Blessed Benedict Daswa was a husband and father, a school teacher and principal, and a modern-day martyr for his Catholic beliefs. Tshimangadzo Daswa Bakali was born in 1946 at the village of Mbahe in the Province of Limpopo, in South Africa. His given name was Tshimangadzo; his family name Daswa;...
“Emulate the tiny ant; be an ant of God. Listen to the word of God, and hide it in your heart. Collect plenty of food during the happy days of your spiritual summers. You will then be able to endure the difficult days of temptations during the winters of your...
St. Basil the Great, Father and Doctor of the Church, was a monk, bishop, and one of the most significant figures in the early centuries of the Church. Basil was born into a saintly family ca. 329 at Caesarea, Cappadocia in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). The family was well-educated and...
“Let us be kind to one another after the pattern of the tender mercy and goodness of our Creator.” St. Clement of Rome (1st century) “The Lord does not say that the proof of His disciples’ faithfulness will be the working of wondrous miracles…What does He tell them? ‘You shall...
“The Lord Jesus took compassion on us in order that He might call us to Himself and not scare us away. He comes as someone gentle, someone humble.” St. Ambrose of Milan (4th century, Doctor of the Church) “May He make us children of God, He Who for our sakes...
St. Francis Xavier was a Jesuit priest, a scholar, and one of the greatest missionaries in Church history. Francis was born in 1506 in the Xavier castle near the city of Sanguesa in the Navarre region of Spain. His father was the king’s counselor, and his mother was an heiress...
St. Hugh of Lincoln was an abbot and bishop who defended the rights of individuals and of the Church. Hugh was the son of a nobleman, William of Avalon. Avalon was a province of Dauphine in what was then the Holy Roman Empire, and what is now southeastern France. Hugh...
“The whole Church observes the custom handed down by our fathers: that those who have died within the fellowship of Christ’s body and blood should be prayed for when they are commemorated in their own place at the Holy Sacrifice [of the Mass], and that we should be reminded that...
Blessed Pierina Morosini lived an exemplary life of devotion and purity. Pierina Eugenia Morosini was born in 1931 to Rocco and Sara Morosini at Fiobbio di Albino, a village in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. The family had a small farm. Rocco worked as a night guard at a...
“The prayers of His mother are a pleasure to the Son, because He desires to grant all that is granted on her account, and thus repay her for the favor she gave Him in giving His body.” St. Theophilus of Alexandria (Ammon) ( 3rd and 4th centuries) “What prayer to...