By Lyn Wilson … St. Herculanus, whose feast days are both November 7 and March 1, is Patron Saint of Perugia, Italy. His life story is a fact decorated by a bit of fantasy. He was said to have been sent to Perugia from Syria to evangelize sometime in the earlier half of the 6th century.
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Venerated for his personal holiness and artistic devotion to the church, St. Bilfrid of Lindisfarne was a man of great dedication and talent. He was a man that those of us who engage in artistic endeavors can emulate…
By Lyn Wilson
From childhood she was interested in caring for the poor – one of her brothers related in a letter how she wanted to change a dollar for pennies to give to beggars. She also trained herself to avoid the luxurious living of her family – once at the age of twelve she slept on a marble seat as a self-imposed penance for thinking too much about her comfortable hotel bed…
By Sarah Losordo
From his cell, Wulfric dispensed wisdom and healing to all who came to him. He lived a simple life of penance and fasting to atone for his previous life of self-indulgence, and even influenced the court of the king.
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As the first pastor and founding member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Reverend Jones held an important position in the history of the Church in America…
By Ian Wilson
Saint King Ine, and his wife, Saint Ethelburga of Kent were both devoutly religious people, supporting the church and the poor with their own money…
By Lyn Wilson
By Sarah Losardo … In 1883, Mother Marianne received a letter from the Sandwich Islands – now known as Hawaii – begging for someone to take charge of their hospitals and schools. Along with six other sisters, Mother Marianne set out halfway around the world, primarily to care for those with leprosy (now called Hansen’s Disease).
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Christopher was born November 21, 1924 in Leeds to Edith and John Tolkien. From a young age, the boy had an aptitude for remembering the complexities of his father’s work, once stopping storytime (where The Hobbit was being read aloud) to correct his father on a few minor points…
By T.K. Wilson
Seventy years after the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons by St. Augustine of Canterbury, St. Adrian stepped onto England’s green shores to continue the work started there….
By Ian Wilson
By Sarah Losardo … One of the sons of Zebedee – also known as the Sons of Thunder – John shows up in the Gospels as the “one who Jesus loved”, one of the ones who asked for a place at Jesus’ right and left hand, the one disciple who followed Jesus to the Cross, the only disciple not to be martyred, and the writer of a gospel, three letters, and the book of Revelation (or the Apocalypse). What else do we know about this apostle?
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By T.K. Wilson … Today (December 19th), the church commemorates Stephen Nguyen Van Vinh and his companions, who were martyred for their faith on this date in 1839.
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By Ian Wilson … The celebrated mystic, St. John of the Cross, was born Juan de Yepes y Alvarez on June 24, 1542, in Fontiveros, Spain. Even as a child, John knew he wanted to live the ascetic life. After the untimely death of his father and older brother when John was only three years old, John was sent to a boarding school for poor orphaned children. There, he received a religious education, and served as an acolyte at an Augustinian monastery.
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By Lyn Wilson … Saint Justinian (or Stinan) of Ramsey was a 6th Century Monk from Breton who moved to Ramsey Island in Pembrokeshire in modern day Wales.
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By Sarah Losardo … It was in Paris that she discovered the identity of the priest in her vision – St. Vincent De Paul, the founder of the Sisters of Charity. In January 1830, Zoe finally joined the Sisters of Charity in Paris, taking the name Catherine. The same year, first in July and again in November, Sister Catherine was visited by the Blessed Virgin Mary, who entrusted to her a medallion to be given to the world.
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By Ian Wilson What is known about St. Valentine is scant and open to conjecture, shrouded in legend. It is difficult to separate fact from fable, to the point that in 1969, the Roman Catholic Church removed Valentine from their official calendar due to lack of evidence for his existence. Valentine may not even have […]
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By Ian Wilson (G) Considered the most astute of the three Cappadocian Fathers, the man who would become Gregory of Nyssa was born into a large, devout Christian family sometime in the fourth century. His older brother was none other than Basil of Caesarea, another one of the Cappadocian Fathers. Together with Gregory of Nazianzus, […]
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By Debbie Robinson … Herman Bavinck (1854–1921) was a renowned Dutch theologian and one of the leading figures of the Neo-Calvinist movement of the late 1800s. Born in the small village of Hoogeveen in the Netherlands, Bavinck was raised in a devout Christian home, which shaped his passion for theology and the Reformed tradition. He studied at the Theological School in Kampen, where he developed a lifelong commitment to exploring the relationship between faith and life.
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By Ian Wilson (G) One of the most beloved saints of the church was born sometime in the third century AD to wealthy parents in the town of Patara in Asian Minor (modern Turkey). Nicholas’ devout parents raised him the nature and admonition of the Lord, and due to their influence, the young Nicholas dedicated […]
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St. Helena, born in about 248 AD, was the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. Born in apparently humble circumstances, and said to be a Christian at the time of her marriage, she bore her husband Constantus his only son. Shortly thereafter, however, Constantus divorced her to marry the daughter of an ally. The boy, […]
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Though he was the forgotten preacher of the First Great Awakening, Henry Muhlenberg left an indelible mark on the Lutheran Church of the United States
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