Saint 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.

Saint 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.

Saint 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.

Saint 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.

Saint Cagetan

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.

Blessed Fredric

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.

Saint 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 Peter 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.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori

Alphonsus studied very hard as he grew up and he became a very good lawyer.  Even though he was a very good lawyer he always thought it might be easier to be closer to God if he was not a lawyer.  So after being a lawyer for 12 years, Alphonsus quit being a lawyer and decided to study to become a priest.  His dad was not happy with this decision and wanted Alphonsus to continue being a lawyer, but soon he saw that this is what Alphonsus really wanted and he gave him his blessing.  Alphonsus became a priest when he was 30 years old.  His first years as a priest were spent living with and help the poor, homeless and ignored young people in Naples.  With the young people he organized places of prayer, teachings, activities and education; these places where called “Evening Chapels”.  By the end of his life there were 72 Evening Chapels with over 10,000 people who were part of them.  When Fr. Alphonsus taught people about God they listened and understood and many people came to know Jesus through him.  He founded an order of priests called the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, whose mission was to share the gospel and teach and care for the very poor people in Italy.  This order spread all over the world.  Alphonsus was made bishop later in his life and continued the great work that God had for him, the Church loved his teachings so much that he was made a Doctor of the Church.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Ignatius had eleven brothers and sisters and he was born into a very rich family.  When he was a little boy his family sent him to work for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella; Ignatius dreamed that one day he would become one of the King’s soldiers and marry a beautiful Lady – but God had other wonderful plans for him.  Ignatius did become a soldier, but got injured during battle.  While he was getting better, he had to stay at the hospital and the only thing to do there was read books about Jesus and the lives of the Saints.  Through these books God asked Ignatius to follow him and Ignatius said yes!  His first job was to go back to school in France.  When he finished he became a priest and joined two other men, Blessed Peter Faber and Saint Francis Xavier, and they promised to do whatever the Pope asked of them.  This group of three men started the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), which is still a large group of priests (30,000 members) who run universities and colleges around the world today.

Saint Peter Chrysologus

Peter was baptized a Christian after being taught by Bishop Cornelius of Imola, the town where Peter was born.  He loved Jesus so much that he was later made a Deacon by Bishop Cornelius too.  Pope Leo the Great, who is also a Saint, made Peter an Archbishop in Italy.  He was an excellent priest and bishop and he helped lots of people believe in God.  Archbishop Peter had a great gift of being able to speak to people in a way that they could understand, everyone loved to hear him speak during mass.  This is why he is called St. Peter Chrysologus, because “chrysologus” means golden word and Peter knew how to share the golden word “the gospel” so well.  He liked to explain really important things about God becoming human in Jesus (the Incarnation), the Creed (which is what we believe as a Church), about Mary, and about John the Baptist.  He also talked a lot about how God sent Jesus His Son to come and save us from sin (Salvation).  The Church thought he was such a great teacher that they named him a Doctor of the Church.

Saint Martha

Martha was Lazarus’ sister, they also had a sister named Mary.  They were all good friends with Jesus and they loved him very much.  Jesus would visit them very often and many people would come to their house to listen to Jesus speak.  Martha wanted to care for all the people that were visiting their home and she worked very hard to cook and serve all of the guests in their home.   Her sister Mary preferred to sit and listen to Jesus speak and this made Martha angry one day.  She asked Jesus to please tell her sister Mary to come and help her because there was so much work to do, but Jesus told Martha that even though her work was important, it was even more important to listen to the word of God.  Martha believed that Jesus was the Messiah and so when her brother got sick she sent someone to get Jesus so that He could heal him. By the time Jesus arrived Lazarus had been dead for 3 days, Martha told Jesus that if he had been there, her brother would not have died.  Jesus said that whoever believed in Him would never die and he asked Martha if she believed Him.  Her faith in Jesus was so great that even though her brother was dead she said yes!  Jesus then raised her brother from the dead!  You can read about Martha and her family in the bible, in the Gospel of John Chapter 11.

Saints Nazarius and Celsus

Nazarius’ dad was a soldier in the Roman army, he did not believe in God; his mother had a very strong faith and even became a Saint, St. Perpetua.  When Nazarius was 9 years old he was baptized because he loved God so much.  He loved God so much that he travelled to lots of countries to tell people about God.  Not everyone wanted to hear about God and sometimes he was not treated very well, but he didn’t let anything stop him and he kept travelling and preaching the Good News.  Ten years after he started his missions, he met a boy named Celsus in France.  Celsus’ mother asked Nazarius to baptize Celsus and to keep him as his disciple, so that he would learn more about God.  From that day forward, Nazarius and Celsus travelled and preached the Gospel to many, many people and so many people became Christians through them.  Wherever they travelled there were people that did not like them and they suffered many things because of their faith in God.  Finally, they were again arrested in Milan and when they refused to offer a sacrifice to the false Gods, they were killed.  When they heard that they were going to die because of their faith, they did not cry, they praised God!  They were so happy that they were finally going to meet Jesus in heaven

Saints Natalie and Aurelius

Natalie and Aurelius were husband and wife.  Both of them became Christians later in their lives, as they were not born to Christian parents.  During the time that they lived, the Moors ruled their country and they did not believe in Jesus.  People were not allowed to worship God and if they did they were killed.  St. Natalie and St. Aurelius were very brave, because even though it was against the law to worship God, they did!  They didn’t worship in secret they were not afraid to show everyone that they followed Jesus.  They were killed because of this strong faith and their friend, a monk from Jerusalem, was killed with them.  Like St. John the Baptist they were beheaded and became martyrs for the faith.

Saints Joachim and Anne

Saints Joachim and Anne were the parents of Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our heavenly mother.  That made them Jesus’ Grandparents!  Joachim and Anne were married for 20 years and they had not been able to have a baby.  They prayed and prayed that God would give them a baby, because they wanted to love a child and raise that child to love God.  God finally did bless them with a very special baby, a little girl who was to become the mother of Jesus.  We know that Joachim and Anne loved God very much, because they shared that faith with their daughter Mary.  They dedicated Mary to God at a very early age, which meant that Mary went to live in the temple for a few years to serve God and learn to love Him more.  By sharing their faith with their daughter Mary, they prepared her to say yes to God when He asked her to be the mother of His Son Jesus.  Joachim and Anne also helped in choosing St. Joseph as Jesus’ adopted father, as they were the ones that made the plans for Mary to become Joseph's wife.  They played such an important part in preparing the way for Jesus to enter the world and become our Saviour!  St. Anne is so loved by Jesus’ followers that they have named many Churches after her.  One of the most famous, and largest of these Churches, is in Quebec, Canada – St. Anne de Beaupre.  Many people make pilgrimages to this Church, asking for St. Anne to help them know Jesus more.

St James the greater

James was one of the first Apostles called by Jesus to “Follow Me”.  He was a fisherman like his father and his brother John was also called to follow Jesus.  Jesus called James and his brother to become fishers of men, which means they would go out and tell people the good news about Jesus and they would help many people become followers of Jesus too.  James was present at some very special moments during Jesus’ life; the miracle of raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead; the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain; and the agony of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.  He was given the gifts of healing and casting out evil spirits from people.  Jesus called St. James, St. Peter and St. John the “Sons of Thunder”, which could mean they had a bit of a temper and were impatient when people didn’t believe in God.   Although St. James was with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus was arrested St. James ran away in fear.  After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to St. James with the other Apostles and St. James received courage through the Holy Spirit to spread the Good News to many people.  He was killed for his faith in Jesus and is one of the first martyrs of the Church.

