St Bridget

Brigid was born a short time after St Patrick began spreading Jesus' message in Ireland. She grew up knowing and loving Jesus. She had a great love for poor people and would often share food and clothes with them. Once she gave a whole pail of milk to people who were hungry. As she walked home she began to worry that her mother would be upset with her. She asked God to fill her pail and by the time she got home, her pail was full of milk. Brigid became a nun and started her own convent. She was so lovely, gentle and kind to those in need, that many people referred to her as "Mary of the Irish.”

St John Bosco

John’s parents were poor farmers. When John was only 9 he already wanted to become a priest. His mother let him go to school, but he always had to do his chores first. He learned to do all kinds of jobs; carpentry, shoemaking, cooking, farming, baking and many other jobs. When John grew up he did became a priest. As a priest, Don Bosco (Don means Father in Italian) began helping his people. He was a very kind man and he felt sad when he saw so many children living on the streets of Italy. Like a loving father, he gathered together these homeless boys and taught them how to work, so that they would stay out of trouble. His advice to the boys was, "Pray when it's time to pray. Study when it's time to study. Play when it's time to play. Show kindness to everyone you meet. But do it all for the love of Jesus." Don Bosco started his own religious order of priests, brothers and sisters called the Salesians, after St. Francis de Sales.

St Bathildis

When Bathildis was only a little girl, she was taken onto a pirate ship and taken to France. She was sold as a slave to the Mayor of the Palace of King Clovis. Bathildis quietly did everything she was told to do and did the best she could in everything. King Clovis began to notice how good Bathildis was and the more he watched her, the more he was impressed and so he married her! The little slave girl became the Queen. They had 3 sons and after King Clovis died, Bathildis became ruler of France until her sons grew up and became King. She remembered her years as a slave and what it was like to be poor and so Bathildis wanted everyone to know how precious they were to God. She used her royal position to help and protect the Church in every way she could and she always helped the poor whenever she could. She opened many hospitals in France to help the sick people and she made it against the law to sell Christians as slaves. When her son Clotaire was 15, Queen Bathildis made him King and she entered the convent of Chelles. In the convent she never demanded or even expected that other people should treat her like a Queen.

St Gildas

When Gildas he was just a child he was taken to a monastery close to home so that he could learn with Saint Illtyd. When he grew up, he moved to Ireland to study and gave his life to God. Gildas was serious about living his faith and he did whatever he could to get closer to God. He prayed really hard for all the bad people and he talked to them about God; he wanted them to stop being bad and start to believe in God. Gildas later became a hermit, living on a tiny island all alone, so that he could spend more time in prayer and learning about God. Lots of people wanted to be like Gildas and soon lots of people came to his hermitage to learn from him. People in the Church - priests, bishops, men and women went to Gildas for advice. He welcomed everyone that came to him, to show people that God wants us to share our gifts with others. Gildas reminded everyone to always try to be good, to stop doing bad things and to do what is right.

St Thomas Aquinas

Thomas was one of 9 children and he was very smart. When Thomas was 18, he went to the University in Naples. While he was there he met a new group of religious men called the Order of Preachers. Their founder, St. Dominic, was still alive. Thomas knew he wanted to become a priest and felt that he was called to join these men. So he became a Dominican priest. St. Thomas wrote so well about God that people all over the world have used his books for hundreds of years. His explanations about God came from Thomas' love for God. His writings have touched the hearts of people and helped them be closer to God. This is why he was made a Doctor of the Church. He is also the patron saint of all schools.

St Angela Metici

Angela’s parents and sister died when Angela was young. Jesus helped her through lots of hard times and Angela grew to love Jesus very much and promised to spend the rest of her life serving Jesus. When she was about 22 years old, Angela began to notice that the children of her town did not know a lot about Jesus. Angela asked some of her friends to help her teach religion classes. This was the beginning of the first order of sisters to ever open schools for children. Angela and these sisters promised to live only for God and they started the Ursuline Order. Angela asked St. Ursula to keep all of the sisters safe and this is how they got their name. The Ursuline Sisters went to many countries, including Canada. The order continues to work for Jesus and his Church, especially teaching children and young adults.

