Saint Anthony Zaccaria
Saint Anthony Zaccaria (+1539), from noble lineage in late-renaissance Italy, was born in Rome in 1502, on the cusp of the Protestant revolt against the...
The Baptist and Losing One’s Head
The celebration of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist - after all, it was his expeditious entrance into heaven - is sort of...
Saint Paschal Baylon’s Humility and Joy
The life of Paschal Baylon (1540 - 1592) has much in common with that of his fellow Franciscan, Joseph of Cupertino (+1633). They were...
Saint Polycarp’s – Baked Bread and Boldness
The Church has had martyrs since her earliest days, and will have them unto the end of time. One of the first in the...
John Paul II at Auschwitz: Lessons of Kolbe
APOSTOLIC PILGRIMAGE TO POLAND
HOLY MASS AT THE CONCENTRATION CAMP
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II
Auschwitz-Bierkenau, 7 June 1979
1. "This is the victory that overcomes...
Naming the Apostles
We encounter the name of Jude in the Book of Acts. The evangelists Matthew and Mark name him as Thaddeus. In his catechesis on...
Alphonsus of Ligouri, A Moral Teacher for All Ages
Saint Alphonsus Ligouri was a renaissance man, whose kind was a rarity back then, and even more so now in our age of degrees...
Dymphna’s Sanity
The story of Saint Dymphna (7th century), steeped in legend, is not one, perhaps, that parents would feel comfortable telling their children. Dymphna was...
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Patroness of the Poor
On this 17th of November we, as Franciscans, joyfully celebrate the feast of St Elizabeth of Hungary, a tertiary of our Order.
Elizabeth was born...
Saint Gabriel Possenti – God, Prayer…and Guns?
Gabriel of the Seven Sorrows, who died on this day in 1862, may be seen as a kind of male Saint Thérèse, but, as...