Sts Boris & Gleb

Boris and Gleb were brothers and they were the sons of the first Christian Prince of Russia, St. Vladimir of Kiev.  There mother was also a Christian, Anne of Constantinople, so Boris and Gleb were taught about Jesus.  After Boris and Gleb’s father died, they were each given a part of their father’s great kingdom.  Their oldest brother was very greedy and wanted all of his father’s kingdom, so he created a plan to kill his brothers.  Boris was warned that his brother planned to kill him when he returned from battle.  The men that fought at war with Boris wanted to protect him and not let anyone harm him, but Boris would not let them get involved.  He told them that it would be better for him to die alone then to risk the lives of so many men.  So Boris faced his enemies alone and never fought back; he only asked for God’s peace to be with the men that killed him.  Soon after Boris was killed, his oldest brother also sent men to kill Gleb.  Gleb did not know what was happening or why he was being killed, but he also did not fight back, he only prayed to the Lord all throughout his attack.  So the brothers, Boris and Gleb died as martyrs because they accepted death without fighting back, just like Jesus did.   People that have visited their tombs have received miracles through the prayers of these holy brothers.

Saint Bridget of Sweden

Bridget was born to a rich and holy family.  They taught her about Jesus from the time that she was a baby.  When she was a little girl she began to have visions of Jesus, she had many visions of Jesus all throughout her life.  In these visions she saw how much Jesus suffered for us and because of this she tried to help people change their ways and not hurt Jesus through their sins.  She was married to a very holy man who was also a Prince.  They had eight children and one of them also became a Saint, St. Catherine of Sweden.  All throughout her life God appeared to St. Bridget and gave her special messages for very important people, Kings, Popes and priests.  St. Bridget always did what God asked her to do and tried to help other people follow God as well.  Near the end of her life St. Bridget visited the places Jesus lived and died and she saw many amazing visions about what Jesus said and did there.  All of the things Jesus showed her were written in a book after she died, and many people have come to know Jesus more deeply because of her.

Mary Magdelene

Mary did not follow God’s way before meeting Jesus, everyone in town believed she was a very big sinner.  Her whole life changed when she met Jesus.  He forgave her of all her sins and from then on she followed Jesus wherever he went, taking care of him and the Apostles.  Mary Magdalene stayed with Jesus while he was crucified, even when all His Apostles, except for John, ran away because they were scared.  Mary stayed at the foot of the cross with Jesus.  On the third day after Jesus had been laid in the tomb, Mary went to the tomb to take care of Jesus’ body. When she got there, she found the tomb empty.  Instead she saw two angles sitting where Jesus’ body should have been.  The angles asked her why she was crying and she said, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him.”  She saw a man outside the tomb and thought that it was the gardener.  She asked him if he had taken Jesus’ body from the tomb, and when the man looked at her and said her name, she knew right away that it was Jesus!  Jesus was alive and appeared to Mary Magdalene first.  He told her to go and tell the apostles that He was alive and she shared the Good News!

St Lawrence of Brindisi

St. Lawrence was named Ceasar Rossi when he was born.  He was very close to God his whole life and felt that God was calling him to be His servant.  So when Ceasar turned 16 years old, he became a Franciscan Capuchin and took the name Brother Lawrence.  He was sent to study and was a very good student, he even learned how to speak 6 different languages.  St. Lawrence became a priest and could speak to so many people because of all the languages he had learned.  He did many amazing things as a priest.  When he went to Austria to start up a Franciscan house there, the Emperor asked him to help convince the princes of Austria to fight in a battle against the Turks.  The princes listened to St. Lawrence but asked if he would go with them; St. Lawrence ended up leading the princes in battle carrying only a cross to defend himself.  He also helped bring peace between Germany and Spain, helping all the people that lived there have a better life.  He gave many amazing homilies, which were made into books after he died.  Pope John XXIII thought his words were pretty amazing and proclaimed him an Apostolic Doctor of the Church.

St Joseph Barsabba

After Jesus died, the 11 Apostles wanted to choose someone to replace Judas as the twelfth Apostle.  They wanted someone who could help spread the Good News about what Jesus had done for us.  They wanted this person to have been a disciple of Jesus from the beginning.  Someone who was with them from the time that Jesus started his public ministry, until his death and resurrection.  Jesus’ followers had two people to choose from, one was St. Joseph (who they also called Barsabba) and the other person was Matthias.  The 11 Apostles picked Matthias to replace Judas, but this did not stop St. Joseph from spreading the Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection to as many people as he could.

St Boniface of Lausanne

St. Boniface was a very well educated boy, taught by Cistercian nuns as a little boy in Belgium and then studied more in Paris.  He was a teacher and then became a priest and then Bishop of Lausanne in Switzerland.  He was Bishop in Switzerland for nine years, but then he had to stop because he made the Emperor mad by telling everyone how badly the Emperor and the priests were living in Switzerland.  He spent the rest of his life in the Cistercian convent, with the nuns who taught him as a little boy.

St Frederick

Frederick’s grandpa was a King, so he came from a very important family.  Frederick could have been anything he wanted, but he chose to be a priest. He worked hard to become a really good priest and, because of this, he was put in charge of taking care of all the new people coming into the Church.  He was later made Bishop of Utrecht, where he really cared for his people. He made sure that there was a lot of missionary work being done to spread the Good News of God’s love to everyone.  Not everyone liked Bishop Frederick, because they did not believe in God and they did not like that he wanted them to believe.  So one day, he was killed by two people that did not like him, but He died praising God.

St Leo IV

Leo was born and raised in Rome; when he grew up he became a priest.  He was the Priest of St. John Lateran’s, which is a very big and very famous basilica in Rome.  It is such a special Church that it is called an Archbasilica, because it is the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome.  During Leo’s life, there were two Popes who died very close together, Pope Gregory IV and Pope Sergius II; both these Popes loved Leo and thought he was a wonderful priest.  After Pope Sergius died, Leo was chosen to be the next Pope.  As Pope, Leo made sure that the city of Rome was very well protected, as there were barbarians (the Saracens) who wanted to attack it.  He made sure the walls around the city were made stronger so they could not be attacked.  He helped priests to live more holy and prayerful lives, by creating rules for them to follow.  Pope Leo stood up to many priests and bishops who wanted to live their own way and make their own rules, but he did not change the rules that he knew were right.  Everyone loved Pope Leo IV because he took good care of God's Church. God also performed many miracles through His humble servant, Pope Leo IV.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Mount Carmel is in Galilee, which is the province where the town of Nazareth was, where Jesus grew up.  Mount Carmel is also where the prophet Elijah showed people who did not believe in God how powerful God really is.  In the first Book of Kings Elijah built an altar and offers a sacrifice to God, then he poured water over everything and asked God to take the offering.  God sent down fire from heaven and burnt everything, even the stones that the altar was made of, even though it was all wet.  The power of God was experienced by over 800 people that day.  Hundreds of years after Elijah, and after Jesus’ life and death, a group of monks lived on Mount Carmel.  They loved Mary so much that they named their group, the friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, this is how the Carmelite order started, which is still around today.  This group of monks was not liked because of their faith in  God, so they prayed that Mary would help them.  On July 16, in the year 1251, Mary appeared to one of the leaders of the monks, St. Simon Stock, and she gave him a brown scapular to wear; promising him that she would take care of all those who wore it.  Today people wear a scapular medal or necklace and trust that Mary will protect them too.