Sts Timothy and Titus

Timothy and Titus were both Bishops in the Church. They also both learned about Jesus through the preaching of St. Paul. When Paul came to preach in his town, Timothy, his mother and his grandmother all became Christians. When Paul went back years later, Paul invited him to go with him to preach the Gospel and Timothy left his home and followed Paul. Timothy died a martyr, just like Paul; he was stoned because he would not worship the King. Titus did not know about Jesus until Paul told him. After hearing about Jesus, Titus became a disciple of Paul, just like Timothy. Titus was generous and hard-working and he told lots of people about Jesus. Titus had a special gift for being a peacemaker and Paul would send him all over to help the new Christians work out their problems and forgive each other. St. Paul made Titus Bishop of the Island of Crete.

Paul of tarsus

Paul lived around the same time Jesus did, but he never met Jesus. When Paul was born he was called Saul. He did not like Christians because he did not know Jesus and didn’t know why people believed in Him. Then Paul had an amazing thing happen to him. One day, Paul was on his way to the city of Damascus to find some Christians and throw them in jail (during that time it was against the law to be Christian). As he was riding along on his horse a big light shone all around him and he was knocked to the ground. He became blind and he heard a voice say, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Saul answered, "Who are you, Sir?" And the voice said, "I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting." Paul asked, "What do you want me to do?" Jesus told him go to Damascus and at that moment Saul received the gift to believe in Jesus. He was baptized and changed his name to Paul to show that he was a changed person. He traveled to many countries and wrote lots of letters telling people about Jesus. His letters can be found in the Bible!

St Francis de Sales

Francis’ family was very rich and sent him to a really good school so that he had an excellent education. When Francis was 24 years old he became a lawyer. But Francis wasn’t really interested in being important; in his heart Francis was listening to what God wanted him to do. He heard God tell him to "Leave all and follow Me.", so Francis became a priest. In those times lots of Christians were leaving the Catholic Church and Fr. Francis wanted to help all these people come back to the Church. Francis and his cousin Fr. Louis de Sales, went together to tell these people about God. It was a hard life because lots of people were angry with the Church and treated the priests very badly. Fr. Francis explained the teachings of the Catholic faith very simply so everyone could understand and slowly lots of people came back to the Catholic Church. Because of all the good work he did to bring so many people back to the Catholic Church he was given a special title in the Church – Doctor of the Church.

St John the almsgiver

John came from a rich family, was married and had a baby. John was a good Christian who used his money to help poor people. John became a Priest and a Bishop, after his wife and child went heaven. The Church gave him a very important job, to be the Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. His job was to help the people there forgive each other and become a strong Church. He promised that he would give the people everything he could, "charity without limits." There were 7,500 poor people there when St. John got there and he promised he would protect them and made sure everyone had what they needed. John always gave as much as he could because when he was very young he had a dream. In his dream he saw a beautiful girl named “Charity”. This beautiful girl told him that she was the oldest daughter of the King. If you are devoted to me, she said, I will lead you to Jesus. No one is as powerful with him as I am. Remember, it was for me that he became a baby to save every person." This is why St. John is called "the almsgiver", because that means someone who always gives to other people.

St Vincent of Portugal

Vincent was taught by the Bishop St. Valerius. Bishop Valerius saw that Vincent had lots of talents and that he was very good, so he made Vincent a deacon in the Church even though he was still young. Bishop Valerius asked him to tell people and teach people about Jesus and the Church. Then one day the Emperor put Bishop Valerius and Deacon Vincent in jail, because they believed in God. Even though he kept them in jail for a long time, they were still happy and peaceful and their faith in Jesus stayed strong. The Emperor sent Bishop Valerius away from the country but Deacon Vincent was treated very meanly because he believed in God. He asked the Holy Spirit to give him strength to always be true to Jesus no matter what happened, and God did help him. When he went back to jail he told the jail guard about Jesus and the jail guard started to believe in God. St. Vincent is the patron Saint of Portugal.

St Agnes

Agnes loved Jesus so much that she chose to live her life only for him. She was very beautiful and lots of boys wanted to marry her, but Agnes had given her heart to Jesus, so she would always tell the boys, "Jesus is my only husband." She even told the Governor's son that she could not marry him and this made him very angry. So he told the Governor that Agnes was Christian, and that was against the law in Rome, so she was brought to the Governor. She was taken to a Roman temple and told to pray to false gods. When they took Agnes to the altar, she made the Sign of the Cross instead of praying to the false gods. She was killed because she would not turn away from Jesus; she was only 12 years old. Many people wrote about how brave St. Agnes was and they even built a big Church to remind people of how much she loved Jesus.

