STS. COSMAS and DAMIAN were brothers, and born in Arabia, but studied the sciences in Syria, and became eminent for their skill in medicine. Being Christians, and full of that holy temper of charity in which the spirit of our divine religion consists, they practised their profession with great application and wonderful success, but never […]
ST. PETER, of the noble family of Nolasco, was born in Languedoc, France about 1189. At the age of twenty-five he took a vow of chastity, and made over his vast estates to the Church. Some time after, he conceived the idea of establishing an order for the redemption of captives. The divine will was […]
Born Francesco Forgione in 1887, he was given the name Pio when he joined the Capuchins, and was popularly known as Padre Pio after his ordination to the priesthood. He became famous for his stigmata. On 16 June 2002, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II. Born in Pietrelcina, a farming town in the […]
ST. THECLA is one of the most ancient, as she is one of the most illustrious, Saints in the calendar of the Church. It was at Iconium that St. Paul met St. Thecla, and kindled the love of virginity in her heart. She had been promised in marriage to a young man who was rich […]
ST. THOMAS, the glory of the Spanish Church in the sixteenth century, was born in 1488. A thirst for the science of the Saints led him to enter the house of the Austin Friars at Salamanca. Charles V listened to him as if an oracle, and appointed him Archbishop of Valencia. On being led to […]
ONE day, as Our Lord was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw, sitting at the receipt of custom, Matthew the publican, whose business it was to collect the taxes from the people for their Roman masters. Jesus said to him, “Follow Me;” and leaving all, Matthew arose and followed Him. Now the […]
EUSTACHIUS, called Placidus before his conversion, was a distinguished officer of the Roman army under the Emperor Trajan. One day, whilst hunting a deer, he suddenly perceived between the horns of the animal the image of our crucified Saviour. Responsive to what he considered a voice from heaven, he lost not a moment in becoming […]
MANY centuries ago, St. Januarius died for the Faith in the persecution of Diocletian, and to this day God confirms the faith of His Church, and works a continual miracle, through the blood which Januarius shed for Him. The Saint was Bishop of Beneventum, Italy, and on one occasion he travelled to Misenum in order […]
Joseph was born in Cupertino, Italy in 1603. The son of pious parents, he early attained to the love of God. His boyhood and youth were passed in greatest simplicity and in innocent pastimes. But after the Virgin Mother of God had freed him from a long and painful illness – one which he had […]
ST. LAMBERT was a native of Maestricht, in present day Netherlands. His father intrusted his education to the holy Bishop St. Theodard, and on that good man being assassinated, Lambert was chosen his successor. A revolution breaking out which overturned the kingdom of Austrasia, our Saint was banished from his see on account of his […]
CYPRIAN was an African of noble birth, but of evil life, a pagan, and a teacher of rhetoric. In middle life he was converted to Christianity, and shortly after his baptism was ordained priest, and made Bishop of Carthage, notwithstanding his resistance. When the persecution of Decius broke out, he fled from his episcopal city, […]
She was born in Genoa in 1447, the last of five children. Rich, exceedingly beautiful, and of noble lineage, Catherine had as a child rejected the solicitations of the world, and begged her divine Master for some share in His sufferings. At sixteen years of age she found herself promised in marriage to a young […]
Our Lady of Sorrows (Latin: Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows (Latin: Mater Dolorosa, at times just Dolorosa), and Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names by which the Blessed Virgin Mary is referred to in relation to sorrows in her life. […]
ST. EULOGIUS was a Syrian by birth, and while young embraced the monastic state in that country. The Eutychian heresy had thrown the Churches of Syria and Egypt into much confusion, and a great part of the monks of Syria had that time become notorious for their loose morals and errors against faith. Eulogius learned […]
The Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary is a feast day celebrated since 1684. In that year Pope Innocent XI added it to the Church calendar to commemorate the military victory of 1683, when the Turkish army was vanquished before the gates of Vienna, and Europe was delivered from the Muslim scourge. After […]
PETER CLAVER was a Spanish Jesuit. In Majorca he fell in with the holy lay-brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, who, having already learned by revelation the saintly career of Peter, became his spiritual guide, foretold to him the labors he would undergo in the Indies, and the throne he would gain in heaven. Ordained priest in New […]
ST. CLOUD is the first and most illustrious Saint among the princes of the royal family of the first race in France. He was son of Chlodomir, King of Orleans, the eldest son of St. Clotilda, and was born in 522. He was scarce three years old when his father was killed in Burgundy; but […]
WONDERFUL simplicity and spirit of compunction were the distinguishing virtues of this holy man. He was chosen abbot of St. Mark’s near Spoleto, Italy (see photo) and favored by God with the gift of miracles. A child who was possessed by the devil, being delivered by being educated in his monastery, the abbot said one […]
LAURENCE from a child longed to be a Saint; and when he was nineteen years of age there was granted to him a vision of the Eternal Wisdom. All earthly things paled in his eyes before the ineffable beauty of this sight, and as it faded away a void was left in his heart which […]
ST. ROSALIA was daughter of a noble family descended from Charlemagne. She was born at Palermo in Sicily, and despising in her youth worldly vanities, made herself an abode in a cave on Mount Pelegrino, three miles from Palermo. There she completed the sacrifice of her heart to God by austere penance and manual labor, […]
Born Joseph Melchior Sarto on June 2, 1835, this remarkable man described himself in his will, “I was born poor, I lived in poverty, I wish to die poor.” His place of birth was the little village of ‘Riese in northern Italy. His parents had nine other children, two of whom died in infancy. When […]
GEYSA, fourth Duke of Hungary, was, with his wife, converted to the Faith, and saw in a vision the martyr St. Stephen, who told him that he should have a son who would perfect the work he had begun. This son was born in 977, and received the name of Stephen. He was most carefully […]
ST. RAYMUND NONNATUS was born in Catalonia, in the year 1204, and was descended of a gentleman’s family of a small fortune. In his childhood he seemed to find pleasure only in his devotions and serious duties. His father perceiving in him an inclination to a religious state, took him from school, and sent him […]
This lovely flower of sanctity, the first canonized Saint of the New World, was born at Lima in 1586. She was christened Isabel, but the beauty of her infant face earned for her the title of Rose, which she ever after bore. As a child, while still in the cradle, her silence under a painful […]