St Bonavenure

When Bonaventure was a baby he became very sick, so his mother asked St. Francis of Assisi to come and pray for him to get better.  As St. Francis prayed he knew that Bonaventure would become a great person and so he said “O Buona Ventura” which means “O good fortune!”.  That is why his mother called him Bonaventure!  When he grew up he became a Franciscan priest.  He was sent to Paris along with his friend St Thomas Aquinas, to study with some great teachers.  He had many important jobs in the Church during his life; one of the most important was being the Cardinal and Bishop of Albano, which is one of the Sees of Rome. Because of all of his great work within the Church, he is considered one of the Doctors of the Catholic Church. 

St Kateri

Kateri was born in an Aboriginal village which is now part of New York State.  She was born in a village where very few people believed in Jesus.  Both her parents died of small pox when she was very young. Kateri also had small pox but survived; she was therefore raised by her Uncle.  Jesuit missionaries had come to Kateri’s village 10 years before she was born to share the good news with the people there, but they were killed because of their faith in God.  Some people did become Christians and were living the Christian faith very quietly in the village, so that they would not be hurt by those who did not believe.  When Kateri was still very young, Jesuit missionaries came to visit her Uncle and they spoke about Jesus and prayed with her family.  This was the time that Kateri got to know who Jesus was and she started to have faith in Him.  When she turned 18 she was baptized and devoted her life to God, even though she knew it would be difficult to live for Christ when so few people around her believed.  Things became so difficult that Kateri left her village and joined a Christian village near Montreal, in Canada.  There she was able to live out that last few years of her life as a devoted Christian.  She became sick after being in Canada for 3 years and almost lost all her sight, but she did not let anything stop her from praising God for all He had done for her.  After she died many miracles happened through St. Kateri’s prayers.  Kateri became a Saint on October 21, 2012.

St Henry II

Henry was the son of the Duke of Bavaria.  When Henry was a boy he went to school and studied with Bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg.  Henry wanted to become a priest, but when his father died he became the Duke and had an important job to do.  One night he had a dream and St. Wolfgang, the Bishop who was Henry teacher, appeared to him and pointed to the words “after six”.  Henry was confused as to what this could mean.  He thought maybe it meant that in six days he was going to heaven, so he prayed lots and asked God to prepare him for heaven.  But after six days he was still alive.  So then he thought maybe it meant that after six months he would die, so again he tried to live a very good life and pray lots to prepare to go to heaven, but after six months, he was perfectly healthy.  Then he thought maybe the Bishop meant six years, but again after six years he was healthy.  Not only was he healthy, he was made the Emperor of Germany.  Finally Henry knew what his dream meant, he had and even more important job to do.  As the ruler of Germany he had many people to take care of.  He did such a good job, that the Pope Benedict VIII made him and his wife the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.

St John Gaulbert

St. John was called Giovanni (which is Italian for John) when he was born.  His mom and dad did not follow Jesus.  His brother was killed by one of Giovanni’s friends, and this made him and his dad very mad.  Giovanni was so mad that he wanted to kill the man who killed his brother.  When he had the chance to kill him, his friend begged Giovanni to forgive him for the love of Jesus, who died for us.  Even though it was very hard, Giovanni walked away from him and found a Church.  At the Church he knelt in front of the cross and asked Jesus to forgive him for hating the man who killed his brother.  The statue of Jesus on the cross, bowed down to him, and said that he was forgiven.  From that moment Giovanni believed in God and gave his whole life to Jesus.  He joined the Benedictine monks and later started his own community of monks, who spent their time helping the poor.

St Benedict of Nursia

Benedict was born into a rich family that taught him about God and living a holy life.  They sent him to Rome to get a good education, but he became very sad with all the sin that he saw happening in Rome.  He left Rome and became a hermit, living in a cave for three years and getting closer to Jesus.  Even though Benedict wanted to be alone with God a community of monks asked him to come and lead their Abbot, because they saw how holy he was. This didn’t last very long, because they didn’t like how Benedict wanted to live, they thought it was too hard.  They tried to poison Benedict, but God protected him and he left their community and went back to the cave.  Then God lead him to Monte Cassino where he converted the people there back to Jesus; destroying the pagan temple they had built there.  This is where Benedict built his most famous monastery and where he started the Benedictine order of monks.  Many men joined the monastery and became Benedictine monks, and this way of life spread throughout the world.  Even today there are many Benedictine brothers and priests around the world.  The monks work to bring people back to Jesus, help people live holy lives and help the poor around them. 

St Felicity

Felicity lived in Rome with her husband and her seven sons.  She lived a very good life, worshiping and serving the one true God and helping those in need.  She lead many people to Jesus through her faith and example.  Her husband died before her, but she continued to lead a faithful life doing what God asked of her.  This made the priests who worshiped false gods in Rome very angry.  They became so angry because of her faith that one day they arrested her and her seven sons.  They ordered her to make sacrifices to their false gods, but she said no way!  They tried to force her, but she never gave in.  Then they told her that they would kill each of her sons if she did not obey, but even then she said no, because she knew that if her sons did what God asked of them, they would all be together in heaven.  She suffered a lot as she watched all of her sons being killed and then 4 months later she was also killed.  Through all of this, she trusted in God and put her hope in him that all of their suffering would be over when they were reunited in heaven.

St Veronica Juliani

St. Veronica was named Ursula when she was born, and took the name Veronica when she entered a Capuchin convent when she was only 17 years old.  Even as a small child she was always thinking about God and doing acts of mercy for the poor around her.  She told her parents at a very young age that she wanted to join the convent, and even though her dad wanted her to get married, he finally agreed to let her go.  On the day she joined the convent, the Bishop told the leader of the convent that one day Veronica would be a Saint.  She is called a mystic of the Church, which means she was given very special gifts from God.  One of these gifts she received was that she was given the same wounds that Jesus got when he died on the cross; this is called the stigmata. She got holes in her hands and feet where Jesus was nailed to the cross, a hole in her side where they pierced Jesus with a sword and scrapes on her forehead where Jesus was hurt by the crown of thorns.  This gift reminded her how much Jesus suffered because He loved us so much and he wanted us to be in heaven with him.  She also received beautiful visions from God, pictures that she could see, but no body else could.  After she died her body did not go away, it stayed just as beautiful as when she was alive.

Saint Priscilla

Priscilla was married to Aquila, who was a Jewish tentmaker.  They were forced to leave Rome when the Emperor, Claudius, kicked all the Jewish people out of Rome.  They went to live in Corinth, where they met Saint Paul who told them about Jesus – they became one of the early Christians.  After becoming Christians, they traveled with Paul sharing the Gospel.  They went to Rome and helped many people learn about God and their house was even used as a Church.  They also went to Ephesus and Asia Minor.  They died as martyrs, because of their faith in God.  St. Paul spoke about them in his letter to the Romans in the Bible (Rom. 16: 3-4) and he loved them very much.

Blessed Maria Menesis

Maria had 7 brothers and sisters.  She was very smart and was a talented artist and musician; she played the piano ad violin.  When she was 12 years old got really sick, and was sick for a whole year.  While she was sick she, and those around her, asked Mary to ask God to heal her.  God performed a miracle and she got better.  This miracle made Maria love God and his mother Mary very much, and she decided to become a sister with the Salesian order.   In 1920, at 18 years old, she joined the “Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians”.  In 1931 she went to Costa Rica and worked with many poor girls teaching them art and music and most importantly about God.  Through her example, many girls also became nuns and served the poor with her. 

