St Giles

Giles was born in Greece. He parents had lots of money and when they died, they left their fortune to him. He used this money to help the poor. Giles was a very holy and faithful man. God had used him to perform many miracles. When the stories of these miracles s and the stories of his great generosity spread, Giles became very popular in Greece. He did not want all the attention so he left his home country and sailed to France. In France, he lived in a cave in the wilderness. He spent his time praying to God. God was so pleased with His servant that he sent him deer so that Giles would have milk to drink. One day when the king of France and his men were out hunting, the deer they were chasing ran into Giles’ cave. The men shot arrows at the deer and when they went into the cave to see if they had hit the deer, they found Giles. He had been pierced by one of the arrows. The king had his doctor tend to Giles. The king was so impressed by Giles’ holiness that he would visit him regularly. The king would often bring gifts but Giles did not accept them. Finally, the one gift Giles did accept was the kings’ offer to build a monastery near his cave. Giles became abbot of the monastery. He had many followers and a town was build around the monastery by people who loved to be near him. When Giles died, he was buried at the monastery. This site became a popular place for pilgrims to visit on pilgrimages to Spain and the Holy Land.

St Aidan

As a young boy Aidan studied under St. Senan. He went to study in England at St. David’s monastery and stayed there for many years studying the holy words of the Bible. He later went back to Ireland and started a monastery and also became a bishop. He was known to perform many miracles and this brought many people back to the Church, as many people had left the Catholic Church in Ireland at that time. He would walk from village to village sharing the good news with all the people who would listen to him. He was a good preacher and many people came back to Jesus because of his many visits and discussions with them. The miracles he performed saved his Diocese from attack and also saved the monastery that he was studying in when he was in England. The monastery that he started in Ireland grew and spread throughout the area, many more monasteries were built. These monasteries were a place for people to go and study and grow closer to Jesus. He worked very hard until the day he died to bring people to Jesus and to rebuild the Church in Ireland.

St Jean Jugan

Jean was born into a poor family who had 8 children. Her father died when Jean was only 3 years old and her mother had to work very hard to keep her family fed and clothed. The children had to start working when they were very young too in order to help their mother. When Jean was 16 years old she began to work for a kind, Christian woman as her kitchen maid. This kind woman prayed with Jean and they would visit the sick and poor that lived close by. This made Jean want to work at the hospital caring for the sick and so she did for 6 years, until she was too tired to continue that type of work. She then went to work for another kind and holy woman, Mlle. Lecoq. Together they would pray for hours a day and they would go to Mass and help the priest there. They taught catechism to the children in town and cared for the poor around them. After Mlle. Lecoq died, Jean moved in with another older lady and an orphan girl and together these 3 women started a community of prayer and service to the poor. They also started to open up their home to the poor, abandoned women of the town. This community of women gave everything they had to help the poor and as more women joined them, they had to go out asked for food and clothing. Before Jean died her community of 3 women has spread through Europe and even in other countries, with 2,400 women. This community became known as “The Little Sisters of the Poor”.

St John The Baptist

St. John was martyred because he spoke the truth to Herod the Emperor of Rome. Herod had divorced his wife so that he could take his brother’s wife, Herodias, for himself. Herod listened to John and knew that he was a good and holy man, he was afraid of John the Baptist because he knew that John’s God was very powerful. His new wife Herodias was not afraid of John the Baptist, she hated him for telling everyone that she was living in sin with Herod and so she made her husband arrest John and put him in prison. Then at Herod’s birthday party Herodias tricked Herod into killing John the Baptist. She sent her daughter to go and dance for Herod and all his friends and she pleased them so much that Herod told Herodias’ daughter that he would give her whatever she wanted, even half of his kingdom. When Herodias’ daughter asked her mother what she should ask for, Herodias said to ask for John the Baptist’s head. So her daughter told King Herod what she wanted and he could not refuse in front of all his guests, because he had promised her anything she wanted. John the Baptist was killed because he spoke the truth and would not stop, because he wanted to see even King Herod turn away from sin and come back to God.

