Isaiah was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. He is regarded as one of the great Messianic prophets, and, consequently, his writings are heavily used during the Season of Advent as the Church awaits the celebration of the birth of the Savior. Isaiah may have been one of the priests of the Temple of Solomon. His call to the life of a prophet seems...

St. Peter of Tarantaise (Saint Pierre de Tarentaise) was a French Roman Catholic abbot who served as the Archbishop of Tarentaise from 1141 until his death. His example in his childhood and adolescence became so pious to those he knew that his parents and siblings all followed him into the religious life. He served as an abbot for a new cloister and tried to refuse an elevation to the...

St. Flavia Domatilla was niece to the consul and martyr St. Flavius Clemens, being the daughter of his sister as Eusebius testifies; consequently she was little niece of the Emperor Domitian, who, having put to death her illustrious uncle, banished her for her faith into Pontia. There she lived with her holy eunuchs, Nereus and Achilleus, in exercises of devotion, they all dwelling in separate...

Saint Petronax of Monte Cassino (May 1, 670 – May 6, 747), called "The Second Founder of Monte Cassino", was an Italian monk and abbot who rebuilt and repopulated the monastery of Monte Cassino, which had been destroyed by the invading Lombards in the late sixth century. A native of Brescia, Petronax had made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Benedict in 717 after being...

St. Judith of Prussia (13th c.), also known as St. Jutta, was born to a wealthy family in Thuringia in what is now Germany. She desired to model her life after another noble saint from her country, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who lived in the previous century. Judith was married at age fifteen to a man of equal rank, and together they raised a family. Despite their great wealth, Judith desired...