Virgin and martyr, Dorothea of Caesarea was persecuted during the persecution of Diocletian, 6 February, 311, at Caesarea in Cappadocia. She was brought before the prefect Sapricius, tried, tortured, and sentenced to death. On her way to the place of execution the pagan lawyer Theophilus said to her in mockery: "Bride of Christ, send me some fruits from your bridegroom's garden."...

Adelaide was the daughter of Megingoz (Megengose), Count of Guelders. She joined the Ursuline convent at Cologne, Germany. Later she became a Benedictine nun. Abbess of Villich, Germany as well as Abbess of Our Lady of the Capitol at Cologne. Both houses had been founded by her father. She insisted that the sisters in her houses study Latin so they would better understand the Mass. She was...

Saint Andrea Corsini (30 November 1302 – 6 January 1374) was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and professed member from the Carmelites who served as the Bishop of Fiesole from 1349 until his death. Corsini led a wild and dissolute life until a rebuke from his mother moved him to go to the Santa Maria del Carmine church where he became resolved to join the Carmelites as a priest and...

The “apostle of the north” (Scandinavia) had enough frustrations to become a saint—and he did. He became a Benedictine at Corbie, France, where he had been educated. Three years later, when the king of Denmark became a convert, Ansgar went to that country for three years of missionary work, without noticeable success. Sweden asked for Christian missionaries, and he went...

Jeanne de Lestonnac, O.D.N., (December 27, 1556 – February 2, 1640), alternately known as Joan of Lestonnac, was a Roman Catholic saint and foundress of the Sisters of the Company of Mary, Our Lady, in 1607. The new institute, approved by Paul V in 1607, was the first religious order of women-teachers approved by the Church. De Lestonnac was born in Bordeaux in 1556 to Richard de...