St Augustine

Augustine was one of St. Monica’s 3 children. After his father died, his brother and sister joined religious orders and lived lives of holiness, while Augustine chose to live his life for himself. He did not live for others or for Jesus; he lived to entertain himself with sinful parties and the sinful ways of the world. He turned his back on what he had learned from his faithful mother and instead believed in false gods and idols. Even though he was a very smart man, he was living in so much sin and he was so prideful that he could not hear God’s voice speaking to him and loving him. His mother prayed for him to come back to God for 17 years and through the teachings of St. Ambrose, and the life of St. Anthony of the Desert, Augustine finally turned back to God. He was so sorry for his sins, but he didn’t think that he could live a good life, so he did not get baptized right away. He didn’t feel worthy and didn’t realize that God forgave him all his sins and would help him live a good life. He wanted so much to live for Jesus and one day while praying and crying in a garden under a fig tree, he asked God for help and he heard a little child’s voice sing, “Take up and read!” over and over again. So he picked up the Bible and read the words of St. Paul to the Romans in Chapter 13; 13-15 to live our life for Jesus and nothing else, and he decided on that day to be baptized. He was baptized by St. Ambrose and he returned to Africa. He sold everything that belonged to him except for his family’s house, which he turned into a monastery for himself and his friends. He soon became a priest and later he was also made Bishop. He wrote many books teaching us how to live for Jesus and not fall into temptation and sin. He worked very hard to change the hearts of the people that lived in his country so that they would come to know Jesus.

St Monica

Monica didn’t have a choice who she married, it was arranged for her by her family. So she was married to a man who was important in their country, but who did not believe in God. He also had a very bad temper, which made life very hard for Monica. Her husband’s mother also lived with them and she did not believe in God either. Even though it was difficult, Monica had a very strong faith in God and she prayed very hard that her family would know Jesus. She had 3 children, Perpetua, Navigius and Augustine, and she raised them to know and love Jesus. Through Monica’s love, example and patience, her husband and his mother did finally come to believe in Jesus, shortly before they died. Two of her three children, Perpetua and Navigius, also grew up to love Jesus and joined religious orders. Augustine led a very sinful life and it took a very long time for him to learn to love Jesus. Monica spent 17 years of her life praying for him, worrying about him and watching out for him to make sure that he would one day know Jesus. She followed him to Rome so that she could continue praying for him and watch out for him, until finally Augustine was baptized by St. Ambrose. Monica, so happy to finally see her whole family following Jesus, died later in the same year that Augustine gave his life to Jesus. She must have rejoiced so much in Heaven to see Augustine live such a good life that he too became a saint.

St Elisabeth Bichier

Elisabeth was born into a rich and important family; her father worked for the Government of France and her mother was the daughter of a Government official. So during the French Revolution, when people in France fought against the government and the Church, her family had a very difficult time; Elisabeth was 16 years old when the Revolution started. Her father died when Elisabeth was only 19 years old and she had to fight against the new Government that had taken over France, in order to keep what belonged to her family. She studied the law on her own and took the Government to court and she won, saving her family from loosing all their possessions and being homeless. When she was 23 she left their home with her mother to live outside of Paris. The Catholic Church in the town was really suffering because of the Revolution; most of the priests in France had been kicked out of France for not agreeing to follow the new Government. Elisabeth gathered as many people as she could to pray and sing and learn about God, because they had no priest to celebrate mass for them. She soon heard that there was a priest saying mass in secret in a barn 25 miles away, Fr. Andrew Fournet who became a saint too. Elisabeth and Fr. Andrew became friends and Fr. Andrew helped Elisabeth grow closer to Jesus. When her mother died Elisabeth joined a Carmelite convent, she was 31 years old. Later with the help of Fr. Andrew she created a new order of Sisters called the Daughters of the Cross of St. Andrew. These sisters took care of the sick and poor and helped to teach the people of France who were not living in the city. This order spread throughout small towns in France during Elisabeth’s life, with 60 houses being started and these sisters continue to help the people of France today.

