Wednesday 28th September 2022

Home » saints » Recent Articles:

Catholic Heroes… St. Augustine Of Canterbury

September 27, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Augustine Of Canterbury

By DEB PIROCH Apostle, Benedictine monk, first archbishop of Canterbury, and the founder of the First Eccliastical See in England, St. Augustine of Canterbury is not a name remembered by many Americans. But as England buries Queen Elizabeth II this week, we hear much of Her Majesty’s Christian faith. Without St. Augustine’s work, would Christianity in England exist at all as it is at all? This is an occasion to recall that while the Reformation led to England sadly abandoning the faith, the Queen also was the first to make overtures to Catholics since the time of Elizabeth I.Canterbury is an ancient city, predating Roman times. Back in the sixth century, when Pope Gregory the Great dreamt of what could…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Bridget

September 13, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Bridget

By DEB PIROCH “Oh my friends, I love my sheep so tenderly that were it possible I would die many other times for each one of them that same death I suffered for the redemption of all” — Words attributed to Christ, Revelations of St. Bridget. + + In 1999, Pope St. John Paul II issued a moto proprio, making St. Bridget a co-patroness of Europe, along with Saints Teresa Benedicta and Catherine of Siena. In 2020 Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI also made her the subject of his weekly audience, referencing John Paul II and his teaching about Bridget’s life, explaining how her life may be easily divided into two parts: the first is her family and married life, the…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Lawrence O’Toole

September 6, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Lawrence O’Toole

By DEB PIROCH This Irish saint existed parallel to the life of St. Thomas Becket. Some of his biography can be difficult to follow, given Gaelic history and language, so we try to anglicize everything possible in this article. But his feast fast approaches, November 14, a time to acquaint ourselves with his holy life.Lawrence was the youngest of four sons in Kilkea, County Kildare, born to King Muirchertach Ua Tuathail. But given the hierarchy of the time, his father was subject to other “over-kings,” and young Lawrence was given at the young age of ten as a hostage to Dermot MacMurrough. When it was discovered the boy was being ill-treated and living with only the barest necessities of life,…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Eanswythe (Or Eadwida)

August 30, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Eanswythe (Or Eadwida)

By DEB PIROCH Her life is the stuff of fairy tales.But to understand this Anglo-Saxon princess, we need to fill in an almost Tolkienesque history that surrounded her. Her grandfather, King Ethelbert of Kent, was the first Christian king in England.At one time there were vestiges of Christianity already in England, brought by the Romans. But the Anglo-Saxons had reverted to paganism and St. Gregory the Great, knowing this, sent St. Augustine to convert England once again. Because Ethelbert was so powerful, he began with him.And Augustine had a chance, for the King had married Bertha, a Frankish princess. Her condition for marrying the pagan king was that she be allowed to continue the practice of her faith and, indeed,…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . Jean-Gabriel Perboyle (1802-1840)

August 23, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . Jean-Gabriel Perboyle (1802-1840)

By DEB PIROCH Born on Epiphany in 1802, he would take his priestly vows on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and be martyred in the fashion of crucifixion in China. He was martyred and buried in Wuhan. Today’s saint is St. Jean-Gabriel Perboyle, whose feast is fast approaching on September 11.The first Catholic missionaries actually began trying to convert China as early as 1294. First the Franciscans, then came Jesuits, then Dominicans. But by 1715 the Qing Dynasty banned Christianity. By the nineteenth century, when our saint lived, Europeans spreading Catholicism could be sentenced to death.A member of an order referred to variously as “Vincentian,” or “Lazarist,” and founded by St. Vincent de Paul, Jean-Gabriel belonged to an order…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Therese Of The Little Flower

August 16, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Therese Of The Little Flower

By DEB PIROCH “Let us accept all from the hand of our good Father, and He will keep us in peace in the midst of the greatest disasters of this world, which pass away like shadows. In proportion to our abandonment and confidence in God will our lives be holy and tranquil. And where this abandonment is neglected, there can be no virtue, nor any perfect rest” — Jean-Pierre de Caussade. + + St. Thérèse of the Little Flower died at the young age of 24, having experienced profound suffering in her short life. Yet during her time at the Carmel her spirituality matured enormously through suffering, and she came to “her Little Way” which has so benefited the world.…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Michael, Slayer Of Dragons

August 9, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Michael, Slayer Of Dragons

By DEB PIROCH Where there is evil, there is the Devil, and where there is good, there is God. It is high time for the world to make this connection in an era when the family unit is rapidly dying, leading to all sorts of destruction. Some children don’t even know their parents, angry teens engage in gang violence, and many overall have a birth control mentality, which fails and leads then to abortion, death, and pain.To rectify evil God must come first, and St. Michael is His staunch advocate. Scripture tells us Michael, whose name means “he who is like God,” has four roles: to fight Satan, rescue us from the Devil, especially at the hour of death, uphold…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Anne, Mother Of Mary

August 2, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Anne, Mother Of Mary

By DEB PIROCH Our Baba, or my Great-Grandmother Anna, was an immigrant to this country from Slovakia. I was blessed to know her when I was very young, elementary school age, and she about 90. She and her husband Joseph had been married over 70 years. She was fragile and was reverting to speaking Slovak again, but always had a rosary in her hand.My father, Joe, stayed with his grandparents during his days in high school and later again in medical school. She was a third order Franciscan and each night retired to do her prayers after dinner. He would bring her tea and they would talk and she knew, in her holy simplicity, just the right advice to give…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . Augustinian Martyrs Of El Escorial

July 26, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . Augustinian Martyrs Of El Escorial

By DEB PIROCH With the resurgence of socialist, leftist agendas in the West, it’s critical to memorialize in our hearts the many martyrs who lost their lives, sacrificed to Spain’s “Red Terror.” Nearly seven thousand shed their blood for the Church during the Spanish Civil War. The ones mentioned in this article are but a small portion of the 498 beatified by Pope Benedict XVI October 29, 2007. We outline first the history, which is unfamiliar to many.The first group of many groups of martyrs was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II, who well knew the dangers of Communism. Pope Paul VI had stopped any immediate processes of canonization, because he felt 50 years should pass, and also, that…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Teresa Of Calcutta

July 12, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Teresa Of Calcutta

By DEB PIROCH God gives us saints for our times. With the recent Supreme Court ruling, one’s mind turns to Pro-Life Saints — like Pope St. John Paul II, or Mother Teresa.When abortion was legalized in 1973 in America, the Supreme Court ruling overturned the majority of U.S. states’ laws which made abortion illegal. And while Roe v. Wade created a precedent in law where none existed for abortion, this did not in any way morally justify the killing of innocent unborn children. Since that time many nations have followed the example of the United States, but the U.S. is unique in that here our leaders and electorate continue to wage a fight back and forth against abortion, with the…Continue Reading