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June 12: Blessed Mercedes Molina
Blessed Mercedes Molina was born in 1828 in Baba, Ecuador. She lost both parents by the time she was fifteen years old, and she went through a deep conversion soon afterward due to a serious fall from a horse. As a young woman, she became a nun, but then she founded her own religious order, […]
June 11: Saint Parisio
Two Italian cities claim Saint Parisio as their native son: Treviso and Bologna. Whichever is right, he spent most of his life in Treviso during the thirteenth century. Parisio was one of those rare saints who seem to have been pure and devout from childhood. He was allowed to enter the Camaldolese order when he […]
June 10: Blessed Henry of Treviso
Blessed Henry of Treviso was born into a poor family in Bolzano, Italy, in the thirteenth century. He never learned how to read or write, and he spent his whole life working as a day laborer. Yet this poorly dressed man with a long nose, who was sometimes ridiculed by children and strangers, was a […]
June 9: Blessed Joseph Imbert
During the French Revolution of the late eighteenth century, the anti-Catholic government imprisoned and killed many priests, nuns, and vowed religious. Blessed Joseph Imbert was born around 1720 in the city of Marseilles and became a Jesuit priest. He was the apostolic vicar of Moulins when he was arrested for being a faithful Catholic priest […]
June 8: Saint Mariam Chiramel Mandkidiyan
Saint Mariam Chiramel Mandkidiyan was born in 1876 in Trichur, India. Devout from a young age, she decided to give her life to prayer and service of the poor, sick, and lonely members of her parish. The prayer group she started even served those considered “untouchables” in India’s caste culture. She was only twenty-seven years […]
June 7: Saint Robert of Newminster
Saint Robert of Newminster was a priest and then a Benedictine monk before he joined a group of monks to establish a new abbey at Newminster in twelfth century England. The new abbey followed the Cistercian reform of religious life, with the manual labor and strong emphasis on prayer typical of the order. His fellow […]
June 6: Blessed Innocent Guz
Born Joseph Guz in 1890 in Poland, he was turned down when he tried to enter the Jesuit order, but the Franciscans accepted him. He took the name of Innocent in religious life and was ordained a priest. Blessed Innocent became a collaborator with the future saint Maximilian Kolbe, serving as a confessor to the […]
June 5: Saints Dominic Toai and Dominic Huyen
The two men who are commemorated as saints today were both born in the nineteenth century in Dong Thanh, Vietnam, both married and had children, both worked as fishermen, and both were had the first name Dominic. One was named Dominic Toai, and the other was named Dominic Huyen. They were also Catholic, and when […]
June 4: Saint Philip Smaldone
Saint Philip Smaldone (1848-1923) was born in Naples, Italy. He volunteered to help deaf-mute people while he was still in the seminary studying for the priesthood and continued to serve them after being ordained. But he became depressed and frustrated at one point and seriously abandoning this work and joining the foreign missions. Fortunately, his […]
June 3: Blessed John the Sinner
Though he was born with the name John Grande, today’s saint is generally known today as Blessed John the Sinner. Born in Spain in 1546, he lost his father when he was fifteen years old and had his own business in the linen trade by the time he was twenty-two. But he soon found that […]
June 2: Saint Pothinus and Companions
An ancient manuscript describes the martyrdoms of the Christians of the cities of Vienna and Lyons in the year 177. According to this document, the local governor resumed the persecution of Christians under the orders of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. But, as is often the case, persecution didn’t begin with arrests and executions. Instead, […]
June 1: Saint Proculus
In the city of Bologna, Italy, a man named Proculus was executed for refusing to give up his faith in Christ. So why does the city of Bologna claim two martyrs with that name? The first Proculus was a soldier and died in the year 304, under the Roman persecution of Christians. A few centuries […]
June 2020: FAQs about “Saints”
Why did you write a book about saints? I knew almost nothing about the saints when I became a Catholic as a young adult. But I quickly learned that good biographies of their lives helped me figure out how to live my life as a follower of Christ. Just like you and me, holy men […]
May 31: Blessed James Salomone
Blessed James Salomone (1231-1314) came from a noble family of Venice, Italy. But his father died when he was young, and his mother left to become a Cistercian nun, leaving James to be raised by his grandmother. Perhaps unsurprisingly, James also considered a religious vocation and decided to enter the Dominican order as a young […]
May 30: Blesseds Richard Newport and William Scott
When King James I became the king of England, Catholics had reason to hope that they would be better treated than in previous reigns. However, the Gunpowder Plot (an assassination attempt on the king’s life by a group of Catholics which failed) changed all that. While James did tolerate the presence of some Catholics to […]
May 29: Saint Senator
Saint Senator was only a priest when he was sent by Pope Saint Leo the Great to attend a council in Constantinople as one of his appointed legates. He also attended, at the pope’s request, the Council of Chalcedon, an important council in the year 451 in which the Church responded to heresies about the […]
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