Saints Anne and Joachim
Today the Church jointly celebrates Saints Anne and Joachim, parents of the Virgin Mary and therefore elected instruments in God's plan of salvation. Their story is not told in the canonical Gospels, but appears for the first time in the apocryphal Proto Gospel of James, a text written in the middle of the second century and with Gnostic accents.
Saint James the Greater
Saint James, called the Greater to distinguish him from the apostle of the same name (James, son of Alphaeus), was the first of the Twelve to bear witness to Christ through martyrdom. Son of Zebedee and Salome, one of the pious women who followed Our Lord on Calvary, he was the brother of St. John the Evangelist.
Saint Charbel Makhlouf
The great Lebanese miracle worker and hermit Saint Charbel Makhlouf (1828-1898) was the fifth child of two peasants, who named him Youssef Antoun (Joseph Anthony). His father died when he was only three years old. His mother remarried two years later to a very pious man who directed him in daily prayer....
Saint Bridget of Sweden
On 1 October 1999, she was proclaimed by John Paul II Co-Patroness of Europe, for good reason. Saint Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373) is in fact one of those models of holiness capable of containing multiple vocations, which make her one of the richest and most luminous figures of the 14th century as well as a constant spur towards Christian perfection.
Saint Mary Magdalene
“They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him” (John 20:13). Together with her tears, these words that Mary Magdalene, the first to run to the tomb on the day of the Resurrection, uttered before the two angels in white robes remind us what a conversion this extraordinary saint lived through.
Saint Lorenzo da Brindisi
Saint Lorenzo da Brindisi (1559-1619) was together an ambassador of peace, a man of action, and a great theologian, proclaimed Doctor of the Church by John XXIII. He did not shirk the challenges of his time. He even went to the battlefield, where he spiritually led Christian troops to the liberation of the Hungarian city of Albareale (Szekesfehervar), then occupied by Muslims.
Saint Apollinaris
The two early Christian basilicas of Ravenna that bear his name, Sant'Apollinare in Classe and Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, are known all over the world thanks to their splendid mosaics.
Saint Macrina the Younger
Saint Macrina the Younger (c. 324-380) is so called to distinguish her from her paternal grandmother Macrina the Elder, also a saint. She grew up in that family extremely rich in blessed souls, of which her brothers Basil the Great (c. 329-379) and Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-395), both Fathers of the Church, are the two best known members.
Saint Frederick of Utrecht
In the Roman Martyrology his name is recorded on July 18 and it is recalled that he “shone in the study of the Holy Scriptures and put his care and commitment to the evangelization of the Frisians”.
Saint Alexius
Saint Alexius of Rome (4th-5th centuries) has been over the centuries a source of inspiration for men of letters and artists....
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, linked to the very unusual history of the Carmelite Order, is one of the dearest to Christian piety. Considering the wealth of biblical and mystical references attached to it, one could also say that it manifests in a special way the beauty of God's saving plan.
Saint Bonaventure
“No one can attain bliss unless he transcends himself, not with the body, but with the spirit. But we cannot rise by ourselves except through a higher virtue. Whatever the inner dispositions, these have no power without the help of Divine Grace. But this is granted only to those who ask for it [...] with fervent prayer. Prayer is the beginning and the source of our elevation”. So wrote saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio (c. 1217-1274) in one of his masterpieces.