Sts Fabian & Sebastian

they were gathered and landed on Fabian’s head. They took this as a sign that God wanted Fabian to be the next Pope; the first Pope that was not a Priest. He died a martyr, someone who dies because they won’t stop believing in God. Sebastian came from a rich Roman family and was an officer in the Imperial Roman army and captain of the guard. During a time when Christians were not allowed to go to Church or pray, Sebastian would visit and help Christians that were in prison. He even healed the wife of one of the soldiers by making the sign of the cross over her. People that saw all the things that he did started to believe in Jesus. When the Emperor told Sebastian to stop believing in God, he said NO. Since he disobeyed the Emperor, the Emperor tried to kill him with arrows. They thought that they had killed Sebastian, but he was still alive. Instead of running away he stayed in Rome and tried to tell the Emperor of Rome to stop hurting Christians, but he didn’t listen. The Emperor had Sebastian killed because of his faith, just like St. Fabian, he was a martyr.

St Canute

Canute was a strong and wise king of Denmark. He loved the Christian faith so much that throughout his kingdom he told people about Jesus, built churches and helped missionaries do their work. To show people that he believed that Jesus was the most important King, he knelt in church at the foot of the altar and offered his crown to the King of kings, Jesus. Some people in his kingdom did not like King Canute because he made laws about helping the Church; this made these people angry. So the King had to leave his kingdom and hide on an Island. Then one day some angry people went to the church where the King was praying. While his enemies were outside, King Canute received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and he received Communion, he also forgave those who wanted to hurt him. As he was praying, a spear was thrown through a window and hit the King and he was killed, because he stood up for the law of God.

Blessed Christina

Blessed Christina was named Matthia Ciccarelli when she was born; she was the youngest of 6 children. Matthia felt God was calling her to pray for those around her and so she became a cloistered nun (kept away from the outside world) . She joined a convent and got a new name, Sister Christina. Sister Christina and all the other sisters did all that they could to help the poor people in the city. Jesus loved Blessed Christina and did amazing things to show her his love. One time on the feast of Corpus Christi (the celebration of the body of Jesus) Christina floated above the ground and the image of a Host in a golden chalice was shining on her chest. Jesus used her in many ways to work miracles for the good of others

St Anthony the hermit

When Anthony was 20 years old, his parents died and Anthony was left with all their money and the responsibility of taking care of his sister.  Anthony felt like he couldn’t do a good job, so he prayed that God would help him.   He heard Jesus say in the Bible: "Go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven" (Mark 10:21).  He took the words as a message from God in answer to his prayer, so he made sure that his sister finished school, then he sold everything he had and gave the money to the poor.  After his sister left home, Anthony decided to become a hermit and be alone with God.  Even though he wanted to be alone, lots of people came to him for prayer and advice, because Anthony was so close to God.  He told everyone to always pray, be humble and good.  Anthony lived to be 105 years old.

St Berard

Berard came from a very important family and when he was older he joined the order of Saint Francis of Assisi and became a priest.  St. Francis of Assisi asked some of his friars, including Berard, to go to Africa to tell the people living there about Jesus. The people of Morocco in Africa did not want to hear about Jesus because they wanted to live their life their own way.  Even though the people in the city told them to stop preaching, the Friars never stopped because they believed this is what God wanted them to do.  The people kept getting angrier and they killed the friars for preaching the gospel; they died as martyrs because of their faith in Jesus.  After they died, a friend of the friars took their bodies to be buried at Holy Cross Church in Coimbra, Portugal. Many people learned about their courage and strength and love of God. Even though it looked like their mission had failed, God used their mission to change peoples’ lives. One person was so inspired by St. Berard and his companions that he became a priest and loved God so much that he became a Saint, St. Anthony of Padua.

St Paul Hermit

Paul's parents showed him how to love God and worship Him with his whole heart.  After his parents died they left Paul all of their money and property, making Paul very rich.  During the year 250 the ruler of Egypt decided he did not like people who loved God, so Paul had to hide from the ruler because he loved God and loving God was not allowed.  To escape the ruler of Egypt, Paul ran away and hid in the desert. Paul loved living his life in the desert, he spent his time praying and He felt so close to God.  So He decided to stay in the desert and never returned to his rich city life.  People who live like this are called Hermits and Paul was the first Hermit.

St Macrina

St. Macrina was St. Basil the Great’s grandmother.  She helped take care of St. Basil when he was a little boy and she was one of his favorite people. St. Basil always talked about all the great things that his grandmother did for him especially teaching him to love God even when he was very small.  Macrina and her husband loved God very much.  During the time that they were alive, the Emperor of Rome did not like people who loved God, because he wanted everyone to love him the best.  So Macrina and her husband had to hide in the forest to escape the Roman soldiers who were looking for them. They were afraid but they never stopped believing in God. They ate what grew and lived in the forest, and lived like this for 7 years.

