Labre was born in 1748 in the village of Amettes, near Arras, in the former Province of Artois in the north of France. He was the eldest of fifteen children of a prosperous shopkeeper, Jean-Baptiste Labre, and his wife, Anne Grandsire. Labre had an uncle, a parish priest, living some distance from his family home; this uncle gladly received him, and undertook his early education for the...
St. Ruadhan was first to put Lorrha on the map coming here in the middle of the 6th century. He was educated in Clonard Co. Westmeath by St. Finian and was known as one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He is said to have replaced St. Brendan (the navigator) at Lorrha who preceded to cross the Shannon and set up his monastery at Clonfert Co. Galway.
Ruadhan founded a monastic settlement...
At age 15, Lidwina was ice skating when she fell and broke a rib. She never recovered and became progressively disabled for the rest of her life. Her biographers state that she became paralyzed except for her left hand and that great pieces of her body fell off, and that blood poured from her mouth, ears, and nose. Today some posit that Saint Lidwina is one of the first known multiple...
Born to a wealthy family, Caradoc spent part of his youth as a harp player in the court of King Rhys ap Twedwr of South Wales. He fell out of royal favour when he lost one of the king's greyhounds. Deciding to start a new life, Caradoc broke the tip of his spear to turn it into a walking stick, and left the court to become a monk at Saint Teilo church. Longing for a quieter life, he became...
Julius was a native of Rome and was chosen as successor of Pope Mark after the Roman seat had been vacant for four months. He is chiefly known by the part he took in the Arian controversy. After the followers of Eusebius of Nicomedia, who had become the archbishop of Constantinople, renewed their deposition of Athanasius at a synod held in Antioch in 341, they resolved to send delegates to...