After a happy childhood in a loving and religious family in Guadalupe, Mexico, Jose Ramon Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez entered the seminary in 1911 to study to become a Jesuit priest. The seminary closed when the government began to persecute Catholics. Miguel had to flee his country. He was finally ordained in Belgium in 1925 when he was 34 years old.
Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi was born in 1880 in Italy. He went to school to become a lawyer. By the time he retired, he was the attorney general of Italy. He was friends with many political leaders. After World War II he worked to rebuild Italy.
There are people all around us every day who live saintly lives. Some of them may even be called “saint” in the future by the Church. Dorothy Day was a woman who, much like Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was sometimes called a saint in her work.
Andrew was a fisherman. But he was searching for something more important than life on the sea could give him. Like many faithful Jews of his time, Andrew was waiting for God to send the Savior he had promised.
Charles was raised by his grandfather in Strasbourg, France, after his parents died in 1864, when he was six. He was baptized and made his First Communion, but never really believed in the Christian life.
The Catholic Church calls Saint Francis Xavier “the Apostle to the Indies” and “the Apostle of Japan.” The word apostle means “one who is sent.” Jesus sent his twelve apostles out to announce the coming of God’s kingdom. Hundreds of years later, the Church sent Francis Xavier out to preach the same good news.
Every year at Christmas, children await Santa Claus. When they get older, they think he is just make believe. But Santa Claus really lived—long, long ago. His generosity is based on a saint who was a great gift-giver.
Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin was born in Mexico in 1474. Everyday, he rose before dawn and walked 15 miles to Mass in what is today Mexico City. On December 9, 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan as he passed Tepeyac Hill.
María Maravillas Pidal y Chico de Guzmán was born into an important royal family in Madrid, Spain, in 1891. Her father was also Spain’s ambassador to the Vatican. The family was very religious, and María was always encouraged to put God first in her life. She prayed that the Holy Spirit would guide her in knowing how God wanted her to serve him. God blessed María with a religious vocation.
When Mary Frances Schervier was 16, her mother and sisters died from tuberculosis, a highly contagious disease at the time. So when Frances told her father she wanted to visit the poor and the sick in their city of Aachen, Germany, he was worried that his daughter might bring disease into their home or grow ill herself. He told her she could not perform this act of charity.