St Hilary

Hilary’s family was rich and everyone knew who they were, but they did not know about God. Hilary learned about God at school. He read the Bible for the first time and he really liked the story of Moses and the burning bush.  He really liked the name that God gave himself: I AM WHO I AM.  He read lots of books about Jesus and when he was done all his reading, he believed in God and His Son Jesus and he was baptized and became part of God’s family. Hilary was made a Bishop, which was hard because the Emperor was trying to change some of the things that the Church taught. Hilary would not listen to the Emperor so he was sent away from the country.  Hilary didn’t worry about this; instead he used his courage and patience to get through this hard time.  He wrote lots of books while he was away and these books helped lots of people learn about God.  Hilary’s books are still used by the Church today, which is why he is called a Doctor of the Church.

St Marguerite Bourgeoys

Marguerite was the 6th of 12 brothers and sisters! When Marguerite was 27 she asked God to tell her what to do with her life.  The governor of Montreal, Canada, had come to France in search of teachers for the “new world”.  The Governor asked if Marguerite would come to Montreal to teach school and religion classes and she said yes.  She bravely sailed across the ocean; it took her 5 months to get to Canada!  When she first arrived in Canada many people were poor and having a hard time.  Marguerite did all she could to hep these new Canadians make a good life for themselves, especially making sure the kids were well taken care of and healthy.  Marguerite began opening schools and finding more women that wanted to help her teach all the kids in Canada.  These teachers became the first nuns of the Congregation of Notre Dame (Our Lady).  Marguerite and her sisters did so much to help the people of Montreal, even when things were hard.  On December 31, 1699, a young sister was very sick and Mother Marguerite asked God to let her be sick instead of the young sister.  By the morning of January 1, 1700, the sister was completely well and Mother Marguerite became sick and died on January 12, 1700.

St Theodosius

Theodosius went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (where Jesus lived) when he was young.  After seeing all the places that Jesus had been and thinking about Jesus’ life, he decided to spend his life praying so he could follow God more closely and be more like Jesus.  He went to live as a hermit to be alone with Jesus, but then people started to come to him to learn how to be more holy.  So Theodosius built a big monastery near Bethlehem, the place where Jesus was born. Soon it was filled with monks and they took care of the sick, poor and elderly people.  Theodosius lived to be 106 years old! They buried his body in a cave called the Cave of the Magi, because people think that the 3 Wise Men slept there when they went to visit the baby Jesus.  Theodosius had spent many years in this cave alone with Jesus when he needed time away from all the people that would come to learn from him.

St Wiliiam of Bourges

As a little boy, William didn’t like to waste time fooling around; instead he spent time praying every day. When he got older he became a monk.  William became Archbishop of Bourges.  He was grateful to be a Bishop, but he wasn’t happy because of all the attention got. He stayed humble by doing penance for his own soul and so that people would come to believe in God.  He traveled all over, celebrating mass and teaching people about God. He spent a lot of time in prayer and was very close to God and God blessed him with lots of love while he prayed.  He died while he was kneeling in prayer.  He performed many miracles during his life and after his death.

Sts Julian & Basilissa

St. Julian and St. Basilissa were married and their love for God led them to do something amazing together.  They turned their home into a hospital because they wanted to take care of the sick and poor people who had no one to help them, because these people reminded them of Jesus.  St. Basilissa and St. Julian died because of their faith in God; that means they were martyrs. The Emperor at the time did not believe in God and was not happy with the good things that St. Basilissa and St. Julian did.  Basilissa and Julian spent their whole lives helping others and serving God.

St Thorfinn

Nobody knew about what a wonderful person Thorfinn was, until 50 years after he had died. His tomb was opened by accident during some construction work to renovate the church. Everyone was surprised by the nice smell that was coming from his coffin.  One monk, Walter de Muda, knew Thorfinn.   Father Walter thought Thorfinn was so gentle and good, patient and generous.  He liked him so much that he had written a poem about him.  Walter had put the poem with Thorfinn in the tomb and the paper he wrote the poem on was just as new and fresh as the day it had been put there.  Thorfinn had come from Norway and was a monk there.  He became a Bishop in Norway and later went to live at an Abbey in Flanders, Belgium.  Many miracles happened to people who would visit his tomb.

