Saint Agnes of Bohemia (1203-1280)
Agnes was born in Prague, where her father was the king of Bohemia. Despite the privileges of her station, she enjoyed no freedom to decide her own destiny. She was simply a commodity to be invested wherever she might bring the highest return for her family and its...
Blessed Caritas Brader (1860-1943)
Maria Josefa Carolina Brader was born in Switzerland in 1860. At the age of twenty, she joined the cloistered Franciscan convent of Maria Hilf and took the name Sister Caritas. When a new disposition made it possible for cloistered nuns to engaged in apostolic work,...
Saint Margaret of Cortona (1247–1297)
St. Margaret was raised in a poor family in Tuscany. Following the death of her mother when Margaret was just eleven, a new stepmother turned her out of the house. Eventually, with few apparent options, she eloped with a young nobleman, who kept her as his mistress....
Saint Conrad of Piacenza (1290-1351)
St. Conrad, a young nobleman from Piacenza, was out hunting one day when, in order to drive out his game, he ordered his servants to set fire to the surrounding brush-wood. Following a sudden turn in the wind, Conrad watched in horror as the fire consumed the...
Blessed Verdiana (1182-1242)
Verdiana served as a housekeeper for rich relatives in Castelfiorentino, a town outside Florence. With the permission of her employers she joined a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James at Compostela in Spain. During the course of this journey, she made such a...
Father Daniel Egan (1915-2000)
Daniel Egan, a Bronx native, joined the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in 1935 and was ordained a priest. A turning point in his life came in 1952, as he was preaching in a church and noticed a woman in grave distress. She confessed that she was a drug addict...
Blessed Lady Jacoba of Settesoli (1190-1273)
Jacoba of Settesoli was a young widow living in Rome. From the moment she first learned about Francis of Assisi, she longed to meet him. That opportunity arose when Francis and his companions traveled to Rome to seek the pope’s approval for their new order. After...
Blessed Maria Theresia Bonzel (1830-1905)
Regina Christine Wilhelmine Bonzel was born in Germany to a deeply religious family. Early in life, she felt the call to religious life. She recalled: On the day of my First Holy Communion, I was unspeakably happy. Before that I was vivacious child, ready to take part...
Venerable Marthe Robin (1902-1981)
Marthe Robin was born in 1902 in a small village near Lyons. Her early childhood was happy and unremarkable. When she was sixteen, however, she showed the first symptoms of a grave disease that would eventually leave her bedridden. On March 25, 1925, she offered a...
Saint Joan of Valois (1464-1505)
St. Joan, daughter of King Louis XI of France, was apparently misshapen from birth, a fact that incited her father's contempt. When she was eight weeks old, he arranged her betrothal to her two-year-old cousin Louis, Duke of Orleans. The marriage transpired when Joan...