Born on the island of Mallorca near Spain in 1713, Miguel Jose Serra wanted to be a monk. He joined the order of St. Francis Assisi when he was 15 and called himself Junípero. He studied philosophy and became a teacher of the same subject, but his heart longed to be a missionary.
Can you imagine an apostle, the closest followers of Christ, having doubts about Jesus? St. Thomas did, and his disbelief helps us to understand how important the gift of faith is.
Some people have called Pier, or Peter, Frassati a saint for today’s young people. He was handsome and athletic. He hiked, climbed mountains, rode horses, and skied with his many friends. He loved to laugh, and he was famous for his practical jokes. He loved life and lived it to the fullest.
Maria Goretti was only twelve years old when she died in 1902, but the story of this young Italian girl has touched the hearts of Catholics everywhere for over 100 years.
Peter To Rot was born in 1912 in a village named Rakunai in what is today Papua New Guinea. The region had for some time been visited by Christian missionaries, but Peter's father, Angelo To Puia, who was chief of the village, and his mother, Maria la Tumul, were baptized as adults and were among the first Catholics in the country.
Martyrs are people who die for their faith. In China, where Christian faiths were not allowed to be practiced for many centuries, there were many martyrs.
Amabile Visintainer was born in a poor section of Italy in 1865. When she was 10 years old, her family and many of their neighbors sailed to South America. They were looking for a better life.
Benedict was born to a noble family in Nursia, Italy, about 480 AD. When he grew up, he studied in Rome. Then, wanting to pray alone, Benedict lived for three years in a cave near Subiaco.
We hear the story of Veronica when we pray the Stations of the Cross. At the Sixth Station, Jesus stopped to allow Veronica to wipe the blood, sweat, and dirt from his face. This simple act of kindness is all we know about Veronica, a woman in Jerusalem. She is not mentioned in the Gospels, but Jesus’ followers must have shared the story of her loving care for the Lord so often that it has become part of our tradition.
When Louis Martin and his bride, Zelie, were married in 1858, they promised that they would “serve God first” together. They knew that putting God first in their lives would help them always to live with love.