First a desert father and then founder of a particular type of monastery, called “lavra,” Saint Sabbas the Archimandrite (439-532) played a substantial role in the spread of Eastern monasticism.

He has been called the “Saint Thomas of the East” and is considered the last of the Eastern Church Fathers. He wrote sublime pages about the Blessed Virgin and was able to refute the then widespread iconoclasm.

Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552) is considered the greatest missionary of modern times. Rediscovering his example can therefore be a powerful antidote in times of crisis for the faith and almost of shame in proclaiming Christ, especially as the spiritual journey of this Spanish Jesuit bears the mark of an extraordinary inner conversion.

The martyrdom of the young Roman virgin Bibiana (c. 347-362), (more commonly known as Viviana), was perpetrated during the historical interlude of the empire of Flavius Claudius Julianus (361-363), known as the Apostate.

Saint Edmund Campion (1540-1581), known as the Pope’s Champion, was born in London during the vicious years of the Anglican Schism. He lived most of his adolescence during the reign of Mary I Tudor (1553-1558), who tried to restore Catholicism in England.

We always remember that Andrew (ca. 5 B.C.-60 A.D.) was Simon Peter's brother, but we sometimes forget another very important detail: he was the first apostle to lead Peter to the Lord.

“Whoever wants to see how St Francis [of Assisi] appeared in life, come and see the Father Master”. This was what the inhabitants of Lucera, his native town in Puglia, called St Francis Anthony Fasani (1681-1742).

Saint James of the Marches (1393-1476) spent his life in the service of the Church, becoming one of the leading figures in the 15th century together with his friends Bernardine of Siena and John of Capistrano.

On 27 November 1830, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Catherine Labouré (1806-1876), novice of the Daughters of Charity in the Parisian convent on Rue du Bac. The saint, next to the picture of St Joseph, saw Our Lady wearing a white dress like the dawn, a blue mantle and a long white veil, standing on a half globe enveloped in the coils of a snake.

The first merit to be ascribed to St Leonard of Port Maurice (1676-1751), a Franciscan friar of the so-called “Riformella”, is the propagation of the Via Crucis throughout the Church. It was he, in 1731, who obtained the Brief Exponi nobis from Clement XII, which authorised the installation of the Stations of the Cross in all the churches, until then a privilege only of Franciscan churches.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c. 287-305) lived in one of the most important cultural and religious centres of antiquity and was “filled with sharp wit, wisdom and strength of spirit”, as the Roman Martyrology recalls.

The 117 martyrs of Vietnam that the Church celebrates today remind us of how the Christian faith has been enlivened and transmitted over the centuries thanks to the example of many luminous witnesses, who accepted to sacrifice their lives to follow Christ crucified.