Saints of the Day & More

He is the patron of the Jesuits in Canada and one of the most notable missionaries of the Society of Jesus. Home birth John was born on March 25, 1593, in Condé sur Vire, in Normandy eastern France. Belongs to a family of landowners and farmers. His parents are rich, and well regarded within its class, and throughout the region. Catholics are committed, despite the prevailing Calvinism of Normandy. Its formation The school teacher, or perhaps the priest of the parish of Condé sur Vire, taught to read and write. Due to the position of the family, John is studying at the Academy after the nearby town of Saint Lô. Later starts the humanistic studies at the University of Caen. With the Jesuits Jean de Brébeuf is 16 years old when the Jesuits opened a college in the city of Caen. The falls there to the study of philosophy. The school is closed the following year, in 1610, but the Jesuits maintained a residence in the city. John continues under the spiritual guidance of his former teachers. ...

Peter Claver was born into a prosperous farming family in the Spanish village of Verdu, about 54 miles from Barcelona, in 1580, about 70 years after King Ferdinand of Spain had set in motion the brutal colonial slavery culture by authorizing the purchase of 250 African slaves in Lisbon for his territories in New Spain. His parents were devout Catholics and taught Peter from early childhood to let nothing come between him and the love of God. As a student at the University of Barcelona, Claver was noted for his piety as well as high intelligence. He was given permission to enter the Jesuit College at Palma, Majorca in 1602, and after two years of study there, he wrote these words in a notebook which he kept with him throughout his life, "I must dedicate myself to the service of God until death, on the understanding that I am like a slave." He was respected by his instructors for his, "humility and obedience, silence and reserve." Claver arrived in Cartagena in 1610. ...

St. Ignatius was born in the family castle in Guipúzcoa, Spain, the youngest of 13 children, and was called Iñigo López de Recalde. When he was old enough, he became a page, and then a soldier of Spain to fight against the French. Eventually he found himself at the age of 30 in May of 1521 as an officer defending the fortress of the town of Pamplona against the French, who claimed the territory as their own against Spain. The Spaniards were terribly outnumbered and the commander of the Spanish forces wanted to surrender, but Ignatius convinced him to fight on for the honor of Spain, if not for victory. During the battle a cannon ball struck Ignatius, wounding one leg and breaking the other. Because they admired his courage, the French soldiers carried him back to recuperate at his home, the castle of Loyola, rather than to prison. His leg was set but did not heal, so it was necessary to break it again and reset it, all without anesthesia. Ignatius grew worse and was finally told by the...

St. Bernardino Realino was born into a noble family of Capri, Italy in 1530. After receiving a thorough and devout Christian education at the hands of his mother, he went on to study medicine at the University of Bologna, but after three years he switched to law and received his doctorate in 1563. Word of his learning, dedication, and legal brilliance spread rapidly, and in 1554 he was summoned to Naples to assume the position of auditor and lieutenant general. Shortly afterward, his exemplary young man came to the realization that he had a religious vocation and, aided by our Lady's appearance to him, joined the Society of Jesus, being ordained in 1567. For three years he labored unstintingly at Naples, devoting himself wholeheartedly to the service of the poor and the youth, and then he was sent to Lecce where he remained for the last forty-two years of his life. St. Bernardino won widespread recognition as a result of his ceaseless apostolic labors. He was a model confessor, a p...

At age seven he experienced a profound spiritual quickening. His prayers included the Office of Mary, the psalms and other devotions. At age nine he came from his hometown of Castiglione to Florence to be educated; by age 11 he was teaching catechism to poor children, fasting three days a week and practicing great austerities. When he was 13 years old he traveled with his parents and the Empress of Austria to Spain and acted as a page in the court of Philip II. The more Aloysius saw of court life, the more disillusioned he became, seeking relief in learning about the lives of saints. A book about the experience of Jesuit missionaries in India suggested to him the idea of entering the Society of Jesus, and in Spain his decision became final. Now began a four-year contest with his father. Eminent churchmen and laypeople were pressed into service to persuade him to remain in his “normal” vocation. Finally he prevailed, was allowed to renounce his right to succession and was received into ...

