Saint Elizabeth of Portugal (1271-1336)
St. Elizabeth of Portugal was the daughter of the king of Aragon. At twelve, she married King Denis of Portugal, a profligate man, who tolerated his wife's piety while making no secret of his own infidelities. Elizabeth bore him two children, a son and a daughter. Her...
Saint Junipero Serra (1713-1784)
Junipero Serra is celebrated as one of the fathers of California. Born in Majorca, Serra entered the Franciscan order at sixteen. After earning a doctorate in theology, he taught as a professor for many years before volunteering for the missions in New Spain. He spent...
Mother Mary Francis Bachmann (1824-1863)
Anna Maria Boll Bachmann, who was born in Bavaria, immigrated to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. In 1851, when her husband Anthony was killed in an accident in a stone quarry, she found herself a widow with three young children and a fourth on the way....
Blessed Ramon Lull (1232-1316)
Ramon Lull was born in Majorca in 1232, the son of a Catalan military chief. His early life was spent in the frivolity of court life. At the age of thirty, however, prompted by a recurrent vision of Jesus on the cross, he underwent a dramatic and total conversion....
Saint Jutta (1200-1260)
St. Jutta was born in Thuringia, in Germany. At the age of fifteen, she married a nobleman, with whom she enjoyed a happy marriage. Inspired by the example of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, a Thuringian princess who had renounced her royal station to embrace as a...
Saint Thomas More (1478-1535)
Thomas More was one of the most highly respected men of his time. A successful barrister, an honest judge, a famous scholar, he rose to the highest status of any commoner in England, appointed by Henry VIII to the office of lord chancellor. More had little ambition...
Blessed Michelina of Pesaro (1300-1356)
Blessed Michelina was born in the town of Pesaro, on the east coast of Italy. At twelve she married a wealthy member of the powerful Malatesta family and went on to enjoy a rich and frivolous social life. By twenty, however, she found herself a widow with a young son....
Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
St. Anthony, who was born in Lisbon, first entered religious life as an Augustinian canon in Coimbra. There one day he met a group of visiting Franciscans (St. Be- rard and his companions) on their way to Morocco. He was greatly impressed by these courageous...
Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925)
Matt Talbot was one of twelve children born to a poor family in Dublin. His addiction to alcohol began at twelve, when he got his first job with a wine merchant. Before long, drink had become the primary focus of his life. All the wages he earned carrying bricks went...
Blessed Mariano Roccacasale (1778-1866)
Mariano was born to a peasant family in Roccacasale in Italy. One day, tired and thirsty while caring for his sheep on a rugged hillside, he fell asleep and had a dream in which a Franciscan friar showed him where to find water. When he awoke, he removed a stone...