St Louis King IX

Louis was born into a royal family; his father was King Louis VIII and his mother was Queen Blanche. His mother taught him to love God with his whole life, from the time that he was little and he grew up with a deep faith. His father died when Louis was only 12 years old and so Louis became King. Because he was so young his mother ruled France until Louis was old enough to take over; he began ruling as King when he was 21 years old. He married a good woman who became Queen Margaret and together they had 11 children. As King, Louis went on two battles to help Christians in other lands be able to travel to holy places in and around Jerusalem, these battles were called The Crusades. In one of these crusades, he was taken as a prisoner by the Egyptians. He was later released when France gave the Egyptians money and the land that the Egyptians wanted. Also on a crusade, he believed that he found the crown of thorns that Jesus wore and he brought it back to France and built a special church for it, where it can still be seen today. King Louis built many churches in France to help people to go to church more and to help those in need. On his second crusade he got sick with typhoid fever and he died before ever fighting his battle. He was happy to die and to be going to God’s house.

St Bartholomew

Bartholomew was the 4th Apostle that Jesus called to follow him. He was also called by the name Nathaniel. We can read about Jesus calling Bartholomew (Nathaniel) to be His Apostle in John 1:43-51. Phillip told Bartholomew that he had found Jesus who he believed was the Messiah. At first Bartholomew did not think that Jesus could be the Messiah because he was from Nazareth and nothing good could come from Nazareth. Then Jesus came and spoke to Bartholomew like he knew who he was, and he said that Bartholomew was a very good man, someone that could only speak the truth. Bartholomew asked Jesus how He knew him. Jesus replied that he saw him sitting under a fig tree before Phillip called him. Bartholomew realized that Jesus saw him praying under the fig tree through a miracle and that Jesus knew what was in his heart and mind. From that moment on Bartholomew believed that Jesus was the Son of God. He spent the rest of His life proclaiming the Gospel and he died as a martyr spreading the Good News in many lands.

St Rose of Lima

Rose was named Isabel when she was born, but she was such a beautiful baby that her parents called her Rose and that nickname is what everyone called her for her whole life. As she grew up she became more and more beautiful and everyone noticed what a beautiful woman she was. Her mother liked to put wreaths of roses in her hair in order to show off how beautiful Rose was. This worried Rose, because she loved Jesus so much and she didn’t want people to notice her, she wanted them to pay attention to Jesus. She was worried that people might sin because of her beauty, because they would pay more attention to her than to Jesus. So she would hide thorns in the roses of her crown to remind her of Jesus’ crown of thorns and one day she rubbed pepper on her face until it became red and blistered so that people would not stare at her beauty anymore. Her parents wanted her to get married, but she wanted to live her life for Jesus. She committed herself to Jesus as a Third Order of St. Dominic, which means she lived her life devoted to God in her home. She spent her life praying for people to know Jesus and for her Bishop (who later became a Saint too) and also helped those who were sick and needed help. People say that she loved God so much that her face glowed and her eyes sparkled with His love. She suffered a lot in her life, with illness and sadness at the sin in the world. But even in her suffering God blessed her with deep faith and sometimes even gave her visions; once God spoke to her, “Rose of My Heart, be My spouse”. Rose died very young, she was only 31 years old.

Queen ship of Mary

Mary is the Queen of Heaven and earth, because she is Jesus’ mother and He is the King. Since Jesus gave Mary to us as our Mother before he died, this means that she is our Queen too! As our Queen we need to make a throne for her in our hearts, so that she can guide us to her Son Jesus. All that Mary wants is that we know, love and serve her Son Jesus, this is what makes her happy. In order for more people to understand that Mary is our Queen, Pope Pius XII created this feast day, so that everyone in the Church would celebrate Mary as their Queen.

