St Callistus

Callistus was a slave in Rome; his master trusted him and liked him a lot and so he made him the Manager of his Bank.  When the Bank lost all its money, Callistus was blamed and was punished by being sent to a prison where he had to work very hard all day long.  He was released to try to get some of the money back for the Bank, but when he got into a fight he was put back into prison where he had to work in a mine.  Callistus was in prison with many Christians and, when some of these Christians were released, Callistus accidently got released, too.  He was sent away with some money and was told not to return to Rome.  When Pope Zephyrinus became Pope, he asked Callistus to come back to Rome to help him fight against the wrong teachings of the Church that were starting to spread.  Callistus helped the Pope understand which teachings were true and which were wrong.  Callistus did such a great job that, when Pope Zephyrinus died, Callistus was made the new Pope.  As Pope, Callistus helped the Church love all people - even those who were poor, slaves, and sinners.  He also helped spread the Gospel all over the world, just as Jesus had wanted.  He made sure that the Church showed everyone God’s mercy and love and welcomed anyone that wanted forgiveness and wanted to know Jesus.  St. Callistus died a martyr for his faith in Jesus.

St Edward

Edward was born a prince to King Ethelred III and Queen Emma of England.  Queen Emma was from Normandy, France.  When Prince Edward was 10 years old, Denmark invaded England and they kicked the King and Queen from their thrones.  Edward went to Normandy, France, with his mother to be kept safe until things got better in England.  He spent many years in Normandy and was told of the struggles that England was experiencing, because so many people wanted England to increase their power.  After Edward’s father died, his mother returned to England and married the Prince of Denmark, who had invaded England; this made him the King of England and Edward’s mother the Queen of England once again.  This also meant that Edward was now an heir to the throne again and, when the new King of England died, Edward became King.  He ruled England peacefully because he had learned as a young boy that wanting too much power would end up hurting people.  He stopped taxing the people of England so much and gave to the poor, and he changed laws to make sure that all the people of England were well taken care of. He also built St. Peter’s Abbey and spent a lot of his time focused on God.  After his death, King Edward’s body was placed in a tomb in St. Peter’s Abbey, and many sick people came to touch his body and were healed of their illness.  His body is believed to be incorruptible!

St Maria Teresa Fasce

Maria, whose nickname growing up was Marietta, was full of life.  Even after her mother died when she was only 8 years old, she still enjoyed her life, her family, school and especially learning about God.  The Church in her community was run by Augustine Priests and Marietta learned to love the Augustine way of praying and getting closer to Jesus.  As she got older and learned more and more about Jesus she started to feel called to become a nun.  When St. Rita of Cascia was canonized a Saint, Marietta felt even more called by Jesus to enter a convent.  She joined an Augustinian monastery, which was in her country and she became a nun.  At first she was very disappointed with the way the sisters in the convent behaved, she didn’t see them taking their vows seriously and being respectful of Jesus.  She left the convent for a while, because she thought maybe she had made a mistake and that Jesus didn’t really want her to be a nun.  But after being away from the monastery for a while and praying more about her life, she returned to the monastery because she knew that was where Jesus wanted her.  Instead of complaining about the way things were happening with the other sisters, she decided to change things.  She wrote letters about the inappropriate behaviour of the sisters and she was put in charge of taking care of and teaching the new girls that were joining the monastery.  Later she was put in charge of the whole monastery.  She led the monastery with lots of rules and taught the sisters to be respectful and to follow the teachings of Saint Augustine to get closer to Jesus.  She was also a very loving, kind and gentle leader; all the sisters in the monastery loved her very much.  She worked very hard for Jesus and built a Church in honour of St. Rita and also built an orphanage for little girls who had no one to take care of them.  She had many illnesses that caused her a lot of pain, but she never let that stop her from doing what God called her to do.

