Francesco Mottola was born in Tropea in 1901 to Antonio Mottola and Concetta Braghò. His mother committed suicide in 1913. He attended a grammar school in Tropea before he commenced his studies to become a priest in 1911 and then moved in 1917 for further studies at Catanzaro. While in the seminary he visited the Blessed Sacrament frequently and had a devotion to the Madonna di Romania. He...

The school of Origen at Alexandria was a school of virtue and martyrdom; for the master, notwithstanding his extraordinary reputation in the sciences, made it the first part of his care to train up all his scholars in the most heroic maxims of Christian perfection. Hence it is not to be wondered that out of it came many illustrious martyrs in the persecution of Severus, which raged...

St. Laszlo (c. 1040-1095), also known as St. Ladislaus I of Hungary, was born to a royal family in Krakow, Poland. His father became King Bela of Hungary, and his mother was the daughter of the King of Poland. He was raised as a Christian, spending his childhood in the court of the Polish king. After the death of his father and brother, he became the King of Hungary in 1077 and also later the...

St. Josemaria Escriva (1902-1975) was born in Spain, one of six children of a devout Catholic family. Observing his parents faithfully endure painful family trials—the death of three of their young children and devastating financial setbacks—had a deepening effect on his own faith. As a teenager he discovered his vocation to the priesthood when he saw the path of bare footprints in...

St. Dominic Henares (1764-1838) was born to a poor family in Spain. He joined the Dominican Order and was ordained a priest in 1790. Ten years later he was sent as a missionary to the Far East. He went from Mexico to the Philippines, and finally to North Vietnam. He became Bishop of Phunhay, Vietnam, in 1803. In 1831 the Vietnamese emperor officially prohibited Catholicism and severely...