St Pius X

St. Pius was named Joseph when he born into a poor family and he had 9 brothers and sisters. Even though his family was very poor, they still made sure that Joseph and his brothers and sisters had a good education. Joseph had to walk 6 km to school and back every day, which took a very long time! He was also able to study with the priest in his village and then the bishop helped him go to the seminary in Padua. On September 18, 1858, Joseph became a priest and started working in a parish while he kept studying. He helped the parish a lot; giving everything he had to help the people in the parish and even begging for money to help the Church. He helped take care of the sick in his parish when a really bad illness spread throughout Italy (Cholera plague) and made a lot of people sick. He took on more and more responsibility in the Church, because the bishop saw how good he was. He made sure that every child, whether they were in a Catholic school or public school, could learn about Jesus. Soon Fr. Joseph became Bishop and then Cardinal and then on August 9, 1903 he was elected as the Pope! He took the name Pope Pius X, and he promised, “to restore all things in Christ” through our Mother Mary. He continued to do whatever he could to make sure that children where learning about God, and as Pope he would invite the children to come and talk to him whenever he met with people. He also made sure that children received Jesus in the Eucharist, because this was not allowed before he became Pope, and he would teach them catechism whenever he had the chance. He encouraged everybody to receive the Eucharist as often as they could, even every day if they could. He continued to give everything that he owned to the poor of the Church, he never kept anything for himself. He said that he started his life being poor and he wanted to die poor, and he did.

St Bernard de Clairveau

Bernard was born into a very important and rich family. He and his 6 brothers and sisters all had a very good education and learned about God from their mom and dad and at school. His mom died when he was only 17 years old and this made Bernard very sad. His brothers and sisters helped him to get over his sadness and helped him to enjoy life again. Afraid that he might let the sin of the world take him away from God, Bernard decided to join the Cistercian Order and become a monk. He also convinced his brother and lots of his friends to go with him into the monastery. So Bernard and 30 other young men joined the monastery on the same day! The leaders of the monastery saw how great Bernard was and they sent him to go start another monastery and to lead the monks there. After that Bernard built a few more monasteries and he also helped the Pope when he was asked. He loved Mary very much and he wrote lots of books about her to help people grow closer to her and her Son, Jesus.

St John Eudes

John was born into a farming family and he helped his father on the farm until he was old enough to become a priest. He always wanted to be a priest but his parents tried to convince him to get married. After lots of talking, John finally convinced his parents to let him go to the seminary and he joined a group of priests called the congregation of the Oratory. Soon after he became a priest, there were very bad diseases that started spreading throughout France, these diseases were called plagues and many people died because of them. Fr. John worked very hard to help the people that were sick and those who had lost their families because of the plagues. Fr. John also became a very good preacher of the Gospel and many people went to him for confession. He helped women who were in trouble and started a home for them to go to for help. He left the Oratorians and started his own group of priests called the Congregation of Jesus and Mary. His congregation worked hard to build good seminaries all over France to teach men to be good priests and they were also committed to preaching the Gospel really well so people would get to know Jesus. The group of women that he helped also started a convent with the help of Fr. John; they were called the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge. Throughout his work as a priest he helped bring people closer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Heart of Mary, creating prayers and celebrating mass to help people get closer to the hearts of Jesus and Mary.

St Alberto

Alberto’s father died when Alberto was very young and his mother had to work very hard to care for her family. She was given some money to send Alberto to a good school run by the Jesuits and there Alberto learned more about Jesus and got a good education. He was then able to go on to study to become a lawyer. Instead of becoming a lawyer though, he became a Jesuit priest. He kept studying because he wanted to learn as much as he could so that he could help the people in his home town; so many of them were very poor and were helpless to do something to change their life. When he went back to Chile as a priest he set to work teaching kids that didn’t have a lot of hope in their life. He made sure that they got a good education so that they could one day get a job. He also made sure that they learned about God and had faith so that they could do good things with their life. He built shelters all around Chile called “Hogar de Cristo” (Home of Christ) that took care of children that didn’t have any homes and were getting into trouble. He also did a lot of work to try and teach everyone more about the Catholic faith and encourage more men to become priests, because there were so few in Chile. Many people came to know Jesus through Fr. Hurtado because he was always so joyful and willing to help everyone.

