrying sinners to repentance with his stern warnings. The words of the Prophet, “Rise up ye dead, and come to judgment” which were often on his lips,…
Born of an illustrious family in Paris about 1105, St. William eventually was asked by the bishop of Roschild in Denmark to be abbot of Eskille, a monastery of regular canons which was recently reformed. Here St. William sanctified himself by a life of prayer and austere mortification but had much to suffer from the…
He was by birth a Jew and belonged to the church of Jerusalem but lived in Rome almost twenty years until 177 when he returned into the East. In 133, he wrote a History of the Church in five books, from the passion of Christ down to his own time. In it he gave illustrious…
Julian, the son of a nobleman of Toulouse, at that time living in Spain, was received as a novice among the Friars Minor at the age of seventeen, but to try him God allowed him to be sent away. He was later re-admitted as a lay brother. His fasting and austerities were almost frightening in…
In an incursion into the Christian territories, in 362 the Persians took by siege the castle Bethzarbe on the Tigris, massacred the garrison and led away nine thousand souls into captivity. Among these were Heliodorus, a bishop, Dausas and Mariabus, ancient priests, besides many other priests, monks and nuns. The good bishop died on the…
A rich and noble citizen of Bethlapeta in Persia, Bademus, desiring to devote himself to the service of God, founded a monastery near that city which he governed with great sanctity. God permitted him, with seven of his monks to be apprehended by the king Sapor in 376. He lay four months in a dungeon…
Aware of the greatness of the task which confronted him in the fifth century with the great upheaval caused everywhere in Europe by the invasion of the Barbarians, St. Leo guided the destiny of the Chruch with such trust in God and wideness of view that he became not only the guardian of the faith…
Braga was a populous resort of the Romans on which account it was watered with the blood of many martyrs in the persecution of Dioclesian. St. Victor, who is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology was a catechumen who refusing to sacrifice to idols was condemned to lose his head and baptized in his own blood.
Son of the king of the Visigoths in Spain, St. Hermenegild married the daughter of the king of the Franks and, despite the opposition of his mother who was an Arian, was converted to Catholicism. He was imprisoned and then put to death on April 13, 586, going to heaven to enjoy the royal estate…
St. Justin, apologist and martyr, was one of the most important Christian writers of the second century. He himself tells how his study of all the schools of philosophy led him to Christianity and how he dedicated his life to the defense of the Christian faith as “the one certain and profitable philosophy.” St. Justin…
Born in 1190 kingdom of Leon in Spain, St. Peter’s uncle, the bishop of Astorga, preferred him to a canonry and shortly after to the deanery of his chapter. The young dean took possession of his dignity with great pomp but in the midst of his pride happened by a false step of his prancing…
Benedict Joseph Labre was truly eccentric, one of God's special little ones. Born in France and the eldest of 18 children, he studied under his uncle, a parish priest. Because of poor health and a lack of suitable academic preparation he was unsuccessful in his attempts to enter the religious life. Then, at 16 years…
The tenth successor of St. Peter, St. Anicetus governed the Church from 155 to 166 when he was martyred. These were years of great difficulty when Christianity in Rome had to face not only persecution by the emperors but also the heretical tendencies of the second century. St. Anicetus was visited in Rome by St.…
Born in Murcia in Spain in 1532, Andrew was of noble parents, whom family reverses had reduced to a state of poverty. He entered the Order of St. Francis as a lay brother and led a life known only to God. He was assiduous in prayer and yet worked with an untiring enthusiasm, habitually taking…
Born in Avesne in Haynault, St. Ursmar made continual progress in sanctity by a life of humility, patience and penance. What he most earnestly asked of God was the gift of an ardent charity; that all his thoughts and actions, and those of all men, might with the most pure and fervent intention be directed…
Native of Monte Pulciano in Tuscany, St. Agnes had an extraordinary relish and ardor for prayer in her infancy and often spent whole hours in reciting the Our Father and Hail Mary, on her knees. At fifteen she moved from a convent of St. Francis to the order of St. Dominic at Proceno in Orvieto…
St. Anselm, who was born at Aosta in Piedmont, became a monk at the abbey of Bec-Hellouin in Normandy which was ruled by his fellow countryman Lanfranc. He succeeded him as abbot of Bec in 1078 and then, in 1093 as archbishop of Canterbury. As a philosopher and theologian St. Anselm was one of the…
St. Sotor succeeded Anicetus as Pope in 166, and died a martyr in 175 under the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Caius, whose relics are preserved at the sanctuary of St. Silverster in Rome, governed the Church a century later and was martyred on April 22, 296. The popes of the first centuries suffered the heavy anxiety…
Veneration of St. George comes to us from the east, probably from Palestine where he was held in high honor as a martyr. Regarded as the patron of Christian armies he is venerated under this title by the Latins as well as by the Greeks. In Rome there is a sanctuary built in his honor,…
Born at Sigmaringen in Swabia in 1577, St. Fidelis practiced at first as a lawyer and so took to heart the cause of the needy that he was known as the poor man’s lawyer. Then he joined the Capuchin Friars Minor and was sent by the Holy See to the Grisons in order to bring…
St. Mark is one of the four Evangelists. He was not one of the Apostles but was a disciple of theirs from the outset and soon became their companion in their mission. He appears to have been associated especially with St. Peter; he acted as his interpreter and wrote down his teaching. The Gospel of…
St. Cletus is identical with St. Anacletus and figures in the list of Popes as the second successor of St. Peter, from 76 to 88. St. Marcellinus governed the Church two centuries later, from 296 to 304, during the terrible Diocletian persecution.
Born at Nijmegen, St. Peter Canisius belonged to the Society of Jesus. With St. Boniface he shares the title of Apostle of Germany. By his preaching, his devotional and controversial books, the colleges that he founded, and his missions undertaken on behalf of four popes to German bishops and princes, he successfully worked against the…
Born in Italy not far from Genoa, from his early years St. Paul of the Cross showed a great love for our Savior’s passion. After living for some time as a hermit he founded in Rome the Passionist Congregation, which is devoted to preaching the mystery of the Cross. His whole life was outstanding for…
St. Peter was born in Verona about 1205; his parents were Manichaeans, but he was converted and entered the Order of Preachers with the ambition not only of preaching the faith but of giving his life for it. He had his wish, for in the course of his apostolic work he was assassinated by the…
Catherina Benincasa, born in Siena, was favored with visions from the age of seven. Becoming a tertiary of the Dominican Order in 1360, she acquired great influence by her life of prayer and extraordinary mortifications as well as by the spread of her spiritual writings. Her continual appeals for civil peace and reform of the…
