St Brigid

Brigid was born a short time after St Patrick began spreading Jesus' message in Ireland.  She grew up knowing and loving Jesus.  She had a great love for poor people and would often share food and clothes with them.  Once she gave a whole pail of milk to people who were hungry.  As she walked home she began to worry that her mother would be upset with her.  She asked God to fill her pail and by the time she got home, her pail was full of milk. Brigid became a nun and started her own convent.  She was so lovely, gentle and kind to those in need, that many people referred to her as "Mary of the Irish.”

St John Bosco

John’s parents were poor farmers.  When John was only 9 he already wanted to become a priest.  His mother let him go to school, but he always had to do his chores first.  He learned to do all kinds of jobs; carpentry, shoemaking, cooking, farming, baking and many other jobs.   When John grew up he did became a priest. As a priest, Don Bosco (Don means Father in Italian) began helping his people. He was a very kind man and he felt sad when he saw so many children living on the streets of Italy. Like a loving father, he gathered together these homeless boys and taught them how to work, so that they would stay out of trouble. His advice to the boys was, "Pray when it's time to pray. Study when it's time to study. Play when it's time to play. Show kindness to everyone you meet. But do it all for the love of Jesus."  Don Bosco started his own religious order of priests, brothers and sisters called the Salesians, after St. Francis de Sales.

St Bathildis

When Bathildis was only a little girl, she was taken onto a pirate ship and taken to France.  She was sold as a slave to the Mayor of the Palace of King Clovis.  Bathildis quietly did everything she was told to do and did the best she could in everything.  King Clovis began to notice how good Bathildis was and the more he watched her, the more he was impressed and so he married her!  The little slave girl became the Queen. They had 3 sons and after King Clovis died, Bathildis became ruler of France until her sons grew up and became King.  She remembered her years as a slave and what it was like to be poor and so Bathildis wanted everyone to know how precious they were to God.  She used her royal position to help and protect the Church in every way she could and she always helped the poor whenever she could.   She opened many hospitals in France to help the sick people and she made it against the law to sell Christians as slaves. When her son Clotaire was 15, Queen Bathildis made him King and she entered the convent of Chelles. In the convent she never demanded or even expected that other people should treat her like a Queen.

St Gildas

When Gildas he was just a child he was taken to a monastery close to home so that he could learn with Saint Illtyd. When he grew up, he moved to Ireland to study and gave his life to God. Gildas was serious about living his faith and he did whatever he could to get closer to God. He prayed really hard for all the bad people and he talked to them about God; he wanted them to stop being bad and start to believe in God.  Gildas later became a hermit, living on a tiny island all alone, so that he could spend more time in prayer and learning about God.  Lots of people wanted to be like Gildas and soon lots of people came to his hermitage to learn from him. People in the Church - priests, bishops, men and women went to Gildas for advice. He welcomed everyone that came to him, to show people that God wants us to share our gifts with others.  Gildas reminded everyone to always try to be good, to stop doing bad things and to do what is right.

St Thomas Aquinas

Thomas was one of 9 children and he was very smart. When Thomas was 18, he went to the University in Naples.  While he was there he met a new group of religious men called the Order of Preachers. Their founder, St. Dominic, was still alive. Thomas knew he wanted to become a priest and felt that he was called to join these men.  So he became a Dominican priest.  St. Thomas wrote so well about God that people all over the world have used his books for hundreds of years. His explanations about God came from Thomas' love for God. His writings have touched the hearts of people and helped them be closer to God.  This is why he was made a Doctor of the Church.  He is also the patron saint of all schools.

St Angela Merici

Angela’s parents and sister died when Angela was young.  Jesus helped her through lots of hard times and Angela grew to love Jesus very much and promised to spend the rest of her life serving Jesus.  When she was about 22 years old, Angela began to notice that the children of her town did not know a lot about Jesus. Angela asked some of her friends to help her teach religion classes.  This was the beginning of the first order of sisters to ever open schools for children.  Angela and these sisters promised to live only for God and they started the Ursuline Order. Angela asked St. Ursula to keep all of the sisters safe and this is how they got their name.  The Ursuline Sisters went to many countries, including Canada. The order continues to work for Jesus and his Church, especially teaching children and young adults.

Sts Timothy & Titus

Timothy and Titus were both Bishops in the Church. They also both learned about Jesus through the preaching of St. Paul. When Paul came to preach in his town, Timothy, his mother and his grandmother all became Christians.  When Paul went back years later, Paul invited him to go with him to preach the Gospel and Timothy left his home and followed Paul.  Timothy died a martyr, just like Paul; he was stoned because he would not worship the King.  Titus did not know about Jesus until Paul told him. After hearing about Jesus, Titus became a disciple of Paul, just like Timothy. Titus was generous and hard-working and he told lots of people about Jesus. Titus had a special gift for being a peacemaker and Paul would send him all over to help the new Christians work out their problems and forgive each other.  St. Paul made Titus Bishop of the Island of Crete.