St Hilarion

Hilarion grew up in a family who did not believe in God. When he was a teenager, he went to study in Alexandria in Egypt, one of the places where there were first Christians. While he was there, he heard about Jesus. After hearing the good news, he fell in love with Jesus, was baptized, and started to live a Christian life. He turned away from evil and spent his time learning about Jesus and going to Church. He wanted to get away from the distractions of the world around him, so he decided to go to the desert to spend time with St. Anthony. St. Anthony was very popular during that time; many people would visit him to learn about Jesus and ask for healing from sickness. After being with St. Anthony, he went back home to see his family. He learned that his parents had died while he was away, so he gave all his money to his brothers and went to the wilderness in order to find a peaceful place where he could focus on Jesus. He moved from place to place, never calling anywhere home and living very simply with only the clothes he was wearing and eating one small meal a day. When he finally did settle in one place, he made a very small hut where he lived with only the little he had. He would make many sacrifices to try to get closer to Jesus and to fight the temptation to sin. He performed miracles, healing a women who could not have children, curing 3 children who were very sick, and casting out evil spirits in people.

St Paul of the Cross

Paul’s family were merchants; they bought and sold things in his community. They were good people who tried hard to follow what the Catholic Church teaches. When Paul turned 19 years old, he decided to become a soldier with the Italian army. After only 1 year he knew being a soldier was not what God wanted him to do with his life. He started have visions in his dreams about beginning a new order of priests, but he didn’t know what to do about these dreams - he wasn’t a priest and he didn’t know if this was God trying to speak to him. He asked his Bishop to help him figure out what God was trying to tell him and the Bishop said that he believed God wanted him to begin this new order. So Paul started the order called the Barefoot Clerks of the Cross and the Passion (known as the Passionists). Paul, his brother, John, and two other men were ordained priests and took the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and devotion to the passion of Christ. The order grew quickly and spread throughout Italy. The priests spent their time preaching and teaching people about the passion and death of Jesus Christ, helping them see the beautiful gift that God gave us in His Son Jesus. Paul worked hard his whole life to spread the Gospel of Jesus’ love for us and he died when he was 81 years old.

St Peter Alcantara

Peter was only 16 when he left home to join the Franciscans. He was such a holy man that the Franciscans asked him to be in charge of the group of brothers he lived with. Even though this was a very important job, all Peter wanted to do was live a life of making sacrifices for Jesus. So when he was 40 years old, Peter started a stricter order of Franciscan brothers called the Congregation of St. Joseph of the Strict Observance. This group followed St. Francis’ very strict life in order to get as close to Jesus as possible and to make sacrifices for the sins of the world. Although he had a hard time getting this order started, it has spread very far around the world. Many believe that this order and their sacrifices helped to fix a lot of things that were going wrong in the Church during that time. Peter spent 40 years of his life living as simply as he could and sacrificing as much as he could. He would only eat bread and drink water, he never lay down to sleep, and he only slept for 1.5 hours a day. He was St. Teresa of Avila’s spiritual guide and helped her to become closer to Jesus and to pray more; his guidance helped her to become a Saint too. He also had a mission to place crosses in as many places as he could, to remind himself and others of the suffering of Jesus, which was so close to his heart. He would carry these crosses on his own shoulders to wherever he wanted to place one, preach beside the cross, and then pray there for many hours. He was found by many floating in the air (levitating) as he prayed next to the cross. He died while kneeling in prayer saying the bible verse, “I rejoiced when they said to me, let us go unto the house of the Lord!”

St Ignatius of Antioch

Luke lived during the time of Jesus. He was born in Greece, a gentile, not Jewish, and a doctor. Because he was a gentile he did not grow up believing in God, but when he heard Paul preaching the Good News about Jesus, Luke believed what Paul said and gave his life to Jesus. He left Greece and followed Paul wherever he went, preaching the Good News with Paul, and helping many people come to know Jesus. He spent time with Mary, Jesus’ Mother, so that he could learn all about Jesus. He wrote two books in the Bible: the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Since he had spent time with Mary listening to her, the Gospel of Luke tells us the most about the Annunciation, the birth of Jesus, and the first years of the Holy Family. The Acts of the Apostles tells us about the first few years after Jesus’ death and resurrection and how the Apostles spread the Gospel. St. Luke’s yes to Jesus meant that people all over the world could read the Good News about Jesus and say yes to Jesus.

