St. Gertrude was a gifted cloistered nun, scholar, and mystic. Nothing is known of her family, but she was born in Thuringia (in the Holy Roman Empire) in 1256. She was but five years old when she arrived, either orphaned or left with relatives, at the Benedictine Cistercian monastery at...

St. Anthony Daniel was a devoted and intrepid Jesuit priest and missionary and a martyr. Anthony (Antoine in French) was born to a merchant and his wife in 1601 in Dieppe in northern France. At age seventeen, he attended a university, where he studied law for one year and philosophy...

MICHAEL IN SCRIPTURE St. Michael the Archangel is universally regarded as one of God’s most powerful angels against all that is evil. Michael, an angel, and thus a pure spirit, is the only angel mentioned by name four times in Holy Scripture. Most significant are his appearances in the twelfth...

St. Jane Frances de Chantal was a devoted wife and mother and the foundress of a vital women’s religious order. Jane (Jeanne Francoise) was born in 1572 at Dijon, France to Benigne and Marguerite Fremyot. Benigne was the president of the parliament of the Province of Burgundy. Marguerite died when...

Blessed Carlos Manuel Rodriguez was a layman active in service to the Church. Carlos was born in 1918 in the city of Caguas, Puerto Rico. His parents were Manuel and Herminia (Santiago) Rodriguez, and Manuel operated a small store attached to the family home. Carlos had four siblings, and the...

St. Ephrem of Syria was a deacon, hymn-writer, and teacher of the early Church. Ephrem was born C. 306 at Nisibis, Mesopotamia, (modern-day Nusaybin, Turkey on the Syrian border). Nothing is known of his family, except that he wrote that his family was Christian. As a youth, he was mentored...

OBLATE BOY St. Bede was a monk, priest, historian, scholar, and a prolific and important translator and writer. Born c. 673, nothing is known of Bede’s parents. His birthplace was near the town of Wearmouth in present day northern England. He was brought by relatives at age seven to the...

St. Gemma Galgani was an Italian laywoman and an extraordinary mystic. Gemma was born in 1878 to a pharmacist and his wife in the village of Camigliano, Italy, near the city of Lucca. She was one of eight children. Gemma’s mother died when she was a child, but not before...

St. Perpetua was an early martyr under Roman persecution, who is still remembered to our day. She was born Vivia Perpetua at Carthage about 181 A.D. The ancient city of Carthage was a large one and a prominent part of the Roman Empire, and it was located in North Africa...

St. Polycarp was a bishop, martyr and Church father, and has the distinction of learning of the life of Christ directly from the Apostle St. John. Polycarp, a Greek name meaning “rich in fruit”, was born around the year 70 A.D. and as a child was converted to the Christian...