Summary: St Moninne, also known a Darerca or Bline one of Ireland’s earliest women saints, founded and was the abbess of a community of hermits which initially consisted of 8 virgins and a widow with a baby.
St Maria Goretti is often seen as a patron saint both for those who have been abused and for those who are guilty of abuse.
Anthony wore himself out in the service of Jesus and the poor and died aged thirty-six.
Elizabeth cared for lepers with her own hands and had an extraordinary knowledge.
Summary: St Andrew of Crete (7th Century) is recognised as a great theologian, homilist, and hymnographer.
Patrick Duffy tells what is known about St Andrew.
Early life
Thomas is patron of blind people, probably because of his own spiritual blindness.
Summary: Was St Thomas called “The Twin” because he had two sides to his personality – a bit like you and me?
Fr John Murray PP gives us some insights into the personality of [...]
If it rains on Saint Swithun's day, 15th July, it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights indicate the saint's displeasure.
Saint Oliver Plunkett was the last person to be martyred for the Catholic faith in England in 1681.
Besides being put to death they were made objects of amusement; they were clothed in hides of beasts and torn to death by dogs.
Summary: St Peter is a very attractive figure since he shared our weakness, but after the resurrection he became the one to strengthen his brothers.
Fr John Murray PP profiles the saint here.
At Antioch, Peter gave into racial prejudice, declining to eat with the pagans, but Paul boldly corrected him.
Little is known about his life, but from his writings it is clear he was a zealous pastor. .
Cyril of Alexandria was a man who loved the truth and did not suffer fools gladly. At a time when the very nature of [...]
Cyril certainly had a clear intelligent grasp of the issues but he was impulsive and intransigent.. Pope Leo XIII declared him a doctor of the church in 1883.
At the command of Julian the Apostate, they were beheaded secretly in the rooms of their own house on the Caelian Hill, Rome.
Paulinus was first a married man who became a Christian as an adult, then was ordained priest by popular acclaim.
The Gospel of the Feast tells of the delight of Elizabeth’s giving birth
'When a statesman forsakes his own private conscience for the sake of his public duty he leads his country by a short road to chaos.'
Cardinal John Fisher was imprisoned, found guilty of treason and beheaded on 22nd June 1535. He was the first member of the College of Cardinals to suffer martyrdom.
Summary: St John Fisher: scholar and a man of simple life, was both chancellor of Cambridge University and bishop of Rochester. For refusing to recognise King Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church in England, he was found guilty of treason, and executed.
Patrick Duffy [...]
. His Jesuit superiors in ome urgedAloysius to pray less, eat more, and be more sociable.
In 1992 Pope John Paul II proclaimed a representative group from Ireland as martyrs and beatified them.
Romuald's contribution to monasticism was to provide for living the hermit life.
At 15 Juliana refused her family's plans for her to marry and became a Servite tertiary.
Moling loved animals, many of whom - wild and tame - he kept around him in honour of their Maker, and they would eat out of his hand.
St Methodius encouraged the restoring the veneration of icons
Germaine's stepmother accused her of stealing bread and chased her with a stick. In the chase Germaine let her apron fall and what fell out on the winter snow was not bread but summer flowers.
Summary: St Vitus was the son of a pagan Sicilian senator who became a Christian under the influence of his Christian tutor Modestus and his Christian nurse Crescentia and suffered martyrdom along with them (See image). He is an example of how certain themes strangely become associated with the [...]
After the finding her tomb, it is said that a number of epileptics, insane people, and some said to be under diabolical influence were cured by the relics of Dympna, patron of the mentally ill.