Saint Francis was born in Grottaglie, near Taranto, on December 17, 1642. This eloquent Jesuit missionary, who was called "the apostle of Naples", distinguished himself by his boundless zeal for the conversion of sinners and his love for the poor, the sick and the oppressed. In 1666, before the age of 24 years, San Francisco was ordained a priest. During the next five years, he taught at the "Collegio dei Nobili" which the Jesuits had in Naples. At 28 he entered the Society of Jesus. From 1671-1674, he assisted in the missionary work to the famous preacher Agnello Bruno. After completing his studies in theology, he was named the top man of the Church of the Gesu Nuovo in Naples. It is said that made at least 400 per year sinners. The Holy visiting prisons, hospitals and did not hesitate to follow the sinners to the dens of vice, where sometimes he was brutally abused. St. Francis died on May 11, 1716 and was buried in the Church of the Jesuits in Naples. His canoniz...

One of twelve children born to a farm family; six of his siblings died in childhood. Educated in Almería, Spain. Entered the diocesan seminary in 1876, and the Granada seminary in 1878. Ordained on 24 September 1887. Parish priest in Chinchón and Estremera. For nearly 20 years he cared for an elderly brother priest. Synodal examiner in Madrid, Spain in 1890. Taught metaphysics, Latin, and pastoral theology at the Madrid seminary. Chaplain to the convent of Saint Bernard. Pilgrim to the Holy Land in 1905. Entered the Jesuit noviate in Granada in 1906, and made his religious profession on 12 October 1908. Noted and sought after counselor and confessor, known for his parish ministry, spiritual direction, his devotion to the poor, and his excellent preaching that brought many to the faith. He served as spiritual director for groups of lay people, and from behind the scenes he helped them start academic and trade schools, find work for the unemployed, and minister to the sick and disabled. ...

The information we have about his life are few. It is the tenth successor of St. Peter was pope from St. Pius I and Saint Sotero, ruled the Church by the time they last eleven years from 155 to 166 - and was a native of Emesa in Syria. The circumstances under which worked are given by the social, political, economic and cultural life of the time. In the second century Greek was used as the language worship, the Popes are usually from poor families of the people elected for that service choice for martyrdom was (until the fourth century all popes gave their lives for the faith). The care or service to the brothers had to be intense, self-sacrificing, courageous, generous and very demanding but full of goodness. The disciples of Jesus had increased every day still a precarious existence even in periods of peace. Even with the Antonines, death to the Christian could be behind any allegations or event, to the Stoic Marcus Aurelius believed that the patience of the Christian martyrs was fan...

Father John Ogilvie came from a noble family. He was born in Drum-na-Kelth (Scotland) in 1579 and was educated in Calvinism. At thirteen, his father sent him to France, Italy and Germany to give a more complete education. They had their first contacts with Catholicism as religious disputes were very popular in those places. He converted to Catholicism and was received into the Church of Scotland College of Louvain in 1596, seventeen. Embracing the Catholic faith meant for John to break with the family and the loss of support that she received, a waiver to a brilliant career and the pursuit reserved for traitors. On November 15, 1599 entered the Jesuit novitiate in Brno, studied philosophy at Gratz, was a professor at the Jesuit college in Vienna and eventually studied theology at Olmütz, being ordained a priest in Paris in 1610. After three years of pastoral life in the city of Rouen got permission to go to England. He arrived in Scotland, under the guidance of an ex, dedicated to hors...

