SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

Ignatius, born in 1491 at the royal castle of Loyola, Spain, became a knight
in the court of King Ferdinand V. Wounded in the siege of Pamplona,
he lay ill in the castle, where he picked up a book of the Lives of the Saints
and started to read.

When he left the castle, he went to confession.

For almost a year he lived in a cave on the banks of a river.
He fasted, prayed and took care of the poor and the sick.

A man of thirty-five years of age, he entered a school in Barcelona, Spain.

After being ordained a priest, he founded the Society of Jesus at Paris.
Schools, preaching, retreats, missionary work- any work was to be their work,
especially at a time when many were falling away from the Church.

Many of his men became missionaries,

and some taught the Indians in America.
For fifteen years, Ignatius directed the work of the Society.
Almost blind, he died at the age of sixty-five on July 31, 1556.
 SAINT AGNES

Agnes was only twelve years old when she was led
to the altar of the pagan goddess Minerva in Rome to offer incense to her.
But she raised her hands to Jesus Christ and made the Sign of the Cross.

The soldiers bound her hands and feet. Her young hands were so thin
that the chains slipped from her wrists. When the judge saw that she was not
afraid of pain, he had her clothes stripped off, and she had to stand in the
street before a pagan crowd. She cried out: “Christ will guard His own.”

Agnes was offered the hand of a rich young man in marriage,

but she answered: “Christ is my spouse. He chose me first and His I will be.
He made my soul beautiful with the jewels of grace and virtue.
I belong to Him Whom the angels serve.”

She bowed her head to the sword. At one stroke her head was cut off.
The name Agnes means “lamb.” She was gentle and pure.
 SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER

Francis was born in 1506 in Spain of noble parents.

He was sent to the College of Saint Barbara in Paris and became a teacher.
He joined Saint Ignatius and four other young men who vowed to work
for the conversion of souls. They formed the Society of Jesus.

Before his ordination to the priesthood in Venice, he cared for the sick
in a hospital. The King of Portugal wanted six missionaries to preach
the Faith in India. One of these was Francis. He journeyed to Goa.
There he helped the sick and taught catechism in the church.
Later, he preached in the south of India
and converted thousands of pagans.

Francis sailed for Japan in 1549. Other missionaries joined him there.
Thousands were brought to the true faith.
While on a ship going to China, he became very ill of a high fever.
The ship stopped at an island. He died there in an old cabin
on December 2, 1552.
Saint Francis is the patron of the foreign missions.
 SAINT THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

When Therese was eight years old, she was cured

because of the intercession of our Lady.

When Therese was still very young, she did kind little deeds for everyone.
She prepared for her First Holy Communion by making many little sacrifices.
She became a very special friend of Jesus.
She once said, “From the age of three,
I never refused our good God anything.
I have never given him anything but love.”

Therese entered the Carmelite convent at the age of fifteen.

She wanted to save souls and to help priests save souls by prayer,
sacrifice and suffering. Her “Little Way” means
loving and trusting in God as a child.

When she was dying, Therese pressed her crucifix to her heart
and, looking up to heaven she said: “I love Him! My God, I love You!
She was only twenty-four years old when she died in 1897.
Saint Therese is the patroness of the foreign missions.
 SAINT BERNADETTE

Bernadette’s parents were very poor. They lived in Lourdes, France.

One day, in 1854, while Bernadette was gathering firewood,
a beautiful Lady stood in a cave before her.
She was dressed in blue and white, and there was a rose
on each of her feet. She smiled at Bernadette and asked her
to say the rosary with her.

Bernadette saw the Lady eighteen times.

The Lady asked Bernadette to tell the world that people
must do penance for their sins and pray.
She once told Bernadette: “I do not promise to make you happy
in this world, but in heaven.”

Large crowd followed Bernadette to the grotto to say the rosary with her.
They could not see the Lady. The Lady asked Bernadette
to scrape the earth. The miraculous spring of Lourdes started to flow.
Many sick people have been cured.

When Bernadette asked the Lady her name,

the Lady looked up to heaven and said:
“I am the Immaculate Conception.”
She asked that a chapel be built near the grotto.

Later, Bernadette became a nun and suffered very much.

She died at the age of thirty-six.
 SAINT PEDRO CALUNGSOD

Saint Pedro Calungsod was a Filipino Roman Catholic martyr

who was killed while doing missionary work in Guam in 1672.