St Maria Goretti

Maria was born into a loving family who was very poor.  She had 5 brothers and sisters and the whole family loved God very much.  In order to provide for the family, Maria’s family moved to a large farm with another farmer and his 16 year old son, Mr. Serenelli and Allessandro.  Maria worked very hard to help her family and she grew up to be a very kind, loving and beautiful girl whom everyone loved.  Since she was so beautiful, Allessandro started to notice her and tried to make her do things with him that were sinful.  Maria always said no and this made Allessandro very mad.  On July 5th 1902 Allessandro got so mad at Maria because she would not do what he wanted and sin against God, so he killed her.  Before Maria died she told the priest that she forgave Allessandro for all the bad things he did to her and she prayed that God would forgive him too.  Allessandro was put in jail for 30 years and for a long time he was not sorry for what he did, until one night in a dream Maria appeared to him.  She was walking in a garden and gave him lilies.  She told him that she would like to see him in heaven one day.  When Allessandro woke up he became so sorry for what he did and asked God for forgiveness; when he was let out of prison he also asked Maria’s mom for forgiveness.  He spent the rest of his life as a gardener at a monastery.  

St Anthony Zacharia

Anthony’s dad died when he was very little, so growing up it was just him and his mom and they were very close.  Anthony loved helping people that were sick and poor and so his mother thought that he would make a good doctor.  Anthony became a doctor and started helping lots of people.  Even though Anthony liked being a doctor and helping people, he loved God so much that he wanted to be a priest.  After becoming a priest, he still kept helping people and he started an order of priests called the Clerks Regular of St. Paul.  He also started an order of sisters called the Angelics of St. Paul.  Anthony loved St. Paul and studied the letters that he wrote a lot because they brought him closer to God.  He and his priests taught people about the teachings in Paul’s letters in simple ways so that they could understand and grow closer to God.  Anthony got sick while spreading the Good News of God to many people; he never stopped sharing about how much God loves us.

St Elizabeth of Portugal

Elizabeth was a Spanish princess who married the King of Portugal, King Denis, this made her the Queen of Portugal.  Elizabeth was beautiful and she was always generous, kind and loving.  For a long time her husband did lots of bad things and didn’t love his wife, Queen Elizabeth, very well.  Even though he treated her poorly, Queen Elizabeth never stopped loving her husband and praying that he would get to know God and be sorry for his sins.  She spent her time taking care of her kids and helping the poor of Portugal.  Because of her prayer and love King Denis slowly started to change his ways.  He asked Queen Elizabeth to forgive him for all the bad things he had done to her and he asked God to forgive him.  He lived the rest of his life doing good.  Because of her goodness Queen Elizabeth was able to bring peace to Portugal and even stopped two wars from starting.  When King Denis died, she sold off her riches and she joined the Franciscan order; opening a monastery for the Poor Clares (an order of sisters who live with the poor and cared for them).  After Queen Elizabeth died, many people asked for her prayers and God performed many miracles because of peoples’ faith.

St Thomas

Thomas was one of Jesus’ 12 apostles, Jesus’ closest friends when he was living on earth.  Thomas loved Jesus very much and followed him very closely while he was with them, but when Jesus was crucified Thomas lost his courage and hid because he was afraid that the Romans would want to kill him too.  On Easter Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his apostles, Thomas wasn’t there and he didn’t believe the apostles when they told him that Jesus was alive.  Thomas said he couldn’t believe unless he saw Jesus himself.  Eight days after Jesus rose from the dead Jesus appeared to the apostles again and this time Thomas was there too.  Jesus told Thomas to come and see him and touch his hands and feet that had been nailed to the cross.  Thomas ran to Jesus and fell down at his feet and cried, “My Lord and my God”.  Jesus reminded Thomas that he needed to believe in God even when he can’t see him.  Jesus said that we would be blessed if we believed in Him even without seeing Him, this is called faith.  With this new faith Thomas took the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection to many people.  He died a martyr because he never stopped spreading the Good News.

St Otto

Soon after Otto became a priest he was asked to serve in the court of Emperor Henry IV, he later became the Chancellor for the Emperor, which means he helped the Emperor make decisions.  Otto worked really hard to help the Emperor make good decisions for his people, but the Emperor made many bad decisions, even picking his own Pope because he didn’t like the decisions that the real Pope was making.  Otto did the best job he could serving the Emperor and then his son Henry V, who really respected Otto and listened to his advice.  Otto was made a Bishop and was asked by King Boleslaus III of Poland to go on a mission to bring the Good News of Jesus to some of his people in a country called Prussia.  These people did not know God and Bishop Otto helped them to give their life to God.  He brought Jesus to 20,000 people there and they were baptized.  He started more than 20 monasteries, built lots of churches and worked really hard to heal the relationship between the King and the Pope.

Blessed Junipero Serra

Blessed Junipero was named Miguel Jose when he was born, he took the name Junipero when he became a brother with the Franciscans at 17 years old.  Junipero was a good friend of St. Francis.  As Junipero studied to become a priest, he read a lot of stories of the Saints. The ones he loved the most were the saints who were missionaries and brought the Good News of Jesus to those who had never heard it before.  He decided that if God would allow it, he would become a missionary.  After 20 years of being a priest and a teacher he was allowed to go to “New Spain” (now Mexico and California) to bring Jesus to the people living there.  It was a long journey across the Atlantic Ocean in a boat and the Friars finally arrived in Mexico on December 6, 1749.  Not long after they arrived Junipero was bit by an insect that made his leg swell up and made it difficult for him to walk.  Junipero never complained and he walked far and wide to make sure that many people heard about Jesus and gave their life to Him.  Junipero started 21 missions in Mexico and later in California, they told people about God, they took care of their needs and taught them many things about farming and other important things needed to live.  His missions baptized 6,000 people who got to know Jesus because Junipero said yes to God’s call.

First Martyrs

Many of the first Christians to follow Jesus after His death and resurrection lost their lives because of their faith. They were the first martyrs of the Church.  The Emperor of Rome during this time was Nero, who was a very cruel and selfish man.  He blamed the Christians for all the bad things that happened in Rome and this made the citizens of Rome hate the Christians.  They did horrible things to people who believed in Jesus and thought that it was fun to watch these Christians suffer.  The Christians died happily for their faith because they knew that dying would only mean that they could be with Jesus in Heaven.  The Emperor thought that if he was mean to the Christians, people would stop believing in Jesus out of fear.  He was very wrong.  The more Christians he killed because of their faith, the more people started to believe in Jesus because they saw how much the Christians loved Jesus – so much that they were willing to die for Him.

St Irenaeus

Irenaeus’ parents were faithful Catholics and while Irenaeus was still young he was sent to study under the Bishop of Smyrna, the great Saint Polycarp who had been a disciple of St. John.  Irenaeus knew that Bishop Polycarp was an amazing man and he carefully watched and listened to everything the bishop said, so that he could become holy like his teacher.  After studying many years with Bishop Polycarp he was sent to Lyons, France to help Bishop Pothinus (who later became a saint as well).  Many of the people in France were turning their hearts away from God and leaving the Church.  Irenaeus helped Bishop Pothinus teach them the Truth so that they would believe in Jesus again.  Bishop Pothinus made Irenaeus a priest, As a priest he spent lots of time teaching people about the faith and showing people that they were wrong to turn away from Jesus.  These teachings and the books that he wrote about the Catholic faith made him a Doctor of the Church.  He was killed because of his faith in God and became a martyr in Lyons, France.

