Servant of God Emil Kapaun was a priest, chaplain, prisoner of war, and a war hero. Emil was born to Czech immigrants Enos and Elizabeth Kapaun in 1916 in the farming town of Pilsen, Kansas. They were a devout Catholic family, and Emil and his brother learned their prayers in...

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen was a lawyer, a religious order priest, a missionary, and a martyr for the Catholic Faith during the Counter-Reformation. Mark Rey was born in 1577 at Sigmaringen, Prussia, located in modern-day southwestern Germany. His father, Johannes, was burgomaster, the position roughly the equivalent to mayor. Mark...

Servant of God Thea Bowman was a religious sister and teacher who intrepidly brought people of different races together in Jesus Christ. Bertha Bowman was born in 1937 in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Her grandfather was born a slave. Her parents, Theon and Mary Esther, had their only child late in...

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;...

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...

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...

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...

St. Wenceslaus was a duke during medieval times and a martyr for the Faith. Wenceslaus was born in the year 903 to the Christian Duke of Bohemia Wratislav and his wife Drahomira. Bohemia was a nation-state in central Europe, consisting of land which is mostly modern-day Czech Republic and Germany....

St. Lawrence was a martyr and a deacon of the early Church. Lawrence is traditionally believed to have been born at Huesca, Spain, in the year 225. Huesca is located in what is now northeastern Spain, in the region of Aragon. His parents are also believed to have been martyred,...