St. Martin of Tours (c. 316-397 A.D.) was born into a pagan family in what is now Hungary. He was raised in Italy where his father, a senior officer in the Roman army, was stationed. At the age of ten Martin joined the Church as a catechumen soon after Christianity was legalized across the Roman Empire. Taking after his father, he joined the cavalry at the age of fifteen and was stationed in...

Born at Castronuovo (today Castronuovo di Sant'Andrea), a small town in the province of Potenza, in Basilicata, his baptismal name was Lancelotto, which he changed to Andrew when he entered the Order of Theatines. After receiving his elementary training in the school at Castronuovo, he was sent to Venice to pursue a course in the humanities and in philosophy. Being a handsome youth, his...

Theodore Stratelates, also known as Theodore of Heraclea , is a martyr and Warrior Saint venerated with the title Great-martyr in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Catholic and Roman Catholic Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches . There is much confusion between him and St. Theodore of Amasea and they were in fact probably the same person, whose legends later diverged into two separate...

According to tradition the Four Crowned Martyrs (d. 305 A.D.) were renowned sculptors living in what is today Austria-Hungary. They were commissioned by Roman Emperor Diocletian to make several sculptures; however, when he requested a sculpture of the pagan god Aesculapius for a heathen temple, they refused to carve it. Their refusal exposed them as Christians during Diocletian's fierce...

Willibrord (c. 658 – 7 November AD 739) was a Northumbrian missionary saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands. He became the first Bishop of Utrecht and died at Echternach, Luxembourg. His father, named Wilgils or Hilgis, was styled by Alcuin as a Saxon of Northumbria. Newly converted to Christianity, Wilgils entrusted his son as an oblate to the...