Saint Joan of Arc This week’s Saint of the Week, Saint Joan of Arc, is one of my favorite Saints.  A true life tale of inspiration, triumph, betrayal and redemption.   Joan of Arc was a simple peasant girl from the obscure village of Domremy, in the north eastern french countryside about 80 years into a dispute between England and France for the throne of a divided France.  Joan, prompted by voices she claimed to be Saint Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, challenged the rightful French King’s heir, Charles VII, to fight for his throne. The King, dubious of t ..read more

 Saint Kevin of Glendalough This week’s Saint of the Week is Saint Kevin of Glendalough, Ireland. Born in the year 489, he was baptized by Saint Cronan of Roscrea, educated by Saint's Petroc of Cornwall and Eonagh, and friends with Saint Comgall, Saint Columba, Saint Cannich, and Saint Kieran of Clonmacnois. As we have seen with many of our previously featured Saints of the Week, close association with a Holy Saint seems to greatly increase your odds of becoming one yourself!  Saint Kevin proved that maxim to be true and followed a path of many of our early Saints, by embarking o ..read more

 Saint Mary of Egypt  This week’s Saints of the Week is Saint Mary of Egypt. Born in Egypt in the year 344 AD, she ran away from home at the age of 12 to the bustling city of Alexandria, supporting herself by way of the world’s oldest profession. Saint Mary was drawn to this line of work not for the money, but out of disordered desire for physical pleasure, and often took no money for her services. She lived this way for more than 17 years.  One day she heard a group of men from Egypt and Libya talking about setting sail on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land for the Feas ..read more

 Saint Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr This week’s Saints of the Week is Saint Polycarp, an early Bishop of the Church, and one for whom we have a contemporary, written account of his martyrdom.  It is the first, documented account of Christian martyrdom outside the New Testement.  Saint Polycarp was born in about 70 AD and was a disciple of John the Apostle.  He was ordained Bishop of Smyrna, in the modern day city of  Izmir, Turkey, by St. John himself, a position he held for 70 years.   In his old age, after many of his friends and colleagues suffer ..read more

Saint’s Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemas This week’s Saints of the Week are Saint’s St. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemas, both atypical of the followers of Jesus who for the most part were comprised of those relegated to the margins of society, tax collectors, prostitutes, fisherman and soldiers.  In contrast St. Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy merchant who boldly petitioned Pontius Pilate for Jesus’ following his death on the cross and provided the tomb and linens for his burial.   Nicodemas was a leading Pharisee who secretly followed Jesus and tried to defend h ..read more

 Saint Genesius of Rome   This week’s Saint of the Week is Saint Genesius of Rome who lived in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries.  He was an actor and the leader of an acting troupe. The anti-Christian Emperor Diocletian was scheduled to be in Rome in the year 303 to celebrate his 20th anniversary as Emperor, and his infamous persecutions of Christians was underway and in full force. Saint Genesius, who was a pagan, devised a plan to perform a play ridiculing the Christian faith in the hopes he would be able to perform for the Emperor and parlay that into further succes ..read more

 Saint Augustine of Hippo, Bishop (354-420) This week’s Saint of the Week, Saint Augustine of Hippo, is a giant even among the lofty world of Saints.  He is one of Church Fathers, those defined as “influential theologians, bishops or scholars whose writings explained key Scriptural principles in the early Church”.  He is also a Doctor of the Church, “which is an official designation that is bestowed by the Pope in recognition of the outstanding contribution a person has made to the understanding and interpretation of the sacred Scriptures and the development of Christian doctri ..read more

 Saint Roch, Patron Saint Against the Plague This week’s Saint of the Week, Saint Roch, lived in 13th century France and was born with a birthmark in the shape of a cross on his chest, which his pious parents took as a sign he was going to be a Godly man.  Saint Roch was born into a wealthy family but lost both of his parents by young age of 20. His fathers last words to him had a lasting impact, “Before all things, devote yourself to the service of God, and meditate diligently on the sufferings of our Divine Lord. Be the stay of the widow, the orphan, and all those in misfortune. A ..read more

 Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Martyr This week’s Saint of the Week is Saint Maximilian Kolbe, (1894-1941), one of the most heroic Saints of the last century.  Raymund Kolbe was born in Poland and had a vision of the Blessed Mother when he was just 12 years old.  As he told it, "That night I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I wou ..read more

Our Lady of the Angels  This week’s Saint the Week is another awesome Marian inspired devotion.  Our Lady of the Angels, also called La Negrita, (the Black Madonna), because of the dark color of the small stone statue of the Blessed Mother holding the baby Jesus in her arms, that inspired the devotion.  In 1635, a Costa Rican woman named Juana Pereira was walking along a path and found the tiny statue, which is only about 3 inches tall, sitting on top of a rock next to the path.  She took the statue home and thought she lost it, only to find it in the same place on the pat ..read more