St. Maria Soledad

Maria Soledad was named Vibiana when she was born to farming parents.  She had 4 brother and sisters.  She loved Jesus and His mother Mary from the time that she was a little girl.  She used to organize processions for Mary with all the kids in her neighbourhood.  When she grew up, she would visit the lonely and sick people in her community, sharing her faith and her joy.  She wanted to join a convent and heard that Fr. Michael, a priest in her city of Madrid, was starting an Order of sisters and was looking for girls to join.  The Order would be devoted to helping the sick who could not afford to go to hospitals.  Fr. Michael accepted her and she joined the new Order, taking the name Maria Soledad.  Fr. Michael asked her to lead the new Order of Sisters and she worked hard to take care of the sick, as well as the sisters in the Order.  They became known as the Handmaids of Mary Serving the Sick.  The sisters were very poor and they didn’t always have much to eat, but they spent their time caring for the sick and praying and, slowly, their Order grew and spread all over Europe and in Latin America.  After 35 years of serving the sick and leading the Handmaids of Mary, Maria Soledad became sick and died on October 11, 1887.  Five years after she died, they wanted to move her tomb to the Chapel; when they opened up her casket, they realized that her body had not decayed like normal.  All who were there could smell a beautiful smell coming from her body.  In a few years her body did decay, and they buried her bones in the Chapel.

St Mary Angela

Mary Angela was named Sophia Camille when she was born. Her parents were important people in Poland and they were good Catholics.  Sophia was a very smart girl, but she was always sick and so she couldn’t go to school for very long.  Instead, she learned at home through reading her father’s books and being taught by her father who was a lawyer.  This is how she learned to care about those in her community who were not well-off like her family and who suffered because of the way they were treated.  Sophia loved to pray and she wanted to become a cloistered nun when she grew up, to spend all of her time in prayer with Jesus.  She was told that she should stay to help her father instead and so she continued to pray and to work to help those in need.  She realized that many of the problems in her community came from families who were having a hard time and so she decided to help the kids from these families learn about Jesus and get a good education.  A friend, Clothilde, joined her and together they dedicated themselves to Mary to whatever her Son Jesus asked them to do.  They formed a group of sisters called the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Felix, and Sophia took the name Mary Angela.  They worked hard helping all the people in their community, but they also took lots of time to pray and get to know Jesus better.  Many women joined Mary Angela and Clothilde and they did whatever the Church asked them to do: teaching, helping the sick, and helping children, adults and the elderly. Mary Angela became sick after many years of service and she suffered a lot, for many years.  During this time she grew even closer to Jesus, showing the sisters in her congregation how to love and serve God above everything else, even when it was hard.

St Denis

Denis was born and grew up in Italy, when Christianity was still very new.  When he became a priest, he was sent to France to tell people about Jesus.  He was made the first Bishop of Paris, the capital city of France.  The ruler of France began to punish the people who believed in Jesus, because he didn’t want to believe in Jesus.  So one day, Bishop Denis was put into prison with his priest and deacon, Rusticus and Eleutherius.  After a long time in jail, Bishop Denis and his companions were killed because they would not deny their faith in Jesus.  Their bodies were thrown into the river in Paris and the Christians in Paris found them and buried them.  They built a chapel over the tomb so they could remember their great Bishop and his companions and how they died because of their faith in Jesus.  That little chapel has become the very famous Abbey of St. Denis in France and the French people have never forgotten this great Saint who brought the Gospel to their country.

St Zeyne

Keyne was a princess, born to the King and Queen of Brecknock, Wales, in England.  She had 23 brothers and sisters!  Many men wanted to marry Keyne when she grew up, but she didn’t want to get married; she wanted to spend her life only with Jesus.  Keyne gave up her comfortable and rich life as a princess to live her life for God.  She left the King’s castle and became a hermit, spending many years alone in quiet places, praying and getting to know God in a very special way.  She helped to start many Churches in England, helping many people get closer to Jesus by being able to go to Mass.