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.