Thomas Burgess was an accomplished Anglican Bishop, theologian, linguist, and abolitionist. He was born on November 18, 1756 in Hampshire to a grocer. He was educated at Odiham Grammar School, before moving on to Winchester and finally to Corpus Christi College at Oxford.
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St. Martin of Tours was born in 316 in what is now Hungary. He became a Christian at the age of ten and was forced into the Roman army a few years later. However, believing firmly that Christians should not fight, Martin petitioned Emperor Julian the Apostate to be released, saying, “I am Christ’s soldier: I am not allowed to fight.”
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St. Charles Borromeo was born in 1538 near Milan in the castle of Arona. His family was one of good socioeconomic standing and were themselves immersed in religious duty.
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Little is known about these two disciples of Christ. They are only mentioned very briefly in the Gospels, and are celebrated together due to their close association in Christian tradition.
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Hailed as a great peacemaker and one of the greatest popes in history, Saint Pope John Paul II had very humble beginnings. He was born Karol Wojtyła in Poland in 1920. His early life was marked by tragedy. His baby sister, his mother, and his elder brother all died before he reached his teens. He was a lively boy, a good student, and perhaps most surprising for a future pope, a gifted actor, co-founding a theater troupe.
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Callixtus was first appointed to be a deacon by Pope Zephrynus, who counted him as trustworthy and often sought his counsel in regards to decision-making and theology. Even in his time as deacon, it became evident that Callixtus valued repentance and subsequent forgiveness most highly. As he began to influence Zephrynus toward this end, there were those who viewed this as an unfaithful expression of lawful theology.
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Pio of Pietrelcina, more commonly known as Padre Pio, was born in Pietrelcina (Benevento), Italy in 1887 to Maria Giuseppa DeNunzio and Grazio Maria Forgione. He was their fourth child of eight. As a child, he would interact with his guardian angel, reacting in surprise when realizing other children could not see their heavenly guardians.
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St. Jerome was born Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus in what is now Croatia or Slovenia in the year 342 AD. Despite his good upbringing, young Jerome did as he pleased.
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John Jewel was one of the most important theologians of the English Reformation and was instrumental in establishing the Anglican church as a lasting institution. Indeed, in many ways Anglicans owe their continued existence to John Jewel.
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When followers of Jesus Christ pursue lives of self-sacrificial ministry, the gospel comes to life
in a truly palpable way. St. Peter, self-proclaimed “slave of the Negroes forever,” embodied this
with particular fervor and impact.
Gregory the Great (Gregory I), pope and saint, was born dur the 500s AD (the exact date is unknown). He came from a very prestigious family, being the great-great-grandson of Pope Felix the Third (who lived before celibacy was required of clergy) and the son of a senator.
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Perhaps one of the most significant mothers in the history of the church, besides Mary herself, St. Monica is remembered as the mother of one of the greatest theologians in Western Christianity: Augustine of Hippo.
Monica was a very pious and charitable woman who lived in the North African town of Tagaste.
Alexander Henderson was born in Creich, County Fife, Scotland in 1583. After graduating with honors from St. Andrew’s College, he went right to work as a churchman, at first staunchly on the side of the Episcopate. At that time, the Church of Scotland was debating the form of church governance they wanted: the Anglican model where the church was governed by bishops, or the Presbyterian model where the church would be governed by members of the congregation. This was more than just a debate within the church; to defy the episcopate was also to defy the King.
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George Abbot, historically known as Archbishop of Canterbury, was born in 1562 in the humble town of Guildford, England. Abbot studied at Oxford, where he demonstrated academic excellence in intense theological study…
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“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things…” (Luke 10:41). This is probably not what Martha expected she would be known for, on the off chance she expected to be remembered at all.
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Among all the women in the Bible, none remain so controversial as Mary Magdalene, a mysterious female disciple who was very close to Jesus, almost as close as the Twelve.
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Many may know Saint Bonaventure’s name, but few know his story. This pious Franciscan monk was born in 1221 in Bagnoregio, Italy. He was initially baptized as John, but changed his name to Bonaventure when he joined the Franciscans. During a bout of severe illness in his youth, Bonaventure’s mother asked for the intercession of the recently canonized Saint Francis of Assisi.
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St. Kilian (sometimes spelled “Killian” or “Cillian”) was born in the mid 600s in Ireland. He became a missionary and a traveling bishop in the custom of the Irish Church…
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If you’ve ever heard the Ink Spots’ 1940 hit “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano”, you have St. Junipero Serra to thank. Junipero was born Miquel Serra on Majorca, an island off the coast of Spain. He joined the Franciscan monks…
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Theodore Beza was one of the lesser known Reformed theologians of the first hundred years of the Reformation, however, his influence on the Reformed movement cannot be denied.
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