St Jeanne

Jeanne was the 12th child and growing up she didn’t think about other people, she was selfish and thought only of herself. Her mother ran a store near the Shrine of Our Lady of Ardillier, she also helped pilgrims that came through the town, making sure they were well taken care of during their visit to the Shrine. When her mother died, Jeanne took over this business. She didn’t run the store like her mother did, she was more concerned about making money then about caring for the pilgrims. Then one day a pilgrim woman told Jeanne that she would spend her days taking care of other people, Jeanne didn’t believe her at first. Slowly God started to change her heart. She started to care about the pilgrims that came to her store, she started to help the poor people and the orphans that she saw on the streets. She started doing all this at he same time that she started praying more and getting closer to Jesus. Soon her house was full of orphans and poor people, she closed down her store so that she could spend all her time helping people. Other women joined her and they started a community of sisters called the Sisters of St. Anne of Providence. By the end of her life there were 12 other communities of sisters throughout France serving the poor, the orphans and those that needed help.

St Stephan of Hungry

Stephen was named Vajk when he was born. His father was a Prince of Hungary. When his father and mother became Christians, they also had Vajk baptized, and they gave him the baptized name of Stephen, after the first martyr of the Church. When Stephen’s father died, he took over as leader of the Hungarian people. He fought many battles to spread Christianity throughout the land and to gain more land for Hungary. Since he showed how strong and good of a leader he could be, Pope Sylvester made him the first King of Hungary in the year 1000. He was a good King and took very good care of his people; he built many new Churches and he helped the poor in his country as much as he could.

Assumption

Mary did not die when she went up to Heaven, she was carried or Assumed into Heaven while she was still alive! Mary was a very special person from the very beginning of her life, from the very day she was conceived she had no sin. It is no wonder that when it was time for her to go Heaven God wanted ALL of her in Heaven. At the Last Supper Jesus promises that one day we will get to be in Heaven with him, with our body as well – it is a wonderful promise and He shows us that He means it by bringing His Mother into Heaven body and soul first. No one really know how Mary was taken into Heaven. When Jesus was taken into Heaven (in the Ascension) the Apostles saw Him taken up in a cloud. Maybe it was the same way with Mary – it is fun to use our imagination to wonder what this event must have been like and to pretend that we were there waving to our Mother as she went home to be with her Son.

St Maximilian Kolbe

St. Maximilian was named Raymond when he was born and took the name Maximilian when he joined the Franciscan order when he was a teenager. Maximilian loved our Mother Mary and when he became a priest he added Mary to his name, to show his devotion to her. He spent his whole life as a priest working to make Mary known and loved, so that people would get to know her Son Jesus. He started a group called the Militia of Mary Immaculata so that people could learn about Mary and he started a magazine called “The Knight of the Immaculata” so that people could read about Mary. He built a big centre in Poland called the City of the Immaculate where 800 Franciscans came to live and work. He built two more of these cities in Japan and India. Then in 1938 the rulers of Germany, the Nazis, invaded Poland and the City of the Immaculate. The Nazis did not like anyone that loved God. They put Maximilian in a work prison (just like St. Edith and Blessed Otto) and treated him very badly. Three months after Maximilian arrived there someone escaped from the prison, which made the guards very angry. In order to punish the prisoners they chose 10 prisoners who would have no food or water because of the person who escaped. One of the men that the guards picked had a wife and children and did not want to die, so Maximilian asked if he could take his place and the guard said yes. Maximilian died with the 9 other prisoners and while they sat in prison with no food or water for days, Maximilian prayed with them, comforted them and helped each of them die in peace with Jesus. Maximilian helped them all go to Heaven and he was the last one to die and go to Heaven to be with Jesus.

