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!