Today the Church remembers Elijah the Prophet, perhaps the most famous of all the Prophets of Israel from the Hebrew Scriptures.  He announced to Ahaz, King of Israel, who under the influence of his Tyrian wife Jezabel had erected a temple to Baal, that Jehovah had determined to avenge the apostasy of Israel by bringing a long drought on the land. During the drought which lasted three...

John was born in Dukla, Poland, in 1414. Died in 1484 in Lwów, Poland. He joined the Friars Minor Conventual, a religious order whose members strictly adhered to their rule of poverty and obedience. Though he went blind later in age he was able to prepare sermons with the help of an aide. His preaching was credited with bringing people back to the Church in his province. Soon after his death,...

Bruno was born circa 1045 in Solero either to nobles or parents of modest means named Andrea and Guglielmina. He spent his theological education in a Benedictine convent of Santa Perpetua near his town in Asti and in Bologna at the college there where he also studied humanities and the liberal arts. He became a canon in Siena in 1073 after his ordination to the priesthood around that stage and...

The Scillitan Martyrs were a company of twelve North African Christians who were executed for their beliefs on 17 July 180 AD. The martyrs take their name from Scilla (or Scillium), a town in Numidia. The Acta of the Scillitan Martyrs are considered to be the earliest documents of the church of Africa and also the earliest specimen of Christian Latin. The martyrs' trial and execution took...

July 16 is the feast day of seven of the Martyrs of Orange. The Martyrs of Orange is a group of 32 beatified religious women martyred at Orange, France, during the French Revolution between July 6 and July 26, 1794. Two were Cistercian nuns from Avignon; the others were from Bollène, near Avignon, and included 16 Ursulines, 13 Sacramentine nuns, and one Benedictine nun. For refusing to take...