St Otto

Otto was the born to a poor and simple family; he was the family’s 12th child. He wanted to become a priest since he was little and when he was old enough he went to a seminary to study. He became a priest as soon as he was old enough (1907) and he had finished all his studies. Like St. Edith, he was alive when the Nazis government in Germany took over. The Nazis’ did not like Jewish people and they also did not like Catholic priests. They did not want anybody to live out their Catholic faith. They treated the priests very badly, to try and scare people into turning their backs on Jesus. Fr. Otto was not afraid of the Nazis and he kept celebrating mass and leading the people in his Church. The Nazis’ arrested Fr. Otto and took him to a concentration camp, first in Dachau and then in Buchenwald; like all the other prisoners he was treated very badly. Even in this very bad place where no one was allowed to live out their faith, Fr. Otto was a priest for all of the prisoners. There was a prisoner who came to know Jesus through Fr. Otto’s teachings and he wanted to be baptized; Fr. Otto made plans to baptize him even in prison. When the Nazi guards heard about Fr. Otto’s plans they took him and tortured him until he died. Fr. Otto died a martyr, serving his God and the people around him.

St Jane Frances de Chantel

Jane grew up learning about the faith from her father who encouraged all his children to learn and ask questions about everything. When she was 20 years old she married Christophe who became Baron (which means he was important in the city) but who took over a lot of problems and debt from his father. Jane used her strong faith and her good and kind hearted nature to help her and her husband work through the hard times of their first years of marriage. Jane and Christophe really loved each other and they lived a very happy life with their 4 children, until Christophe died in a hunting accident. A friend of Christophe accidentally shot him and before Christophe died he forgave his friend and told him not to be angry about what he had done. It was harder for Jane to forgive because she missed her husband so much, but she followed her husband’s example and did forgive with her whole heart. After Christophe died, Jane spent lots of time in prayer getting to know Jesus more. She became friends with St. Francis de Sales who helped her start a convent for all the women that no other convent would take because they were too old or sick, the order of the Visitation. She taught her children and her sisters that no matter how many times you fall and sin, you need to always get back up and tell Jesus that you love Him and put your heart in the right direction again.

St Clare

Clare was born into a rich and important family in Italy; her parents had many plans for her life. When Clare met St. Francis and heard him preach the Good News, she felt a burning in her heart to give her whole life to Jesus, just as Francis had done. Her parents did not want to her to join a convent, so one day she ran away from home and met Francis in a Chapel just outside of Assisi where Francis and his Brothers were living. There Clare gave her whole life to Jesus and she gave up all the riches and comforts of her rich life. She started the order of Sisters called the Poor Clares, who follow the example of St. Francis of Assisi. Clare’s sister Agnes joined her and so did many other women who wanted to live their life for Jesus. The lived a very poor and simple life. They did not have any extra things in life, only what they really needed to live and they spent their days in prayer and quiet. The Sisters of the Poor Clares continue to live this way of life even today. Clare became very sick and suffered for many years, but nothing ever took away her joy of being the Bride of Christ and giving her life fully to God. When people would say that her and her Sisters were living too poor or a life, she would tell them that they could never be poor as long as they had God in their hearts.

St Lawrence

Lawrence was one of seven Deacons in Rome that were responsible for taking care of the poor. During this time the rulers of Rome began to treat the Christians very badly and they even killed the Pope, St. Sixtus. Lawrence stayed beside his Pope until the very end of his life, and Lawrence asked Pope Sixtus where he was going without his Deacon. He wanted to go with the Pope to Heaven, he didn’t want to be left alone. Knowing this the Pope said to him that he was not leaving him behind, Lawrence would be with him in three days. This made Lawrence so happy. Knowing that he would die in three days he sold everything he had and gave all his money to the poor. This made the Prefect of Rome think that the Church had a lot of money that they were hiding from him, and he demanded that Lawrence bring him all the riches of the Church. Lawrence said that he would do that in three days; and three days later he brought all the poor and sick people of Rome to the Prefect and said here are the treasures of the Church! This made the Prefect very mad and he condemned Lawrence death. This did not scare Lawrence and he made jokes while he was being held over flames of fire, he said; “Turn me over, I’m done on this side” and “It’s cooked enough now”. He prayed that everyone in Rome would one day give their life to Jesus and that the gospel would spread over the whole world – his prayers were answered. He became a martyr and joined his Pope in Heaven.