St Emma

Emma, also known as Hemma, was born into a royal family.  She was related to Emperor Henry II and was a Countess.  She married William of Friesach and they had two boys.  Emma was always very generous with what she had; she always gave to the poor. Everybody loved her so much and thought she was a saint even before she died.  When her husband, and later her two sons died, she started a Benedictine Monastery in Austria.  She also built ten Churches.  Later in her life she joined the monastery in Austria and became a nun. She spent her days in prayer and devotion to God.

St Pelagius

When Pelagius was a boy, the Moors ruled the part of Spain where he lived in. The Moors did not believe in God and did not allow anyone else to believe in God either.  Pelagius was a Christian and because of his faith in Jesus he was thrown in prison when he was only ten years old.  No one came to rescue him, so he remained in prison for three years.  When he was thirteen years old the ruler of the Moors told Pelagius he would let him go, as long as stopped believing in Jesus.  Pelagius told the ruler that he would never deny Jesus, so the ruler had him killed.  Pelagius died a young martyr for Jesus.

St William

William was an orphan who was raised by one of his relatives after his mother and father died.  When he was 14 years old he went on a pilgrimage, walking the path of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.  This pilgrimage ends at the Shrine of the Apostle Saint James.  When he arrived at the end of his pilgrimage, he decided to give his life completely to God and became a hermit (living alone with God).  He lived on a high mountain called Monte Vergine (which means the Mountain of the Virgin Mary).  People followed him there and they built the Monastery of Montevergine.  William wanted to live a very strict life but not all the men who came to live at the monastery wanted such a hard life. William left and started a new monastery where he continued to live very strictly, so that he could stay close to God.  William performed miracles through God and he was very close to God his entire life.

The Baptist

John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin.  His parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, were very old and it was a miracle that they had a child in their old age.  Zechariah was a priest and one day when he was praying in the temple, an Angel appeared to him and told him that he would have a son named John, who would be very special from the day he was born.  Zechariah asked the Angel how this could be, because he was so old.  The Angel told him that he would know this was from God because Zechariah would not be able to speak until his son was born.  So it was that Zechariah lost his voice and could not speak until Elizabeth had the baby.  When everyone asked Zechariah what his name was, he wrote down that his name was John – and because he believed that the child came from God he was able to speak again.  John is called the Baptist, because when he grew up he started to prepare people for his cousin Jesus.  He would teach people amazing things about God and he would baptize them with water and tell them to turn away from sin.  He even baptized his cousin Jesus right before Jesus started his own mission and teaching.  He told people to follow Jesus, because he could only baptize with water, but he knew that Jesus would baptize people with a greater power – the power of the Holy Spirit.

St Joseph Cafasso

Joseph was born with a crooked spine, which made it impossible for him to stand straight and made it difficult for him to walk.  This did not stop him from doing amazing things for God!  He knew he wanted to be a priest when he was very young and began studying to be a priest as early as 12 years old.  He became an incredible preacher and a wonderful teacher of priests.  He loved his students and helped them to follow what God was calling them to do.  He became good friends with St. Bosco, they knew each other from when they were kids.  Joseph helped John listen to God and discover that God was calling him to help young boys in Italy who did not have a home.   God called Joseph to help the prisoners in Italy, because they were treated very badly and even killed for their crimes.  He helped so many prisoners turn to God and confess their sins before they were killed for their crimes; they died receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation and knowing that God loved them and forgave them.  Everyone that knew Fr. Joseph loved him, because all He wanted to do was bring people closer to Jesus.

St Thomas More

Thomas More grew up learning about God and the Catholic faith.  When he grew up he studied and became a lawyer and began to work for the Government.  He married Jane Colt and they had 4 children.  He was a very smart man and he even wrote a book called “Utopia” which became very famous.  King Henry VIII noticed how smart and wise Thomas More was and he hired him to do a lot of very important jobs for the King.  Thomas was happy to serve the King, until the King tried to force him to change his mind about what marriage should be and how we should always follow the Pope’s teachings.  So Thomas More quit his job, even though it was a very important and powerful job.  Thomas then got into more trouble with the King.  The King had decided that he was going to be the head of the Church in England and Thomas refused to follow him.  Thomas was thrown into the King’s prison tower and was taken to court for treason (going against the King).  Thomas told the judges that he would never go against what he believed in and that he hoped one day he would meet them all in heaven.  Right before he died, he declared that he would always be the “King’s good servant”, but he would always be God’s servant first.

St Aloysius Gonzaga

Aloysius’ father planned on making him a soldier from the time that Aloysius was very little.  His father sent him to train with the soldiers while he also studied.  Even though Aloysius knew his dad wanted him to be a soldier, Aloysius planned on living his life for God from the time that he was 9 years old.  When he was young, he got sick with a kidney disease.  While he was getting better, Aloysius had lots of time to read about Jesus and the lives of the Saints and this helped him love God even more.  Aloysius’ dad would not let him become a priest for a long time, so instead he taught the poor about Jesus.  Finally, when Aloysius was 18 years old his father let him join the Jesuit order.  He gave up all of his riches to his brother and took a vow of poverty (to live like the poor) and did whatever the order asked him to do.  When the plague (a really bad disease) spread all over Rome, Aloysius volunteered to help with the sick and the dying.  He soon became sick as well and although he got better he was always very weak.  He died when he was only 23 years old, and so he became an example for youth all over the world of how to live life for Jesus.

Blessed Michelina

Michelina was born into a wealthy and important family.  She learned to follow God from her mother and father and was given everything she needed.  When she was only 12 years old, she married a very important and rich man and she went to live in a palace with him.  They had a son together and she was very happy living her life for her family.  Her husband died when Michelina was only 20 years old, leaving her to raise their son on her own.  Even though Michelina had everything the world could give her, she found herself very sad and very lost.  She searched for happiness outside of God and she could not find it.  Then a very holy woman came to live in her town, Michelina saw in her something that she wanted too and she asked the woman to come and live with her so that she could learn from her.  What she learned was that this woman loved God before anyone and anything else.  She taught Michelina to pray and love God first and this finally brought Michelina the joy and peace that she was looking for.  She was able to once again become a good mother to her son and to live her life for God.  Even though her son died when he was still a child, Michelina was still able to love God and see that her son was going to be in heaven with Jesus.  All alone, Michelina gave her whole life to serving Jesus through serving the poor of her community.  She gave away most of her possessions and she became a lay Franciscan, living her life simply and all for God.  When she died, many miracles happened to those that came to see her tomb in the Franciscan church where she was buried.

Set Romuald

Romuald belonged to a rich and noble (important) family and growing up he did not follow the commandments of God.  One day he saw his father kill another man in a fight and Romuald was so upset about it that he went to a nearby monastery to do penance (doing hard things to show God that you are sorry for your sins or other people’s sins) for his father’s sin.  Romuald loved the monastery life so much that he decided to stay and join the monastery and became a monk.  Romuald spent the rest of his life living a very strict life, praying and leading the other brothers in the monastery as Abbot (leader).  He also spent many years as a hermit so that he could spend as much time with God as possible every day.  He also started his own Order called the Camaldolese Benedictine order and opened many monasteries in Italy.  The first rule in his monasteries was to “Empty yourself completely and sit waiting”, waiting for God to speak and work in their lives.  Through the example of his life, his father repented for his sin and came to know God as well.

