Blessed Maria Menesis

Maria had 7 brothers and sisters.  She was very smart and was a talented artist and musician; she played the piano ad violin.  When she was 12 years old got really sick, and was sick for a whole year.  While she was sick she, and those around her, asked Mary to ask God to heal her.  God performed a miracle and she got better.  This miracle made Maria love God and his mother Mary very much, and she decided to become a sister with the Salesian order.   In 1920, at 18 years old, she joined the “Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians”.  In 1931 she went to Costa Rica and worked with many poor girls teaching them art and music and most importantly about God.  Through her example, many girls also became nuns and served the poor with her. 

St Maria Goretti

Maria was born into a loving family who was very poor.  She had 5 brothers and sisters and the whole family loved God very much.  In order to provide for the family, Maria’s family moved to a large farm with another farmer and his 16 year old son, Mr. Serenelli and Allessandro.  Maria worked very hard to help her family and she grew up to be a very kind, loving and beautiful girl whom everyone loved.  Since she was so beautiful, Allessandro started to notice her and tried to make her do things with him that were sinful.  Maria always said no and this made Allessandro very mad.  On July 5th 1902 Allessandro got so mad at Maria because she would not do what he wanted and sin against God, so he killed her.  Before Maria died she told the priest that she forgave Allessandro for all the bad things he did to her and she prayed that God would forgive him too.  Allessandro was put in jail for 30 years and for a long time he was not sorry for what he did, until one night in a dream Maria appeared to him.  She was walking in a garden and gave him lilies.  She told him that she would like to see him in heaven one day.  When Allessandro woke up he became so sorry for what he did and asked God for forgiveness; when he was let out of prison he also asked Maria’s mom for forgiveness.  He spent the rest of his life as a gardener at a monastery.  

St Anthony Zacharia

Anthony’s dad died when he was very little, so growing up it was just him and his mom and they were very close.  Anthony loved helping people that were sick and poor and so his mother thought that he would make a good doctor.  Anthony became a doctor and started helping lots of people.  Even though Anthony liked being a doctor and helping people, he loved God so much that he wanted to be a priest.  After becoming a priest, he still kept helping people and he started an order of priests called the Clerks Regular of St. Paul.  He also started an order of sisters called the Angelics of St. Paul.  Anthony loved St. Paul and studied the letters that he wrote a lot because they brought him closer to God.  He and his priests taught people about the teachings in Paul’s letters in simple ways so that they could understand and grow closer to God.  Anthony got sick while spreading the Good News of God to many people; he never stopped sharing about how much God loves us.

St Elizabeth of Portugal

Elizabeth was a Spanish princess who married the King of Portugal, King Denis, this made her the Queen of Portugal.  Elizabeth was beautiful and she was always generous, kind and loving.  For a long time her husband did lots of bad things and didn’t love his wife, Queen Elizabeth, very well.  Even though he treated her poorly, Queen Elizabeth never stopped loving her husband and praying that he would get to know God and be sorry for his sins.  She spent her time taking care of her kids and helping the poor of Portugal.  Because of her prayer and love King Denis slowly started to change his ways.  He asked Queen Elizabeth to forgive him for all the bad things he had done to her and he asked God to forgive him.  He lived the rest of his life doing good.  Because of her goodness Queen Elizabeth was able to bring peace to Portugal and even stopped two wars from starting.  When King Denis died, she sold off her riches and she joined the Franciscan order; opening a monastery for the Poor Clares (an order of sisters who live with the poor and cared for them).  After Queen Elizabeth died, many people asked for her prayers and God performed many miracles because of peoples’ faith.

St Thomas

Thomas was one of Jesus’ 12 apostles, Jesus’ closest friends when he was living on earth.  Thomas loved Jesus very much and followed him very closely while he was with them, but when Jesus was crucified Thomas lost his courage and hid because he was afraid that the Romans would want to kill him too.  On Easter Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his apostles, Thomas wasn’t there and he didn’t believe the apostles when they told him that Jesus was alive.  Thomas said he couldn’t believe unless he saw Jesus himself.  Eight days after Jesus rose from the dead Jesus appeared to the apostles again and this time Thomas was there too.  Jesus told Thomas to come and see him and touch his hands and feet that had been nailed to the cross.  Thomas ran to Jesus and fell down at his feet and cried, “My Lord and my God”.  Jesus reminded Thomas that he needed to believe in God even when he can’t see him.  Jesus said that we would be blessed if we believed in Him even without seeing Him, this is called faith.  With this new faith Thomas took the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection to many people.  He died a martyr because he never stopped spreading the Good News.

St Otto

Soon after Otto became a priest he was asked to serve in the court of Emperor Henry IV, he later became the Chancellor for the Emperor, which means he helped the Emperor make decisions.  Otto worked really hard to help the Emperor make good decisions for his people, but the Emperor made many bad decisions, even picking his own Pope because he didn’t like the decisions that the real Pope was making.  Otto did the best job he could serving the Emperor and then his son Henry V, who really respected Otto and listened to his advice.  Otto was made a Bishop and was asked by King Boleslaus III of Poland to go on a mission to bring the Good News of Jesus to some of his people in a country called Prussia.  These people did not know God and Bishop Otto helped them to give their life to God.  He brought Jesus to 20,000 people there and they were baptized.  He started more than 20 monasteries, built lots of churches and worked really hard to heal the relationship between the King and the Pope.

Blessed Junipero Serra

Blessed Junipero was named Miguel Jose when he was born, he took the name Junipero when he became a brother with the Franciscans at 17 years old.  Junipero was a good friend of St. Francis.  As Junipero studied to become a priest, he read a lot of stories of the Saints. The ones he loved the most were the saints who were missionaries and brought the Good News of Jesus to those who had never heard it before.  He decided that if God would allow it, he would become a missionary.  After 20 years of being a priest and a teacher he was allowed to go to “New Spain” (now Mexico and California) to bring Jesus to the people living there.  It was a long journey across the Atlantic Ocean in a boat and the Friars finally arrived in Mexico on December 6, 1749.  Not long after they arrived Junipero was bit by an insect that made his leg swell up and made it difficult for him to walk.  Junipero never complained and he walked far and wide to make sure that many people heard about Jesus and gave their life to Him.  Junipero started 21 missions in Mexico and later in California, they told people about God, they took care of their needs and taught them many things about farming and other important things needed to live.  His missions baptized 6,000 people who got to know Jesus because Junipero said yes to God’s call.