Second son of Adam and Eve, slain by his brother Cain because the latter's oblation was not accepted favorably by God as was Abel's. For his death in this way he is regarded as a type of Our Savior. His death symbolizes, too, the bloody sacrifice of the Cross and the unbloody one of the altar. He is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass, and his name holds first place in the Litany for...

St. Anastasius the Persian (7th c.) was the son of a Persian sorcerer. He became a Zoroastrian soldier in the army of Khosrau II, the Persian monarch who absconded the True Cross of Christ from Jerusalem and took it to Persia in 614. St. Anastasius inquired about the mysterious Cross and the Christian religion and as a result soon converted to the true Faith, left the army, received baptism,...

Saint Meinrad (c. 797 – 21 January 861) was a hermit and a Roman Catholic saint. Meinrad was born into the family of the Counts of Hohenzollern and was educated at the abbey school of Reichenau, an island in Lake Constance, under his kinsmen, the Benedictine Abbots Hatto and Erlebald. There he became a monk and was ordained.  After some years at Reichenau, and the dependent priory...

Eustochia Esmeralda Calafato (March 25, 1434 in Messina – January 20, 1485 also in Messina) is a Franciscan Italian Saint belonging to the Order of the Poor Clares. She is co-patroness of Messina, which is also the center of her following. She was born in the village of Santissima Annunziata, near Messina, Italy (for which reason she is often known as St. Eustochia of Messina). Most...

St. Canute IV of Denmark (1042 – 1086 A.D.), also known as Canute the Holy, was one of thirteen sons born to the king of Denmark. Canute later succeeded his brother to the throne and reigned as king from 1080 to 1086. He was a devout Catholic, a zealous propagator of the faith, and a brave warrior, in addition to being a man of prayer, penance, austerity, and charity towards the poor and...