Blessed Denis of the Nativity (1600-1638) was born as Pierre Berthelotin in France and became a sailor at the age of twelve. He had a successful career as pilot-in-chief and cartographer in service to the Kings of France and Portugal, even being knighted for bravery. He later chose the religious life and became a Carmelite friar, taking the name Dionysius (Denis) of the Nativity. He was sent...

James Gangala was born at Montebrandone, Ancona. He studied law and then joined the Franciscans at Assisi in 1416. He studied under St. Bernardino of Siena at Fiesole, was ordained when he was twenty-nine, and became an effective and forceful preacher. He worked as a missionary with St. John Capistran in Italy and in Germany, Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary, and in 1426, with John, was named...

Barlaam and Josaphat are legendary Christian martyrs and saints. Their life story is likely to have been based on the life of the Gautama Buddha. It tells how an Indian king persecuted the Christian Church in his realm. When astrologers predicted that his own son would someday become a Christian, the king imprisoned the young prince Josaphat, who nevertheless met the hermit Saint Barlaam and...

St. John Berchmans (1599-1621) was born in Flanders, Belgium, the eldest of five children of a shoemaker. He was a virtuous and well-liked child who would often rise early to serve at two or three Masses a day before he reached the age of seven. On Friday evenings he had a custom of making the Stations of the Cross outdoors while barefoot. When he was nine years old his mother suffered from a...

Saint Silvestro Guzzolini (1177 – 26 November 1267) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Silvestrini. He served as a canon in Osimo, but respectful rebukes of his bishop's inappropriate conduct led him to leave for a hermitage before the bishop could strip him of his position. He remained in his hermitage with a determination to found a religious congregation...