As a skilled sacristan and teacher of catechism,

he was a companion of Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores
to the Marianas Islands.
Through their efforts, many receive the sacraments,
especially that of baptism.

A plot to kill Pedro Calungsod and Diego Luis de San Vitores started
when a certain Choco, a Chinese who gained influence
over the Macanas of Marianas Island, circulated false accusations
that the missionaries were spreading poison through the ritual
of the pouring of water, the baptism
and through the ritual of Catholic Masses.

Pedro Calungsod and Diego Luis de San Vitores were both murdered
after baptizing an infant and mother
who converted to the Roman Catholic faith.
 SAN LORENZO RUIZ DE MANILA

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz was born around the year 1600 in Binondo, Manila,
Philippines. He was the son of a Chinese father and a Filipino mother.
He was married and had three children.

In 1636, Lorenzo was accused of murdering a Spaniard.

To protect his safety at the time, he fled home and found refuge on board
a ship with three Dominican priests and a leper,
bound for Okinawa, Japan.

When they arrived in Japan,

the rulers, were persecuting Christians.
Lorenzo was arrested by Japanese officials for the crime
of being a Christian and ordered to recant his faith.
Lorenzo and his companions were tortured by water
and hanged upside down.

Lorenzo refused to recant.

According to the record of his death, his last words were,
"I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God.
Had I a thousand lives, all these to Him I shall offer.
Do with me as you please."
 SAINT CECILIA

Cecilia is one of the most famous and most loved of the Roman martyrs.
According to legend, she was a young Christian of high rank
promised in marriage to a Roman named Valerian.
Through her example, he was converted and was martyred
along with his brother.

An inscription of the fourth century refers to a church

named after her and her feast was celebrated at least in 545.
The legend about her death is very beautiful.

Cecilia refused to sacrifice to the gods. The judge condemned her to be

smothered by a steam. But God protected her. Then the judge
ordered a soldier to kill her with the sword. He struck her three times
but did not cut off her head. She fell down, badly wounded
and for three days, she remained alive.
After receiving Holy Communion, she died in 117.
Cecilia is honored as the patroness of religious music.
Like any good Christian, she sang in her heart
and sometimes with her voice. She has become a symbol
of the Church’s teaching that good music
is an important part of the liturgy.
 SAINT CATHERINE LABOURE

Catherine was born in 1806 in Burgundy, France,

the ninth of eleven children.
She refused many offers of marriage and said:
“I found my Bridegroom on the day of my First Communion.
To Him alone have I given myself.”

Catherine once paid a visit to a hospital

which was in the care of the Sisters of Charity.
There she saw a picture of Saint Vincent the Paul.
His example inspired her to take care of the sick
and she later shared in the work of Saint Vincent de Paul.

The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Catherine three times

and asked her to spread devotion to her Immaculate Conception.
She told Catherine to have a medal made,
which is called the Miraculous Medal.
On one side of the medal are the words: O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to thee,”
and on the other side the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
This devotion spread throughout the world. Catherine died in 1876.
 SAINT AUGUSTINE

Augustine was born in North Africa in 354.

His father was a pagan who wanted his son to be a man of learning,
and cared little about his character. His mother was Saint Monica,
who urged her son to lead a good life.

Augustine fell into bad company and read bad books.

For thirteen years he led a very evil life.
But his mother kept praying for his conversion.
One day, while he was reading the letters of Saint Paul,
he made up his mind to become a Christian.
His mother’s prayers were answered.
Augustine became a Christian at 33,
a priest at 36, a bishop at 41.
He preached often and wrote many books
during thirty-five years as bishop of Hippo in North Africa.

Augustine wrote: “Too late have I loved You,

O Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new!
Out hearts were made for you, O Lord,
and they are restless until they rest in You.”

Saint Augustine died in the year 430.

He is honored as a Doctor or Teacher of the Church
and a patron of theologians.
 SAINT JUAN DIEGO

On 9 December 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass,
the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill,
the outskirts of what is now Mexico City.
She asked him to go to the Bishop and to request in her name
that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace
upon those who invoked her.

The Bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove
that the apparition was true. On December 12, Juan Diego returned
to Tepeyac. Here, the Blessed Mother told him to climb the hill and to pick
the flowers that he would find in bloom. He obeyed, and although it was
winter time, he found roses flowering. He gathered the flowers and took them
to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his mantle and told him to take
them to the Bishop as "proof". When he opened his mantle,
the flowers fell on the ground and there remained impressed,
in place of the flowers, an image of the Blessed Mother,
the apparition at Tepeyac.
 SAINT URSULA

Saint Ursula was the legendary leader of 11,000 virgins

reputedly martyred at Cologne, now in Germany, by the Huns,
4th-century nomadic invaders of southeastern Europe.

The story is based on a 4th- or 5th-century inscription

from St. Ursula’s Church, Cologne, stating that
an ancient basilica had been restored on the site
where some holy virgins were killed.

Mentioned again in an 8th- or 9th-century sermon,

the number of maidens increased to several thousand,
reportedly martyred under the Roman emperor Maximian.

In Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda Aurea,

Ursula was a British princess who went to Rome
accompanied by 11,000 virgins and was killed with them by the Huns
on the return from the pilgrimage.
The discovery at Cologne in 1155 of an ancient Roman burial ground
believed to contain these martyrs’ relics inspired additional legends.
 SAINT TERESA OF CALCUTTA

She was born on August 26, 1910.

From the day of her First Holy Communion,
a love for souls was within her.

At the age of eighteen, moved by a desire to become a missionary,

she left her home to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland.
There, she received the name Sister Mary Teresa
after St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

by means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of
His heart for “victims of love” who would “radiate His love on souls.”
He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community,
Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor.
Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed
before Mother Teresa received permission to begin.
On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white,
blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates
of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.
 SAINT GENEVIÈVE

When she was seven, Geneviève was induced

by Bishop St. Germain of Auxerre to dedicate herself to the religious life.

On the death of her parents she moved to Paris,

where she was noted for her piety and acts of charity.
She had numerous prophetic visions
and is said to have predicted the invasion of the Huns.
When Attila threatened Paris in 451, she persuaded the inhabitants
to remain and pray, assuring them that the attack
would be inconsequential and that they had the protection of heaven.
Attila’s army went on to Orléans, 110 km (70 miles) from Paris,
and was defeated.

She was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles,

popularly known as the Church of Sainte-Geneviève.
During the French Revolution in 1793,
her body was burned on the Place de Grève;
the relics were enshrined in the Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont,
where they still attract pilgrims.
She is often depicted with a loaf of bread to represent her generosity.
 SAINT JOHN PAUL II

Karol J. Wojtyla, known as John Paul II since his October 1978 election
to the papacy, was born in Wadowice, a small city 50 kilometers
from Cracow, on May 18, 1920. He was the second of two sons.

On January 13, 1964, he was nominated Archbishop of Cracow

by Pope Paul VI, who made him a cardinal June 26, 1967.

Since the start of his Pontificate on October 16, 1978,

Pope John Paul II has completed 95 pastoral visits outside of Italy
and 142 within Italy.
As Bishop of Rome he has visited 301 of the 334 parishes.

No other Pope has encountered so many individuals like John Paul II:
to date, more than 16,700,000 pilgrims have participated
in the General Audiences held on Wednesdays.
Such figure is without counting all other special audiences
and religious ceremonies held
and the millions of faithful met during pastoral visits
made in Italy and throughout the world.
 SAINT JOHN XXIII

The man who would be Pope John XXIII was born in the small village
of Sotto il Monte in Italy, on November 25, 1881.
He was the fourth of fourteen children born to poor parents
who made their living by sharecropping.
Named Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli,
the baby would eventually become one of the most influential popes
in recent history, changing the Church forever.

Perhaps his most influential decision was the call for an ecumenical council
which would be known as Vatican II.
As a result of this council, many practices of the classic Church would be
altered with a new emphasis on ecumenism and a new liturgy.

Pope John XXIII addressed several topics of importance to Catholics

around the world. He prohibited the use of contraceptives which interfere
with the procreative will of God. He upheld the traditional view that married
couples may not divorce. He also moved to protect the Church from scandal,
ordering confidentiality when dealing with matters of clergy accused of the
sexual abuse of children. How his request to the bishops of his time was
interpreted remains subject to debate.

Pope John XXIII generally maintained a good reputation among those who
remembered him and he was often titled "the Good."
 SAINT STEPHEN

Saint Stephen is first mentioned in Acts of the Apostles as one of seven

deacons appointed by the Apostles to distribute food and charitable aid to
poor members of the community in the early church.

