In 1790 the French Revolutionary authorities passed a law requiring priests to swear allegience to the civil constitution, which would effectively remove them from the authority of, and allegience to, Rome. Many refused, and in 1791 the government began deporting them to French Guyana. 827 priests and religious were imprisoned on hulks (old ships no longer sea-worthy and used for storage,...
Ephrem the Syrian, also known as St. Ephraem, was a Syriac Christian deacon and a prolific Syriac-language hymnographer and theologian of the 4th century. He is especially beloved in the Syriac Orthodox Church, and counted as a Venerable Father (i.e., a sainted Monk) in Eastern Orthodoxy. His feast day is celebrated on June 9 in the Roman Catholic Church and on January 28 in the Eastern...
St. William of York (d. 1154) was born to a powerful family in England, the nephew of the king. He became a priest and then treasurer of York Minster Cathedral at the time when the English crown was contested by two grandchildren of William the Conqueror. When the Archbishop of York died, William was chosen to take his place. Kind-hearted and generous to the poor, he was well-liked by the...
St. Boniface (d. 754 A.D.) was born to a noble Christian family in Devonshire, England. He became a Benedictine monk and devoted his life to the evangelization of the pagan Germanic tribes in what is now Germany. He went there at the request of Pope Gregory II in 719 A.D. and systematically opened up the vast tracks of wilderness to the Gospel, building on the work of the earlier Irish...
St. Francis was the founder of the Minor Clerks Regular with St. John Augustine Adorno. He was born in 1563, a member of a noble Neapolitan family. Though he had a rare skin disease, much like leprosy, Francis became a priest, at which time his skin disease disappeared. In 1588, he co-founded the Minor Clerks Regular and spent the rest of his life as the superior. He was canonized in 1807. His...