St. Marciana was a young Christian girl who was beaten, tortured and handed over to gladiators as a sex toy during the persecutions of Diocletian; she brought one of the gladiators to Christianity. Accused of vandalizing an idol of the goddess Diana, she was thrown to wild animals in the arena. She was gored by a bull and mauled by a leopard in the amphitheater of Caesarea, Mauritania, around...

St. Apollinaris Claudius (2nd c.), also called St. Apollinaris of Hierapolis, was a bishop in what is today Turkey. He became famous for his polemical writings against the heretics of his day, showing that their theological errors were taken from the pagans. His most famous work was an Apologia for the Christians addressed to Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the year 177 A.D. In it he reminded...

St. Angela of Foligno, T.O.S.F., was an Italian Franciscan tertiary who became known as a mystic from her extensive writings about her mystical revelations. Due to the respect they engendered in the Catholic Church, she is known as "Mistress of Theologians". Angela was noted not only for her spiritual writings, but also for founding a religious community which refused to accept...

The Twelve Apostles of Ireland (also known as Twelve Apostles of Erin, were twelve early Irish monastic saints of the sixth century who studied under St Finian (d. 549) at his famous monastic school Clonard Abbey at Cluain-Eraird (Eraird's Meadow), now Clonard in County Meath. The Twelve Apostles are Saint Ciarán of Saighir (Seir-Kieran). In the Martyrology of Oengus, saint Ciarán of...

St. John Neumann (1811-1860) was born in Bohemia in what is now the Czech Republic. He entered the seminary, and when the day came for his ordination to the priesthood, his bishop fell ill and couldn't proceed with the ceremony. However, because Bohemia had an over-abundance of priests, John's ordination was never rescheduled. Undeterred in pursuing his priestly vocation, John decided...