The first carried the announcement of the Christian faith in Japan was Saint Francis Xavier, who worked there from 1549 to 1551. In a few years became Christians around 300,000. Humanly speaking, it is double the "secret" which made possible the expansion: the respect that the Jesuit missionaries were the modes of Japanese life and beliefs not directly opposed to Christian teaching, and commitment of local elements to insert in word and in administration. Jesuit catechist was a young man named Paul Miki, born between 1564 and 1566, from a rich family from Kyoto. I wanted to be a priest but his ordination was postponed "sine die", because the only diocese had not yet bishop. Furthermore, in 1587 the Emperor Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who proposed the conquest of Korea changed its benevolent attitude towards Christians and issued a decree expelling foreign missionaries. The order was fulfilled in part: some missionaries remained in the country incognito, and in 1593 some Spa...

Saint Peter Kanijs born in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in 1521, and may be defined as a hierrro placed between the anvil, ie white irritation raised his clear preaching in Protestant circles, and the malevolence that I tried envy among them fellow religion. Son of the mayor of Nijmegen, Pedro Kanijs, Latin Canicius, was able to attend excellent schools: canon law and civil law at Louvain in Cologne. In this city liked to spend free time in the monastery of the Carthusians. No one suspected that the young lawyer, whom the father had secured support in his profession, take a hair shirt under her dress. Reading the brief treatise on the Spiritual Exercises, had recently written to San Ignacio, determined the turning point of his life: the pious practice ended in Mainz under the direction of Father Faber, entered the Society of Jesus and was the eighth Jesuit in solemn vows. The young congregation was able to cultivate their favorite studies and their love of learning, to Him we owe the pub...

Francis Xavier wasborn in the castle of Xavier in Spain on April 7 1506, corresponding to the expectations of his parents, graduated from the famous university of Paris. During these years he was fortunate to live side by side, sharing a room including the pension, with Peter Faber, who will be like a Jesuit and then blessed him, and with a strange student, quite late in life to sit on the benches of school, called Ignatius. Ignatius understood very well that soul: "A big heart and a soul so noble," he said "can not be satisfied with the ephemeral earthly honors. Your ambition should be the glory that shines forever. " The Feast of the Assumption, 1534, in the crypt of the church of Montmartre, Francis Xavier, Ignatius Loyola and five colleagues were consecrated to God by vow of absolute poverty, and decided to go to the Holy Land from there to begin his missionary work , putting the total dependence of the Pope. Ordained priests in Venice and abandoned the perspect...

St. John Berchmans was born the eldest son of a shoemaker in 1599 at Diest, Belgium. At a very young age he wanted to be a priest, and when thirteen he became a servant in the household of one of the cathedral canons at Malines. After his mother's death, his father and two brothers followed suit and entered religious life. In 1615 he entered the Jesuit college there, becoming a novice a year later. In 1618 he was sent to Rome for more study and was known for his diligence and piety, and his stress on perfection even in small things. That year his father was ordained and died six months later. John was so poor and humble that he walked from Antwerp to Rome. He died at the age of 22 on August 13. Many miracles were attributed to him after his death; he was canonized in 1888 and is the patron saint of altar boys. Although he longed to work in the mission fields of China, he did not live long enough to permit it. After completing his course work, he was asked to defend the "enti...

Miguel Agustin Pro was born in Guadalupe, Zacatecas, Mexico on January 13, 1891. He was the eldest son to Miguel Pro Sr. and Josefa Pro de Juarez. Pro belonged to the Society of Jesus(Jesuits), he study some time in Mexico up until the Persecution of the Catholics in Mexico, now known as the Cristero War. As a child he had many adventures with his 11 sibilings ;some of which died during infancy. Miguel had many talents such as playing the guitar, encouraging a public, speaking without fear, ETC. In 1914 Pro had to move from Mexico to California to study the religious life, due to the Anti-Catholic Government of Mexico. He later went to Europe to continue his studies, in Spain and Belguim. He was ordained on August 31st, 1925. Here is an exerpt from a letter he wrote after his ordination,"How can I explain to you the sweet grace of the Holy Spirit, which invades my poor miner's soul with such heavenly joys? I could not keep back tears on the day of my ordination, above all at t...