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,...
Venerable Nelson Baker was a veteran,a businessman, a priest, and the founder and pastor of an expansive city of charity. Nelson was born in 1842 to Lewis and Caroline Baker in Buffalo, NY. His father operated a general store and the Bakers and their four sons lived behind the store....
Venerable Pierre Toussaint was a slave, a popular hairdresser and benefactor, husband and father. Pierre was born in 1766 on the island of Saint Domingue, a French colony in the Caribbean, now known as Haiti. At that time, the island was owned by very wealthy French sugar, coffee, and tobacco...
St. Pedro de Jesús Maldonado was a priest and a martyr of the anti-Catholic regime of Mexican President Plutarco Calles. Pedro was born in 1892 at Chihuahua City in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. His parents were Apolinar Maldonado and Micaela Lucero, and Pedro had seven siblings. SEMINARY INTERRUPTION...
St. Julie Billiart was a teacher, a foundress, and a resistor of the anti-Church French Revolution. Julie was born in 1751, the sixth of seven children born to a prosperous farming family at Cuvilly in northern France. Even as a young child, she had a keen interest in religion and...
St. Cunegunda was a generous benefactress who practiced stewardship of what she had authority over during her life as a princess, queen, wife, and nun. Cunegunda was born to Siegfried, a count, and his wife Hedwig of Luxembourg, ca. 973, one of eleven children. She was a descendant of Charlemagne....