St Margaret Mary Alacoque

When Margaret was a little girl she was sent to a school run by the Poor Clare Sisters. She grew to love Jesus and was especially devoted to Jesus in the Eucharist. When she was 11 years old, she became very sick and had to be in bed for 5 years. She made a promise to Mary that she would become a nun if she got better and, when she was 17 years old, she was healed. After this miracle, she added Mary to her name and continued to spend a lot of time in prayer. She would often have visions of Jesus, which she thought was normal! One day Jesus reminded her that she had promised His mother Mary to join a convent if she was healed and that He loved her so much that He wanted her to live her life only for Him. At the age of 24, she joined the Visitation Convent in Paray-le-Monial. She continued to have visions where Jesus taught her to love His Sacred Heart and He told her that she needed to help other people grow in love of His Sacred Heart too. He told her that in order for people to grow in love of His heart, they should go to Mass and receive Communion on the first Friday of every month. They should also spend 1 hour adoring the Blessed Sacrament every Thursday and on the feast of the Sacred Heart. During this time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus told her to think about His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane before He was crucified. When Margaret Mary tried to get people to follow these directions, they didn’t believe she was having visions of Jesus. After struggling for many years to spread this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the new Mother Superior of her convent, as well as the confessor of the convent, St. Claude, believed her. Now many people follow this devotion and grow to love Jesus more through his Sacred Heart. After her death, her body never decayed and is still incorruptible; those who visit her tomb claim many blessings through her intercession.

St Gerard Majella

Gerard’s father died when Gerard was only 12 years old.  Because his father had been a tailor, Gerard's mother sent him to his uncle to learn the trade and make some money for the family.  But instead of becoming a tailor, Gerard always wanted to join a religious order and serve God. Gerard, however, did not have good health and so some orders would not accept him.  Finally, the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer accepted him as a lay brother, meaning he was not a priest but he was part of the community.  He performed many different jobs for the community and worked hard to help his brothers.  He was given many gifts from God: he levitated (floated in the air when he prayed), he could bi-locate (be in more than one place at a time) and he performed many miracles.  He multiplied loaves of bread when he was giving them to the poor; he walked on water to help a boat full of people get to shore safely in a storm; he brought a little boy back to life after he fell off a cliff; and he blessed the small harvest of a farmer and that farmer didn’t run out of wheat all winter.  Another miracle happened after he had died - when a woman who was having a hard time delivering a baby touched a handkerchief Gerard had given her, all her pain stopped and she delivered a healthy baby.  This miracle has made Gerard the Patron Saint of pregnant women.  Gerard died when he was only 29, of tuberculosis, a sickness of the lungs.

St Teresa of Avila

Teresa was born during a very difficult time in the Church.  Christians did not always want to live the way Jesus taught; they wanted to live easy lives.  Teresa’s father was a very strict man and he wanted Teresa to live a holy life.  When Teresa was young, she tried to live this holy life and, one day, she convinced her brother to walk with her to the land of the Moors, where they didn’t believe in God, so that they could become martyrs.  Their uncle saw them walking and brought them back to their parents.

When Teresa became a teenager, she got distracted by boys and parties and being beautiful; she put all these things before God.  Her father was afraid that Teresa was turning away from God and so he sent her to a Carmelite convent.  Unfortunately the convent was not being run very well and, instead of spending time in prayer, the nuns visited, spent time with men, and tried to look beautiful.  Everyone liked Teresa and she spent her time with her friends and not in prayer. This type of life did not help Teresa get closer to Jesus.  She had a very hard time concentrating on prayer and didn’t feel close to Jesus at all.

Her life changed when she got very sick and almost died.  She became paralyzed for 3 years and, during this time, she made up lots of excuses not to pray.  She thought she was too much of a sinner to spend time with God.  When she was 41, a priest told her she had to start praying again. As Teresa struggled with spending time in prayer, she learned that she didn’t have to worry about what to think and say as she prayed. All that mattered was she was taking time to be with Jesus who loved her, and all she had to do was love Him back.  The more she prayed, the more God blessed her prayer time, giving her visions, making her float in the air (levitate), warming her up so much that she felt like she was melting into the love of God.  She didn’t think she deserved these blessings and asked God to stop, but He didn’t because He knew that the more He blessed her, the harder it would be for her to sin.  God asked her to start a new convent where the sisters spent their time in prayer and chose to be poor.  She did what God asked, even though many people were angry at her for doing it, and these convents of St. Joseph spread throughout Europe.  She wrote a book about her life and, because the book teaches us so much about praying and getting closer to God, the Church made her a Doctor of the Church.