St. Priscilla of Rome (1st c.) was a Christian noblewoman who served as a benefactor to the Christian community in Rome. She supported St. Peter the Apostle, the first Bishop of Rome, and her home near the catacombs served as his headquarters. She was the wife of Manius Acilius Glabrio, a Roman politician, who was executed by the Emperor Domitian for atheism, that is, his refusal to worship...

St. Arnold Janssen (1837–1909) was born in Germany to a large Catholic family. He was a man of simple faith who studied theology, entered the priesthood, and served as a school teacher. He had a profound devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which awakened in him an increasing desire for missionary work. This led him to found The Little Messenger of the Sacred Heart, a monthly magazine...

Blessed Odoric of Pordenone was born of noble parents in the year 1265 at Pordenone in Friuli. He entered the Franciscan Order in the convent of Udine when he was only 15 years old. He felt himself called by God to be a missionary, and so prepared himself for his vocation by a strict life of penance, intimate union with God in solitude, and earnest application to study. Ordained a priest,...

The father of Berno is said to have been the French nobleman Odon, who provided a refuge for the Benedictine community of Glanfeuil after the monks had been driven from their monastery by the Normans. Berno, a teenager at the time, assisted his father in welcoming the exiled monks. Following his father's death, Berno gave away his inheritance and entered a Benedictine monastery, that of...

Bernard was a shoemaker by trade, and considered the greatest swordsman and duelist in Sicily in his day. After mortally wounding a man named Canino in a duel, he sought sanctuary from the law in the church of the Capuchin Friars Minor in Palermo. While hiding there, he had a true conversion, and became a Capuchin lay-brother in 1632, changing his name to Brother Bernardo. He was noted for his...