Blessed Gregory

Gregory studied very hard as a young man and he became a lawyer.  He was asked to attend a very important meeting in Germany to represent Venice.  This meeting was to sign a peace treaty, which would end the “Thirty Years War” that had been fought in Germany between Germany, Sweden and France.  The war had been started by an argument between the Catholic and Protestant people.  While at this meeting, Gregory (still only about 20 years old) met Archbishop Fabio Chigi, who was the Pope’s representative and who later became Pope himself, Pope Alexander VII.  The Archbishop could tell that Gregory was a very good man and he made him the Bishop of Bergamo, Italy.  When the Archbishop later became Pope he made Gregory a Cardinal of Padua (where St. Anthony came from).  He was a very generous, kind and humble Cardinal; he gave to the poor and was always ready to help those in need.  He started schools and seminaries for men to study for the priesthood.  He helped to choose 4 Popes during his time as Cardinal.

St Emily

Emily was born into a very rich family and she was sent to study in Paris.  Her mother died when Emily was only 15 years old and Emily returned to her home to be with her father.  Her father wanted to find a good husband for her, but Emily didn’t want to get married she wanted to serve God as a nun.  With the help of her Parish priest, Fr. Mercier, she started to help little boys and girls who were not well taken care of and to take care of the poor and sick in her community.  She did this at her Father’s home until her grandfather left her lots of money when he died.  She used her grandfather’s money to buy a really big house and started a convent with 3 other girls.  They called themselves the “Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition” and many more girls joined them in the years to come.  They continued the work that Emily started in her father’s home.  Sr. Emily started convents in Burma and Australia and before she died there were over 40 convents around the world.

St John Regis

John was always very close to God, even as a little boy.  He didn’t do a lot of the things young boys do, because he was too busy praying and learning about God.  He spent all his free time praying and being with God, because he loved God with all his heart, soul and mind.  So when he was 19 years old he joined the seminary so that he could be a priest.  During his days in seminary all his teachers noticed how close he was to God and how special this made him.   All he wanted to do was pray and serve others and give whatever he could to those around him.  As a priest, Fr. John continued to serve others and God with his whole life.  He didn’t think about himself and only did what he absolutely had to for himself in order to stay alive; he didn’t eat much, he didn’t sleep much, he didn’t take holidays.  Fr. John spent his days preaching, helping people get to know Jesus, healing people, listening to confessions and celebrating mass.  He would do all these things which such closeness to God, that people who saw him could not help but return to Jesus, because they saw in Fr. John the love of God. He went on missions to the villages in the mountains to help people there come back to Jesus.  Everyone who came to know Fr. John Francis Regis, said that they were closer to Jesus because of him.

St Adelaide

Adelaide was sent to a convent to live with the Cistercian sisters when she was only 7 years old.  The sisters loved her so much because she was such a kind and humble girl.  The sisters were so sad when they found out that Adelaide had became sick with a disease called leprosy (a sickness of the skin).  In those days you could not heal someone with leprosy and it was easily spread and very dangerous, so the sisters had to keep Adelaide away from all of the sisters.  So Adelaide spent most of her time alone and had to be very careful not to get close to the sisters so that she did not get them sick too.  She suffered her illness quietly and with a lot of grace; she never complained.  She spent her days praying and talking to God, and God comforted her and gave her special visions and graces.  After Adelaide became blind and was no longer able to move, she joined Jesus in heaven.  Many people asked for her prayers and Jesus performed many miracles through her intercession.

St Methodist I

Methodius was actually born in Italy, but after his studies were finished he decided to go to Constantinople to work for the Emperor.  On his way there, he met a monk who taught him all about God and how much he loves us.  Methodius learned that he could be very happy by giving up everything he had and living for God.  He joined a monastery and actually built a monastery too.  The Emperor, who Methodius had wanted to work for when he first set sail for Constantinople, did not believe that people should have statues and icons of Saints.  Many people agreed with the Emperor; they believed that Christians who had these things were worshiping these statues and icons instead of worshipping God.  Methodius tried to help the Pope teach the Emperor and his followers that Christians were not worshipping these statues or icons, but they were using them to be able to get closer to Jesus through prayer and reflection on these holy peoples’ lives.  Methodius was thrown into prison for going against the Emperor.  Seven years later the Emperor died and his wife, Empress Theodora, became the ruler of Constantinople.  The Empress was a good Christian and found nothing wrong with having statues and icons and so she set Methodius and many other Christians free from prison.  Methodius spent the rest of his life working to bring peace to the people of Constantinople.  He also wrote about the lives of the Saints and wrote about the teachings of the faith, which helped many people get closer to God.

St Anthony of Padua

Anthony was born in Portugal and was named Fernand when he was born.  His family was rich and his parents wanted Fernand to become an important man in their city, but Fernand only wanted to be a priest.  After getting a really good education, Fernand joined the Augustinian friars.  When he was 25 years old he was inspired to join the Franciscans because 5 Franciscan brothers had been martyred for the faith and Fernand also wanted to give his live for Jesus.  When he became a brother he took the name Anthony.  He became an amazing teacher of the faith and preached all over Italy and in France too.  He was able to explain the faith in very simple words and so honestly that everyone who heard him could understand and came to believe in Jesus.  Because of this gift in teaching the faith, the Church made him a Doctor of the Church.  He died at a young age near Padua in Italy.  Many people asked him to pray for them after he died and many miracles happened because of his intercession to Jesus.

St John of Sahagun

John was born to rich parents and was the oldest of 7 children.  He could have lived a comfortable life, but he gave it all up to become a priest.  Although he was a very good priest, he felt that he needed to learn more so that he could preach against the lies that were being taught about the faith.  So he studied for 4 more years and became a wonderful preacher, leading many people back to the truth about God.  After becoming very sick, he joined the Augustinian friars, where he was a wonderful leader for the new men joining the monastery.  He always knew exactly what was going on in peoples’ souls and God performed many miracles through him.  He was never afraid to speak the truth about people, no matter how powerful or mean the person was, because of this many people wanted to kill him.  John did not care, he continued to share the Gospel, work miracles and bring people back to God.

St Barnabas

Barnabas was born around the same time that Jesus was born.  He was named Joseph when he was born.  He was St. Mark’s cousin and he became a Christian after the great event of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down on the Apostles and helped them preach in many languages.  The Apostles gave Joseph a new name, Barnabas, to symbolize that he was starting a new life in Jesus.  He gave everything he owned to the community of early Christians and truly gave his whole life to spreading the Good News of Jesus to everyone he could.  He joined St. Paul (who was first called Saul) in many missions to foreign lands, to tell everyone they could that Jesus lived to save us from sin and then He rose from the dead so we could be with Him and God the Father in Heaven!  Barnabas was able to return to his home country of Cyprus to share the gospel with them and He was overjoyed to see so many of the people in his country become believers in Jesus.  Barnabas died a martyr; he was stoned because he believed in Jesus and he was not afraid to share the Good News.

Blessed Henry of Treviso

Henry was born into a poor family.  His parents could not afford to send him to school, so he never learned to read or write, but this did not stop him from learning the ways of God.  He worked hard everyday, doing whatever was asked of him.  Of all the money that he made, he would keep only what he needed for that day, the rest he gave away to the poor.  The rest of the day he spent praying, going to mass and going to confession as often as he could.  When he got too old to work, he lived with a kind man who gave him a room in his home.  He lived from whatever the people of the town would give him and he would always give away what he did not need for the day.  Near the end of his life, he could hardly walk, but he would still go to mass every day.  After he died, many of the people from town came to see his body and many, many miracles were reported to have happened through the intercession of Blessed Henry of Treviso.

