Tuesday 16th April 2024

Home » saints » Recent Articles:

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Andrew Bobola

June 1, 2021 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Andrew Bobola

By DEB PIROCH “Andrew,” the name of Christ’s first apostle, is a name taken from the Greek, meaning “strong and manly.” Two of the Gospel writers say Andrew was brother to Peter, both fishermen famously called to follow Christ and become “fishers of men.” Tradition says the first St. Andrew even traveled as a missionary to some of the Slavic nations, and as such makes an excellent namesake for St. Andrew Bobola (1591-1657), our saint this week.St. Andrew Bobola is a secondary patron saint of Poland. (And Poland has quite a few patron saints!) Born of noble parents in an area of Poland named Sandomir, he became a Jesuit in the best tradition, after studying in Vilnius, during a time…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . The 40 Martyrs Of England And Wales

May 25, 2021 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . The 40 Martyrs Of England And Wales

By DEB PIROCH There’s a special reason we’re focusing a year late on the 50th anniversary of the canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, on October 1970 by Pope Paul VI. COVID, as we know, has thrown a spanner in the works everywhere. Last year there was to be an exhibition featuring relics of these blessed martyrs but, since it had to be canceled, the exhibit still opted to continue, albeit a year delayed, in virtual form.Not only is this riveting to behold, but I highly recommend you share this with your friends and family, as well.Search online under “How Bleedeth Burning Love,” and you will be directed to the exhibit at the UK Jesuits’ website. This…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . The 40 Martyrs Of England And Wales

May 18, 2021 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . The 40 Martyrs Of England And Wales

By DEB PIROCH There’s a special reason we’re focusing a year late on the 50th anniversary of the canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, on October 1970 by Pope Paul VI. COVID, as we know, has thrown a spanner in the works everywhere. Last year there was to be an exhibition featuring relics of these blessed martyrs but, since it had to be canceled, the exhibit still opted to continue, albeit a year delayed, in virtual form.Not only is this riveting to behold, but I highly recommend you share this with your friends and family, as well.Search online under “How Bleedeth Burning Love,” and you will be directed to the exhibit at the UK Jesuits’ website. This…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . Righteous Anger Against Injustice

May 11, 2021 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . Righteous Anger Against Injustice

By DEB PIROCH Anger in itself is not a sin. It is how we as humans implement that anger that can lead to sin. If anger itself is rooted in love, it may be used to correct evil. Witness the excerpt from the Gospel of Matthew, when Christ was angered by the misuse of His house:“Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the chairs of them that sold doves: And he saith to them: It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves” (Matt. 21:12-13).Why did our Lord find…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Fidelis Of Sigmaringen

May 4, 2021 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Fidelis Of Sigmaringen

By DEB PIROCH There aren’t too many saints that started off in life as lawyers, and ended up as martyrs. St. Thomas More comes to mind. But the saint today, St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Germany (1577-1622)? After getting his doctorate in law at Freiburg, he found he was seeking to help the poorest clients, refused to detract from the characters of the opposition, used no invective, and indeed, soon became so disillusioned with law because of all the evils associated with it, that he left to embrace life as a Capuchin. But one mustn’t get ahead of his story.Born in 1577 to noble parents Johannes and Genovefa, his given name was either Markus Rey or Markus Roy, and his father…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Veronica

April 27, 2021 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Veronica

By DEB PIROCH Her name was “Veronica,” which literally means “true icon” or image from the Latin “vera” and Greek “eikon.” Is the mystery of the saint who wiped the sweat and blood from the sacred face of Christ perhaps just a literal translation of the service rendered?We know very little about St. Veronica, except what has been passed down through tradition. She is not in the Bible. She is just famously mentioned in the Stations of the Cross. The stations were simply in early Christian times for pilgrims who wanted to walk in the steps of Jesus, and they developed further during the Middle Ages.An apocryphal or invented “gospel” of Nicodemus, dating to the fourth century, mentions her and…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… Blessed Lydwina Of Schiedam

April 20, 2021 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… Blessed Lydwina Of Schiedam

By DEB PIROCH Not all of us are so holy that St. Thomas à Kempis witnessed to some of our miracles. Such was the saintliness of Blessed Lydwina of Schiedam, Holland, born Palm Sunday, 1380, into a poor family of nine children. With four older and four younger brothers, she was a lively and fine child up until the age of 15, and devoted to the Blessed Virgin. We know this, and that she had already taken a vow of perpetual virginity. But that winter she had been ill, and not fully recovered, and went out to ice skate and fell. At the time she was believed to have broken a rib, which led to illness the rest of her…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Gertrude Of Nivelles

April 13, 2021 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Gertrude Of Nivelles

By DEB PIROCH The next time St. Patrick’s Day rolls around and you are tempted to drink a mug of green beer, you might recall that March 17 is also the feast day of a lesser-known saint, but one dear to many hearts who lived less than two hundred years later than St. Patrick: St. Gertrude of Nivelles, virgin.Though Christianity was no more popular in seventh century than in modern-day Belgium, St. Gertrude, born in 626, knew at the young age of ten that her calling was to the religious life. The daughter of a nobleman, her father asked her if she wished to marry the son of another noble and she would have no part of it, stating only…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Jeanne Jugan

April 6, 2021 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Jeanne Jugan

By DEB PIROCH “The Seventh Commandment implies the obligation of assisting the poor and needy as far as we are able. . . . Our Lord declares the omission of alms deeds will be punished by eternal damnation (Matt. 25:46). . . . For many persons, without their own fault, are pitiably destitute, e.g. orphans, widows, the sick and disabled, the deformed, the insane, and the like” —The Gospels and Epistles of the Sundays and Feasts with Outlines for Sermons.To care for the sick is a corporal work of mercy. Officially St. John is the patron saint of caregivers, for Christ handed him His Mother’s care when they stood at the foot of the cross, watching Him die. But St.…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… Pope St. Pius X

March 30, 2021 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… Pope St. Pius X

By DEB PIROCH “He saith to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs. He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he had said to him the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee. He said to him: Feed my sheep” (John 26:16-17).His family knew him as “Bepi.” Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, born in 1835 near Venice, was the second eldest son of a poor Italian postman and his dressmaker wife. Two of his ten siblings did not…Continue Reading