Pacific was born at Ceradano in northern Italy in 1424. At an early age he lost both his parents in a plague. As war was raging and every man had more than enough to do to take care of his own family, the poor little orphan boy might have met a cruel fate had not our heavenly Father Himself cared for him. He touched the heart of the Benedictine abbot in the neighboring city of Novara, and the...

St. Kevin of Glendalough (498-618 A.D.) lived in Ireland during the age of the great early Irish saints, many of whom were his contemporaries. He was baptized by St. Cronan, and from age seven was taught by St. Petroc. From age twelve he studied under the Irish monks as a student of St. Eonagh, and eventually became a monk himself. Among his friends were St. Comgall, St. Columba, St. Cannich,...

St. Justin Martyr (100–165 A.D.) was a pagan philosopher from Samaria. After meeting a Syrian Christian who convinced him that the biblical prophets were more trustworthy in the pursuit of truth than worldly philosophers, St. Justin renounced his paganism and studied Sacred Scripture. The bold witness of the early Christian martyrs led to his own conversion to the Catholic faith. St....

St. Bona (1156 - 1207 A.D.) was born in Pisa, Italy. She experienced visions at a young age which led her into an ascetical life of penance and fasting. She dedicated herself to God at the early age of ten and became an Augustinian tertiary. At the age of fourteen she went on her first pilgrimage to Jerusalem where her father was fighting in the crusades. On her trip home she was captured and...

St. Quadratus is said to have been the first of the Christian apologists. He is counted among the Seventy Apostles in the tradition of the Eastern Churches. He is said by Eusebius of Caesarea to have been a disciple of the Apostles. In his Ecclesiastical History, Book IV, chapter 3, Eusebius records that: 1. After Trajan had reigned for nineteen and a half years Ælius Adrian became his...