St Ephrem

Ephrem lived during a very difficult time, where many people believed in false gods and didn’t want to learn about the one true God.  People were teaching lies in the Church and someone needed to put a stop to this and teach the Truth about Jesus.  Ephrem was baptized when he was about 18 years old and from then on spent his life trying to know God better and teach others more about God too.  He shared the Gospel through writing songs.  Until this time people didn’t have song books that they used at Church, St. Ephrem created hymns like the ones we sing at Church today.  These hymns taught people the Truth about God and our faith and helped the Christians understand things better.  He was a great teacher of the faith and he might have even been a Deacon in the Church.  His hymns and teachings helped the Christian people in the Church begin to love God and His Church again; this is why the Church calls him a Doctor of the Church.

St William of York

William grew up close to royal people.  His mother was King William’s sister and his father worked for King Henry I.  William grew up with a deep faith in God and when he was older he worked for the Church in York, not for the royal people like his Father did.  He became a priest and the Pope made him the Archbishop of York.  Even though he was a good man and a good Archbishop, some people said that he was doing bad things and they wanted the Pope to make William stop being the Archbishop of York.  The Pope said no, but when this Pope died the new Pope, Eugene III, believed what people were saying and William was no longer allowed to be the Archbishop.  He went to a quiet place and lived the life of a monk, praying and doing penance (doing hard things because you are sorry for your sins and for the sins of others).  After Pope Eugene III died, William was again made the Archbishop of York, because the new Pope, Anastastius IV, realized that what had been said about William was all lies.  He was only Archbishop for a short time though, because he died soon after returning to York.  Some people think that his enemies poisoned him, but no one knows for sure.  There were many miracles that happened when people came to see his tomb and ask for his prayers, so the Church knows that he was a holy man.

St Anne of St Bartholomew

Born into a peasant family (farmers), Anne grew up and became a shepherdess.  She lived close to Avila, which is where the Carmelite nuns lived; they were run by St. Theresa of Avila.  Anne asked to join this convent and was accepted as a lay sister instead of a Cloistered nun.  This allowed her to run errands and do some of the work outside of the convent walls that the other sisters could not do.  St. Theresa began to know Blessed Anne and liked her so much that she chose her to be her travel buddy, as she visited other convents or started new convents in Europe.  Anne was with St. Theresa a lot and learned so much from her.  After St. Theresa died Anne continued doing some of the work that she had helped St. Theresa do while she was alive.  She was sent to open a convent in France and then she opened some in the Netherlands and Belgium.  Many rich and very well educated girls joined the convents that Anne helped start and she reminded Jesus that she was only a shepherd girl and maybe he should choose someone else to do this important work.  Jesus reminded her that straw can start a very big fire and through Anne’s work many women’s hearts caught on fire with love for Jesus.

St Norbert

Norbert was born into a rich family and he loved the good and easy life.  He didn’t like doing things that were hard.  He joined the German royal court and continued leading a very fun, easy and selfish life, thinking of only himself.  Then one day he was riding his horse in a storm.  There was a big strike of lightening that scared his horse and made it jump.  This threw Norbert off the horse and onto the muddy ground where he was knocked unconscious (not able to move or think).  He lay there in the mud getting wet by the rain for over an hour.  When he woke up he repeated the words that St. Paul said to God when he was knocked off his horse, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”  God said to him, “Turn from evil and do good.  Seek peace and pursue it.”  So Norbert sold everything he had and gave it to the poor.  He become a priest and started preaching, walking everywhere barefoot in order to do penance (doing hard things because you feel bad about the sins you have done or others have done) for the life he had lead.  The Pope saw how he had changed and gave him some land to start an Order, which was very popular because of its strict ways.  Soon there were 8 Abbeys and 2 Convents.  Fr. Norbert later became Pope and was very well respected by the Church all over the world.

St Boniface

Even though Boniface was born in England, he is honored in Germany because he was a missionary in that country and helped many people become Christian there.  He first heard about God from some missionaries who stayed at his parent’s house when he was just a little boy.  He listened to the Good News of the Gospel that they shared and loved listening to them because they were so excited to share about Jesus.  That day Boniface knew that he wanted to be a missionary when he grew up.  So after studying at a monastery school and becoming a priest, the Pope St. Gregory II sent him to Germany with St. Albinus, St. Abel and St. Agatha also went with him.  Fr. Boniface was a wonderful preacher and many people came to know Jesus through him.  He was able to show people that their false gods had no power and many people stopped believing in false gods and started believing in Jesus instead.  He built churches and monasteries in all the places that he preached in Germany.  Fr. Boniface became an Archbishop and was sent to Bavaria, which is now also part of Germany.  Again, Archbishop Boniface converted many people there.  One day Archbishop Boniface was in Holland and he was getting ready to confirm some new Christians when a group of warriors attacked them.  Instead of being afraid and running for his life, Archbishop Boniface trusted in God and was excited to join Jesus in heaven.  He died that day as a martyr with 52 new Christians who were with him.  

St Francis Caracciola'

Before Francis became a priest he was very sick with a skin disease that was almost like leprosy (a sickness that hurts peoples’ skin), but he studied to become a priest anyway.  When he became a priest his disease disappeared, it was a miracle.  He started an Order of priests with a friend of his, St. John Augustine, called the Minor Clerks Regular.  In this Order, he served the Church and the priests in the order with great humility.  The Pope thought he was such a good priest that he wanted to make him a Bishop, but Fr. Francis was too humble and refused to become a Bishop.  He made sure that anytime he could, he told people about how much God loved them; through him many people came to know about the love God had for them.  He made sure that in the Order there was always someone praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament, where Jesus’ body is really present to us.  He died when he was still pretty young, he was only in his 40s, but he was so ready to go to heaven.  Shortly before he died, one of the priests in his Order heard him say, “Let’s Go!” and the priest asked, “Where are we going?”.  Fr. Francis answered “To Heaven!”.

Charles Lwanga

Charles Lwanga belonged to the Society of Missionaries of Africa, known as the “White Fathers” because their robes were all white.  These Missionaries shared the Good News of the Gospel with so many young people in Africa.  Soon these new Christians began to share the Good News of Jesus’ love with even more people.  200 of these new Christians worked for King Mwanga, the leader of this group was Joseph Mkasa.  Joseph was friends with the King, but when he told the King that he was not living the way God would want him to live, the King got so angry that he had him killed.  Before Joseph died he forgave the King.  Charles then took Joseph’s place as leader of the new Christians who worked for the King.  The King became very angry that people working for him were still learning about Jesus and so he gathered everyone in the Palace Court together.  He asked all the people who did not pray to stand beside him and those that did pray to stand in front of him.  Fifteen men stood in front of him and he asked them if they were going to stay Christian, they all said yes!  All of them were 25 years old or younger and they were not afraid to say that they were Christians, even though they knew that would mean they would die.  The King made them all walk 37 miles to where he planned to take their life; some died on the way and those that made it to the end were killed in a fire.  They were not afraid to die, they all continued to praise Jesus even while they were dying.  They knew that the King could harm their bodies, but he could not harm their souls.  They all died as martyrs because of their strong faith in Jesus.

Sts Marcellinus and Peter

Marcellinus was a priest in the early Church and Peter was someone who got rid of bad spirits (an exorcist).  They were very strong believers in Jesus and helped to spread the Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection throughout Rome.  They were put into prison and eventually they were killed because of their faith in Jesus.  They were killed in a secret place in the forest, because the rulers of Rome did not want people to respect their bodies.  Their bodies were found and later Emperor Constantine built a Basilica over their tombs in order for all Catholics to remember how they died for their faith.