St Edith Stein

Edith was born in 1891, which makes her a Saint that lived in our times, not hundreds of years ago. Edith was born into a Jewish family and she did not grow up believing that Jesus was the Son of God. She was a very smart student and she loved philosophy, which is the study of all sorts of things that people think about, like the meaning of life. Through her studies she became interested in the teachings of the Catholic Church and in 1922 she was baptized into the Catholic Church in Germany, believing that Jesus was the Son of God who came to save us. After living the Catholic faith for 11 years, Edith felt that God was calling her to become a sister and devote her whole life to Jesus, and so she joined the Carmel convent in Cologne, Germany. She took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross when she became a sister. When the Nazis took power in Germany, they tried to get rid of all the Jewish people in Germany, and so Sr. Teresa (Edith) was sent to a Carmel convent in Holland. Soon the Nazis took power over Holland too, and Sr. Teresa (Edith) along with another Jewish Sister where taken to a concentration camp in Auschwitz, where the Nazis treated all their prisoners very, very badly. She died there in 1942, when she was only 51 years old. Even though she died in such a horrible place, her Sainthood reminds us that God will always win over evil in the world.

St Dominic

Dominic grew up in a very good Catholic family, his mother was Blessed Joan of Aza, and they taught him about God and he grew up learning about Jesus. He was sent to school when he was seven years old and he grew to know Jesus more and more through his studies. When he grew up, he became a priest and joined an order that followed the rules of St. Benedict. During the time that he was alive there was a group of people that believed some lies about God and these people wanted to change the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Dominic spent his whole life preaching and teaching to these people, trying to help them understand the Truth. It was not easy and he had to work very hard. Through his hard work he was given some preachers to work with him in his mission and with these men he started the Order of Preachers, also called the Dominicans. The goal of the Dominicans was, and still is, to preach the Truth of the Gospels and help people come to know the true God. St. Dominic’s Order spread throughout many countries before he died and the Order still continues today.

St Cajetan

Cajetan was a lawyer from a rich family, who went to Rome to work for the Pope. He was alive during a difficult time in the Church; there were many priests who were living very sinful lives and this was really pulling people away from believing that the Catholic Church had the true teaching of Jesus. Cajetan saw all the wrong things that were happening in the Church and he wanted to do something to change things. He decided to become a priest, so that he could help change what was happening with the priests in the Catholic Church. He and a group of other good priests, formed an Oratory in his hometown, which means a club of priests that wanted to show God’s love to the people and bring the Church back to the true teachings of Jesus. This Oratory of priests worshipped God, preached and served those dying in the hospitals. Still, Cajetan saw so much sin in the Church, especially in the priests. He formed another group of priests that tried to live their lives by the example of the Apostles. They focused on being the best examples they could be to other priests, they preached the true gospel, and helped the poor and sick. They saw some priests come back to Jesus, but it was very hard to change these priests minds because they felt they were living good lives, doing whatever they wanted. Cajetan worked hard until he became too sick to work. He would sleep on wooden boards, instead of a bed as penance for those priests who were sinning. The doctors asked him to sleep on a bed, because he was so sick, but Cajetan said he wanted to sleep on the wooden boards, because Jesus had died on a cross and he wanted to die on wood too.

Transfiguration

The Gospels tell of the day that Jesus was transfigured (changed) in front of three of his Apostles, Peter, James and John. Jesus took them up to a mountain and on this mountain he became as white as snow and bright light shone from him. As his Apostles watched two other men appear with Him and begin to talk with Jesus; these two men where the prophets Elijah and Moses. The Apostles did not really understand what was happening, they were amazed at what they saw, because they knew it had to come from heaven. Peter was so amazed that he asked Jesus if they could stay there; he could build three tents, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him”. The Apostles became afraid, because they did not know the voice of God and it was a very powerful voice. They fell to the ground in fear and Jesus came to them and told them not to be afraid, everything had returned to normal. Jesus asked them then not to tell anybody about this event until after he had died. They obeyed Jesus and now this story is in the gospels for us to read and understand that Jesus is truly our Saviour, the one who the great prophets told us about; the Son of God. Read this story in the gospels of Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9: 2-8; or Luke 9:28-36.

