On April 23rd 2021, three Spanish-born MSC priests and seven lay catechists of the indigenous Maya people became “blessed” and were beatified in the Cathedral of Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala. Pope Francis signed a decree which recognised all ten as martyrs, and on April 23rd, Guatemalan Cardinal Álvaro Leonel Ramazzini celebrated the beatification Mass in El Quiché. Three...

Saints Cyril and Methodius (826–869, 815–885;) were two brothers who were Byzantine Christian theologians and Christian missionaries. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they received the title "Apostles to the Slavs." They are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe Old Church...

St. Catherine del Ricci (1522-1590) was born with the name Alessandra in Florence, Italy, to a respectable merchant family. Her mother died while she was very young, so that from her childhood Alessandra took the Blessed Virgin Mary as her mother. She was given to prayer and religious fervor, and at the age of fourteen decided to enter a strict Third Order Dominican convent, taking Catherine...

Saint Eulalia (Aulaire, Aulazia, Olalla, Eulària) (c. 290–12 February 303), co-patron saint of Barcelona, was a 13-year-old Roman Christian virgin who suffered martyrdom in Barcelona during the persecution of Christians in the reign of emperor Diocletian. For refusing to recant her Christianity, the Romans subjected her to thirteen tortures; including: Putting her into a barrel...

Blessed Bartholomew of Olmedo (d. 1524) was a Spanish Mercedarian priest, and the first priest to arrive on Mexican soil in 1516 at the age of 31. He was chaplain for the expedition of Spanish Conquistador Fernando Cortés, who began the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the downfall of the Aztec empire. Bartholomew was well-liked by the native people. He taught them the Christian faith...