St Justin

Justin’s mom and dad did not believe in God and so Justin grew up without knowing who Jesus and God the Father were.  Even though he was never taught about God, through reading about history and science he knew that there must be a God and he wanted to find out more.   God wanted Justin to know Him too and so one day while Justin was walking alone, he met an old man along the way that explained to him who God was.  He shared the Gospel with him and told him that God sent His Son to earth to save us, so that we could have a relationship with Him.  He asked Justin if he would pray to Jesus and let him into His heart and Justin said yes.  From that day, Justin began to pray and read the Bible, he grew closer and closer to Jesus every day.  As he learned more and more, he began to write a lot about the faith and some of his writings are still used today to explain the faith.  Being Christian was not allowed in Rome during the time that Justin was doing all his writings about the Church and so Justin was arrested for believing in Jesus.  When he faced the Judge, he was asked if he thought that dying would help him get to heaven.  Justin responded by saying that he didn’t think he would get to heaven, he was sure of it!  The Judge sentenced Justin to death because of his faith in Jesus, and so Justin died a martyr.

Visitation

After the Archangel Gabriel told Mary that she was going to have baby Jesus, she went to go visit her cousin Elizabeth, who she loved so much and who was also having a baby.  As soon as Mary arrived and called out to her cousin Elizabeth, the baby inside Elizabeth’s womb, St. John the Baptist, jumped for joy because he knew that Mary was carrying Jesus!  When Elizabeth asked Mary why she had the honour to have the Mother of Jesus come and visit her, Mary humbly said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.  For He has regarded the lowliness of his handmaid and holy is his name.”  Mary knew that everything that was happening was from God and all she had to do was say YES.  Mary stayed with Elizabeth for 3 months helping her get ready for the birth of St. John the Baptist.

St Maximinius

Maximinius studied for many years to become a priest and later he even became a Bishop of Trier.  When St. Athanasius of Alexandria was sent into exile (kicked out of his own country and not allowed to come back) in Trier, Maximinius did everything he could to make him comfortable and lessen his sorrow of being far away from his people.  Bishop St. Paul of Constantinople was also protected by Maximinius from the anger of Emperor Constantius.  St. Athanasius wrote that Maximinius was brave, holy and well known by his people as being a miracle worker.  He defended the Church against many people that attacked it.

Blessed Margaret Pole

Margaret was the niece of 2 English Kings, King Edward IV and Richard III.  King Henry VII found someone for her to marry, Reginald Pole a brave solder and a friend of the royal family.  Together they had 5 children; Margaret also helped raise the King’s son Henry VIII.  Henry VIII became King and he said that Margaret was the holiest woman in England, he was so amazed by her that he made her a countess (an important person in the King’s Court) of Salisbury.  Henry trusted her so much that he put her in charge of his daughter Princess Mary.  Unfortunately, King Henry VIII made a lot of bad decisions and Margaret was not afraid to tell him that what he was doing was wrong and sinful.  This made the King very angry and he made her leave the King’s Court.  He got even madder when one of Margaret’s sons, Cardinal Reginald Pole, wrote an article saying that King Henry was wrong to think that he was in charge of the Church in England.   King Henry turned his back on God and sinned more and more.  He ended up putting Margaret in prison, even though nobody could say that she did anything wrong, and he had her killed.  She died a martyr because she stood up for the law of God.

St Augustine of Canterbury

Augustine was a monk and became the Abbot (leader) of St. Andrew’s monastery in Rome.  Pope Gregory the Great chose him and 40 other monks to go on a mission to England to bring the people living there the Gospel.  They were warned by the people of France not to go there, because the Celts in England were very mean.  So all the monks asked Abbot Augustine to talk to the Pope and change his mind, so that they would not have to go because they were scared.   The Pope did not change his mind because he knew the people in England wanted to know Jesus.  They were welcomed in England and even King Ethelbert listened to their message and was baptized into the family of God.  Abbot Augustine became a Bishop during their first year of mission. Bishop Augustine was able to perform miracles and through him many people came to know God.  In the city of Canterbury, England, Bishop Augustine built a church and a monastery, which became very important in England.

St Philip Neri

because he was always happy and friendly to everyone – everybody loved Phillip.  When he got older he went to study in Rome with the Dominican priests.  He was a good student and a very good Christian.  He did everything he could to bring people closer to Jesus.  When he turned 36 years old he felt like God was calling him to become a priest.  As a priest Fr. Phillip really helped everyone around him.  He would listen to confessions for hours a day and no matter how many people lined up to come and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, he was always patient, kind and gentle with everyone.  At one point he thought maybe he should go to a far off land to be a missionary; but a wise monk told him that Rome was his mission field and he really did so much to bring the people of Rome closer to God.  A few years before he died he started working with young people, finding them safe places to play and becoming their friend, so that he could lead them to God.  

Pope St Gregory VII

Gregory was named Hildebrand when he was born, but chose the name Gregory when he became Pope.  Hildebrand did not want to become Pope, but all of the Cardinals knew that God was calling him to be Pope, so they chose him.  He knew that being Pope was a very difficult job and during that time the Church was going through a very difficult time because Kings and Emperors were trying to control the Church.  The first thing Pope Gregory did when he became Pope was to pray very hard for God to tell him what he needed to do.  He made all the bad and dishonest leaders in the Church leave and he did everything he could to stop the Kings and Emperors from getting involved in making decisions in the Church.  These things made the Emperors and Kings mad, so they tried to capture Pope Gregory, but the people of Rome loved their Pope and they protected him.  Then King Henry chose his own Pope and tried to convince the people that he was the true Pope.  The Emperor then sent his army to try and capture Pope Gregory again and so he had to leave Rome and go into hiding.  He died in a place called Salerno where he was hiding from the Emperors and Kings.  His last words were “I have loved justice and hated evil.  That is why I am dying in exile”.

St King David I

David was the youngest son of King Malcom and Queen Margaret of Scotland.  His mother was such a good woman and Queen that she also became a Saint.  David was made King when he was about 40 years old.  He didn’t want to be the King because he knew how much responsibility that meant, but he was a very good King.  King David was always willing to meet with anyone in his kingdom, even the poor.  He was a good example to everyone of how to be a good Christian, and because of his leadership, the people of Scotland grew closer to God.  He helped the Church a lot during his 20 years as King; creating new diocese, building monasteries, giving money to the Church and the poor.  King David prayed until the very moment that he died, because he knew that he wanted to meet Jesus in Heaven and that praying would prepare him for that journey.  “Let me think about the things of God instead, so that my soul may be strengthened on its trip from exile to home”.  He died on this day in the year 1153.v

St John Baptist Rossi

John was born to a Catholic family who had 4 children.  A rich couple that visited the family thought that John was very smart and offered to pay for him to be able to go to school.  While he was studying he met some Capuchin friars and he started to study to become a priest.  John was sick a lot and after he became a priest he spent a lot of time with the sick people, because he knew exactly how they felt.  He also worked a lot with the poor, especially those that didn’t have anyone else to teach them about God.  Fr. John had such a big heart that he also started caring for women and young girls that didn’t have a home and lived on the street.  The Pope gave him money so that he could open up a home to care for them.  He loved to bring people closer to God through the sacrament of reconciliation, because he knew that this sacrament helped people find forgiveness and peace.  The Pope also gave him a job to teach prison and government workers about God and he brought a lot of people closer to God.  He was a wonderful priest who loved God very much and served his people even when he was suffering.