Fr. Jacques Berthieu, a French Jesuit (1838-1896), priest and missionary in Madagascar, was declared a blessed martyr of faith and chastity by Pope Paul VI in 1965 during the Second Vatican Council. He was canonized in Rome on October 21st with six other Blesseds. This day coincided with the World Mission Sunday and was part of the celebration of the Year of Faith and the Synod of Bishops on...

Saint Norbert of Xanten (c. 1080 – 6 June 1134), also known as Norbert Gennep, was a bishop of the Catholic Church, founder of the Premonstratensian order of canons regular, and is venerated as a saint. His father, Heribert, Count of Gennep, was a member of the high nobility of the Holy Roman Empire and related to the imperial house and also to the House of Lorraine. His mother was...

Robert of Newminster, Saint, Abbot, (Benedictine) Cistercians (1100-1159) A priest from North Yorkshire who took the Benedictine habit at Whitby and obtained permission to join some monks of York who were attempting to live according to a new interpretation of the Benedictine rule at Fountains abbey (1132). Fountains soon became Cistercian and one of the centres of the White Monks in N....

Today we remember a companion of St. Boniface, apostle of Germany, who participated in the evangelization of Germany. He and St. Boniface were martyred on the same day, June 5. Thus his memorial falls on the same day as that of St. Boniface, June 5. Saint Adaler of Erfurt, also known as Adaler of Dokkum, Adelario, and Adolar, was an influential figure in the Catholic Church who played a...

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...