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.