John married the daughter of a Perugian nobleman but as his marriage had not yet been consummated he had it anulled so that he could enter the Franciscans of the Strict Observance at Perugia..
Summary: St John Paul II, pope. Karol Józef Wojtyla (1920-2005) served as pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005. He was the first non-Italian pope in 400 years and the second longest-serving pope in history. (Pope Pius IX served for nearly 32 years. 1846-1878). John Paul [...]
John saw orthodox preaching and good living by priests as the planks of the reform process that had just begun with the Council of Trent.
According to the Martyrology of Tallaght, Fintan of Clonenagh had the name of being the "hard man" among the Celtic abbots.
His spirituality drew its power from meditation on the passion of Jesus as expressing the great love of God.
The Iroquois indians seized Brébeuf and his fellow Jesuit Gabriel Lallemont and tortured them - by scalping, mock baptism with boiling water - until they died.
There is a Christian tradition, especially strong in Eastern Orthodoxy, that Luke was the first iconographer
On his way to Rome, Ignatius's only fear was that the Romans might find a way to stop his martyrdom.
Summary: St Margaret Mary Alacoque. In many Irish churches you will see a stained glass window depicting Our Lord Jesus revealing his Sacred Heart to St Margaret Mary Alacoque. These windows bear witness to the enormous popularity of devotion to the Sacred Heart and the influence [...]
Although the monks of Luxeuil elected Gall as their abbot and a local king, Sigebert, offered him a bishopric, he declined both and chose to remain a humble hermit.
Summary: St Gerard Majella, a young 18th century Italian who ‘eloped’, so to speak, in order to join the Redemptorists. He is one of Ireland’s best-loved saints, known here particularly as the ‘mothers‘ saint. He was canonized over [...]
Summary: ‘ St Teresa of Avila, Nada te turbe’ – popularised by a Taizé chant means, “Let nothing disturb you”. This a [...]
Teresa's greatness does not consist in what she tells us about herself but in what she tells us about God and his dealings with us.
A Story of Teresa of Avila
‘There’s a lovely story told about the life of St Teresa, one handed down to us by tradition. Bishop Philip Boyce of Raphoe retells us .
‘One day as Teresa was making her way along the [...]
Callistus went from slave to freedman to moneylender to convict to church administrator to pope and then to being denounced by an antipope
Edward was considered the patron saint of England until 1348 but remained the patron saint of the English royal family. ever since.
Summary : St. Wilfrid was the strong man of the Anglo-Saxon Church. Educated by the Celtic monks at Lindisfarne, he went to Rome and strongly upheld the Roman way of computing Easter against the Celtic monks at the [...]
Summary : St John XXIII, pope, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (1881-1963), born in Sotto il Monte in Lombardy, was ordained priest in 1904 and served (among other places) as nuncio in France, before becoming Patriarch of Venice. He served as pope from 1958 to 1963 and in his final [...]
St. Canice good humour and readiness to help won him many friends and helpers in preaching the Good News.
Comboni made efforts (and had some small success) in combatting the slave trade in the region but, this was deeply embedded.
Summary: John Henry Newman: Born: 1801 Died: 1890) ordained an Anglican priest and later a Catholic priest and cardinal, rector of CUI 1854-58, an important and controversial figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century.
Birth
St Dennis and Companions are said to have been executed on Montmartre ("Martyrs' Hill") and their bodies thrown into the Seine
Pelagia came into the church where Bishop Nonnus was preaching and hearing what he said, wept tears of repentance.
Legend attributes the origin of the Rosary as a method of prayer to St Dominic. It was promoted as a kind of lay person's Divine Office, the 150 Hail Marys replacing the 150 psalms.
Although never formally canonised, Bruno's cult was approved for the Carthusians in 1514 and extended to the universal Church in 1623.
Faustina had a very intimate relationship with Jesus and was entrusted by him with the mission of Divine Mercy
Francis saw the icon of Christ say to him three times: "Francis, Francis, go and repair my house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins."
Summary: Abbot Columba Marmion a priest of Dublin diocese who became a Benedictine monk and eventually abbot at Maredsous, Belgium. He was beatified in 2000. His writings, especially his Christ the Life of the Soul, show the reader how to become transformed into Christ.
Dom Placid Murray [...]
Columba wrote three significant works of very positive spiritual theology: Christ, the life of the soul (1918), Christ in his mysteries (1919) and in 1922 Christ the ideal of the monk.
God has commanded his angels, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you upon their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone....(Mt 18:10)