St Frederic

Frederic grew up on a farm, with his 12 older brothers and sisters! Sadly his dad died when Frederic was only 9 years old and so he had to stop going to school so that he could work to help his family. After his mother died, Frederic felt a strong desire to become a priest with the Franciscan brothers and so at 23 years old he joined the seminary. As a priest he did many wonderful things; he helped soldiers as a military priest; he preached the Gospel in the Holy Land and built a Church in Bethlehem; he lead people in the Stations of the Cross along the same path that Jesus carried his cross. Later in his life as a priest he was sent to Quebec, Canada to ask for money to help the Church in the Holy Land. He shared the Gospel with so many people and everyone loved to listen to him speak. He did not stay in Quebec at first, but after a few more years in the Holy Land he asked to come back. He helped the people of Quebec fall in love with Jesus again and learn more about their faith. He helped bring back the Franciscan order to Canada, which now have priest all across Canada. He wrote books and continued to raise money for the Church and he lead pilgrimages to important spots in Quebec, St. Anne de Beaupre and Notre-Dame-du-Cap. Many people came to know Jesus because of the hard work of this good and faithful priest.

St John Vianney

John grew up on the farm, helping his father take care of their sheep. When he was 18 he asked his father if he could become a priest, it took his father 2 years to agree, but he finally said yes. In order to become a priest John had to study a lot, and studying did not come easy for him. He had to work very hard to pass his tests to finally become a priest, but he knew that God would help him and he studied hard and finally did become a parish priest. He was given a Parish in a small town called Ars in France. He gave his whole life to the community, living there for 42 years as the Parish priests. He spent his whole life praying for the people in the community to come to know Jesus; he made many sacrifices for them and taught them what they needed to do to follow Jesus. He became very well know all over France and people started to go to the small town of Ars to see Fr. John and to go to confession with him. He had a gift to be able to see what was really going on in peoples’ hearts and help them to turn away from sin. He would hear peoples’ confessions for 12 to 16 hours a day! He worked many wonders for the people that came to see him and he was so generous, patient and kind with people that everyone who heard him speak would give their hearts to Jesus. He became known as the Curé d’Ars, because everyone living in Ars loved him so much and changed their lives because of his example. St. John Vianney became very well known throughout the world and his preaching, confessions and example brought many people back to God.

St Eymard

Growing up Eymard worked hard, helping his father with their family business. He wanted to be a priest so much that he spent his free time studying and when he was 20 years old he joined the seminary in his town of Grenoble and became a priest. Fr. Eymard loved Jesus and he knew that Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist. He wanted to make sure that everyone believed that. He spent lots of time praying in front of the Eucharist and teaching people about the Truth, that Jesus is with us in the Eucharist. He started an order of priests called the Priest of the Blessed Sacrament and also started an order of sisters called the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament. This group of sisters spent all of their time praying in front of Jesus present in the Eucharist. Fr. Eymard also wrote many books about the Eucharist and these books still help people today learn more about Jesus truly being with us.

St Eusebius

Eusebius grew up in a very strong Catholic and faithful family, his father died a martyr for the faith. The Church was still very new, as it had only been about 350 years since Jesus had died and rose from the dead, so things were very different from how they are now. After his father died, Eusebius moved to Rome so that he could serve the Church more. The people of Rome saw how much Eusebius did for their Church community and they asked him to be their bishop (because bishops back then were not chosen by the Pope as they are now). He did a wonderful job serving his people as bishop and he guided many priests that served with him, who later also became bishops. The Emperor of Rome, Constantinius, belonged to a group of Christians who did not believe that Jesus was God. This group, called the Arians, made life very difficult for the true Christians who believed the truth that Jesus was the Son of God. The Pope asked Bishop Eusebius to go and try to make peace between the true Christians and the Arians, but the Arians only wanted everybody to believe as they did. They made life very difficult for Bishop Eusebius and treated him very cruelly until Emperor Constantinius died. After this time Bishop Eusebius spent the rest of his life trying to help all the people of the Church to believe in the truth of the Gospel and not in the many wrong teachings that were being spread.