In 1219, in the midst of the Fifth Crusade, St. Francis embarked on a risky mission. Crossing the battlefield in Syria he sought an audience with Sultan Malik al-Kamil of Egypt. Though he did not succeed in converting the sultan, he was received graciously and...

Odoric of Pordenone passed his early life unremarkably as a Franciscan friar, a vocation he had embraced at the age of fifteen. In 1317, however, some impulse inspired him to embark on a fantastic journey that took him to the ends of the known world and back again....

Filippo Latino, the son of a shoemaker in the town of Corleone, trained as a soldier and earned a reputation as the greatest swordman in Sicily. Equipped with a hot temper, he was evidently quick to draw his blade. This was the cause of his conversion. One day, in a...

St. Angela came from a wealthy family in Foligno, Italy, where her early life was given over to frivolity and pleasure seeking. She married a rich man and bore three sons. But her existence lacked a higher purpose. By the time she was thirty-seven, she found her life...