It seems to have been among synagogues of Hellenistic Jews

that he performed his teachings and "signs and wonders”.
Members of these synagogues had challenged Stephen's teachings,
but Stephen had bested them in debate. Furious at this humiliation,
they suborned false testimony that Stephen
had preached blasphemy against God.

They dragged him out of the city and stoned him,

but the holy martyr prayed for his murderers.
The people from the crowd, who threw the first stones,
laid their coats down so as to be able to do this,
at the feet of a "young man named Saul",
later to be known as Paul the Apostle.
Stephen prayed that the Lord would receive his spirit
and his killers be forgiven, sank to his knees, and "fell asleep"
He was the first Christian martyr.
 SAINT JOSEPH

Everything we know about the husband of Mary

and the foster father of Jesus comes from Scripture.

Joseph was a carpenter, a working man. He wasn't rich.

Despite his humble work and means,
he came from a royal lineage.

Joseph was a compassionate, caring man.

When he discovered Mary was pregnant after they had been betrothed,
he knew the child was not his but was as yet unaware
that she was carrying the Son of God.
He knew women accused of adultery could be stoned to death,
so he resolved to send her away quietly
to not expose her to shame or cruelty.
However, when an angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him,
"Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife,
because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins,"
he did as the angel told him and took Mary as his wife.
 SAINT ISIDORE

St. Isidore was born at Madrid, Spain,

in the latter half of the 12th century.
For the greater part of his life, he was employed as a laborer
on a farm outside the city.

Many marvelous happenings accompanied his lifelong work

in the fields and continued long after his holy death.
He was favored with celestial visions and, it is said,
the angels sometimes helped him in his work in the fields.

St. Isidore was canonized in 1622.

In 1947, he was proclaimed the patron of the

National Rural Conference in the United States.
He is the patron of farmers, and his feast day is May 15th.
 SAINT PETER

Peter was a native of Bethsaida, near Lake Tiberias.

He was called Simon before meeting Jesus.
He worked as a fisherman with his brother Andrew.
Andrew introduced Peter to Jesus, and Jesus called Peter
to become a disciple.
Jesus gave Simon a new name, Cephas, or “the rock”.
After becoming a disciple, Peter acknowledged Jesus as “… the Messiah,
the son of the living God”.
Jesus responded to Peter, “… you are Peter and upon this rock
I will build my church…”
Jesus also told Peter: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Peter was at Jesus’s sides at the Transfiguration,

the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the Agony of the Garden of Gethsemane.
Peter played a major role in the Passion of Jesus.
He helped organize the Last Supper.
When Jesus was arrested, Peter cut off the right ear of a slave
of the high priest Malchus.
Just as Jesus had predicted at the Last Supper,
Peter denied Christ three times.
After the Resurrection, Peter went to the tomb with the other disciple.
The first appearance of the Risen Christ was before Peter,
ahead of the other disciples, at Tiberias.
Jesus gave to Peter the famous command to lead the new Church,
“Feed my lambs…. Tend my sheep…. Feed my sheep”.
 SAINT RITA OF CASCIA

Born in 1386 in Roccaparena, Umbria,

St. Rita was married at the age of 12
to a violent and ill-tempered husband.
He was murdered 18 years later and she forgave his murderers,
praying that her twin sons, who had sworn to avenge their father’s death
may also forgive.
She was granted this grace, and her sons,
who died young, died reconciled to God.

The saint heard the call to become a nun in the Augustinian convent
at Cascia, but was refused entry at first.
She asked the intercession of Sts. Augustine,
Mary Magadalene and John the Baptist and was finally allowed
to enter the convent where she lived the last 40 years of her life
in prayer, mortification and service to the people of Cascia.

For the last 15 years of her life she received a stigmata-like thorn wound
in answer to her prayers to be more profoundly conformed
to the passion of the Lord Jesus.
 ST. EUSTACE

Martyr with Theophistes, Agapitus, and Theophistus.

Eustace was a Roman military officer called Placida.
He converted after having a vision in Italy of a stag
with a crucifix between its antlers.

Tradition states that he was separated from his family

and recalled to the army, becoming famous for a battle.
When he and his family reunited, he refused to take part
in the pagan ceremony and they were roasted to death.
Eustace is also called Eustathius.