Saint Brigid of Ireland
According to three ancient biographies, Brigid's mother was a Christian Pict slave named Brocca, who had been baptised by Saint Patrick; her father was a pagan chieftain, whose name was Dubthach.
Saint John Bosco
Saint John Bosco (1815-1888) was a pedagogue, a writer, a publisher, a saint endowed with countless mystical gifts; he was a father to a myriad of disadvantaged children and young people whom he educated to work and to a Christian life in a Turin in the feverish climate of industrialisation.
Saint Hyacintha Marescotti
The youth of Saint Hyacintha Marescotti (1585-1640), was not what she would have preferred. She became a Franciscan tertiary without a vocation and while still upset from disappointed love.
Saint Constantius
Saint Constantius, revered as the first bishop of Perugia, was martyred in the 2nd century, either under Marcus Aurelius (in office from 161 to 180) or during the persecutions of his predecessor Antoninus Pius.
Saint Thomas Aquinas
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the Doctor Angelicus, as his contemporaries called him, is the highest example of the trust that medieval Scholasticism placed in human reason; like faith, reason is a gift of God, so one cannot contradict the other.
Saint Angela Merici
During the Catholic Reformation which was a period of renewal in the Church, the seeds of which had been scattered well before the onset of Luther's heresy, Angela Merici (1474-1540), founder of the Ursulines, consecrated her life to educating girls to follow the ways of God.
Saints Timothy and Titus
Since the revision of the General Roman Calendar of 1969, the Church commemorates on the same day the holy Bishops Timothy and Titus, favourite disciples of Saint Paul and recipients of three 'pastoral' letters, so called because they instruct to the two pastors regarding the duties of those who lead a Christian community.
Conversion of Saint Paul
The feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul reminds us of the fruits produced by the acceptance of grace, capable of radically transforming one of the most active persecutors of the early Church into the greatest announcer of the Gospel to the Gentiles.
Saint Francis de Sales
An inspired writer, preacher, spiritual guide for several saints, Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622) combined gentleness with an enthusiasm for truth, as Pius XI recalled in the encyclical Rerum Omnium Perturbationem of 1923, for the benefit of "those Catholics who as journalists and writers expound, spread, and defend the doctrines of the Church."
Saint Ildephonsus
Saint Ildephonsus (607-667) is renowned for a number of writings, which famously include a valuable treatise on the perpetual virginity of Mary; he is even better known for his encounter with the Virgin, also recognised by the Muslims during their ruling of Spain.
Saint Vincent, martyr
Vincent went to heaven on January 22nd, 304 (or 305). He is considered the first martyr in Valencia, a city which, according to Lorenzo Riber, was then little evangelised and highly pagan.
Saint Agnes
"Virginity merits praise not because it is found in martyrs, but because it forms martyrs", wrote Saint Ambrose (340-397) in De Virginibus, speaking of Agnes, the Roman girl killed for her Christian faith when she was barely 13, and whose martyrdom made a profound impression on the Christian community, giving rise to a fervent popular piety.
