Shoemakers

Saints Crispin and Crispian are believed to be brothers born to a noble family in Rome in the middle of the third century. The brothers, along with Saint Quintinus, worked for the conversion of Gaul by their mission of evangelization,…

Mother and Martyr

Born as Margaret Middleton around 1556 in York, England, Margaret Clitherow is also known as the “Pearl of York.” She is one of the Forty Martyrs of the persecution in England and Wales.

Margaret was born to Thomas and…

Maiden Martyr

Several legends are circulated regarding the life, journeys, and death of St. Ursula and her companions.

Ursula was the daughter of a Christian British king. The stories of her life are based primarily on the inscriptions by Clamatius, an early…

The Just King

Edward was born in 1003 in Oxford, England, the son of King Ethelred II, who was later unseated by a Danish invasion. Edward was to be sent to Denmark to be killed, but fled to Normandy instead. His…

Alexander was born in 1534 in Milan, Italy, to an important Genoese family. He joined the Barnabites, which had been recently founded by St. Antony Zaccharia, at the age of seventeen, and studied at the Order’s college at Pavia, which…

Francis was born the first of 17 children to a noble family in Valencia, Spain. Though his family had a tumultuous ancestry, several of his relatives became priests — even two popes – and sisters, often leaders of their abbeys.

Francis was…

Pacificus Bruni never really got to know his parents, Antonio and Mariangela, both of whom died when he was three years old. He was born in 1653 in Severino and was raised by his uncle from age three until seventeen,…

Hildegard was born the tenth child of a noble family at Bockelheim, Germany, in 1098. She was dedicated to the Lord, and grew up with a deep faith. Hildegard was attracted to the ascetic life and frequently visited her aunt,…

They were brothers in many ways: brothers by birth, brothers in the Lord and in ministry in the house of St. Philip in Rome, and brothers as they died together, burned for their faith as very early martyrs in the…

Thomas Tsugi was born around the year 1571 in Japan, to a wealthy family of Japanese nobility. Educated by the priests of the Society of Jesus at Arima, he joined the order while quite young, around 1588. As a Jesuit,…