St Raymond of Penaford

Raymond went to school at the Cathedral and became a famous teacher of Philosophy when he was 20 years old. He left his job to join the Dominican Order and he became a priest.  He then studied law and became a lawyer for the Church, writing laws that the Church followed for many years. The Pope made Raymond Archbishop of Aragon, even though Raymond did not want to be a ruler in the Church.  He struggled a lot being the Archbishop, because he did not like the attention and honour that people gave him, he was too humble.  He was able to stop being Archbishop after only 2 years and then he returned to the work that he loved, helping Christians get closer to Jesus through sharing the Gospel.  He helped missionaries by teaching them to speak new languages, so that they could tell lots of people about Jesus.  He travelled to many countries where people did not know about Jesus or were choosing not to follow Him and he shared the Gospel with them and told them about God's love for them. Many people came to know Jesus because of the love and kindness he showed them.  He love Mary, the Mother of Jesus very much and started an Order of Priest called the Order of Our Lady of Ransom.  This Order helped share the Gospel with people who did not know about Jesus.  St. Raymond was almost 100 years old when he died. He was declared the patron of Church lawyers because of the work he did in creating the laws of the Church.

Epiphany

The word epiphany means “to shine upon”, “to reveal” which means to show.  Today we celebrate that God revealed to us (showed us) that Jesus is His Son and the Saviour of the world.  Today we celebrate that Jesus was revealed to the Three Kings and they let Him into their hearts and worshiped him and gave him gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Just like God used the star and scripture (the word of God) to reveal Jesus to the Three Kings, God helps us to discover (get to know) Jesus too.  God does not wait for us to discover Jesus on our own, He reveals Him to us by His grace.  By going to Church and listening to God’s words He reveals His Son Jesus to us, because He loves us and wants to be our best friend.

St John neumann

John had 4 sisters and a brother.  He was an excellent student, who always wanted to become a priest, even when he was really young.  John decided to go to the United States to become a priest, because he knew that they needed more priests. He became a Priest and was sent to Buffalo where he chose to work with the people living in the country.  The farms were far apart and John had to walk long distances to reach his people. They were German, French, Irish and Scottish, but John knew 12 different languages and so he could work with them all.  He became Bishop of Philadelphia and built 50 churches and opened almost 100 schools. He was the first American man and first American Bishop to be declared a saint.

St Elizabeth Ann Seton

Elizabeth Ann was born into a rich family and she received a good education. She loved to read and she read many books, including the Bible. Elizabeth Ann grew up knowing about God, but she was not part of the Catholic Church at that time. Elizabeth Ann did many things to help poor people, even when she was just a teenager. When Elizabeth was 19 she got married to a rich man called William Magee Seton; he owned a fleet of ships. Elizabeth and William had 5 children, and they were very happy. Then Mr. Seton's ship business lost all its money and he became very sick. He soon died and Elizabeth Ann was very sad, because she loved her husband very much. Her friends helped her to find joy in Jesus and they taught her about the Catholic faith. The Bible became her favorite book during this time, because she learned that the Bible was God's word speaking to her and helping her to make good decisions. She always kept her Bible close to her for the rest of her life. After studying about the Catholic Church and praying about it, she decided to join the Catholic Church. She then spent the rest of her life serving God and His people. She opened many schools for children and lots of other women came to help her and live with her. They all became nuns and started the order of the American Sisters of Charity and helped lots of poor and sick people.

St Genevieve

Even as a little child, Genevieve loved God and knew she was a special child of God. When Genevieve grew up, her and 2 other girls took their vows (promises) to become nuns. Genevieve was a kind and generous person, who always went out of her way to do good things for others. She was always obedient to God. One time the people of Paris were going to run away from a terrible army coming to attack them. Because Genevieve trusted God so much she told the people of Paris not to run away, but to pray to God and to be sorry for their sins, and God would protect them. The people did what she said, and the fierce army of Attila the Hun suddenly ran away and didn’t attack the city at all.

St Basil

Basil and Gregory both came from families who loved God so much that may of their family members became Saints. Basil’s Grandmother, Father, Mother and 2 brothers and 1 sister are all Saints! Gregory’s mom and dad and 2 brothers are also Saints. Basil and Gregory met and became great friends at school. As a teenager Basil used to help poor people by making food for them. After he finished school, he became a teacher. His sister, St. Macrina, thought it would be a good idea for Basil to become a monk. So he sold everything he had, gave away all his money and moved to the desert to become a monk. Both Basil and Gregory became priests and then bishops. Gregory worked hard to tell everyone about God and how much He loves us. Gregory wrote lots of books about God, and these writings helped lots of people believe in God.