Titus came from a Catholic family in the Netherlands that actively encouraged the children to serve the Lord. Three of Titus’ sisters became nuns, and a brother became a Franciscan priest. Titus was ordained a Carmelite priest in 1905, when he was 24 years old.
At the Mass of his beatification in 2007 in his native Austria, Franz Jägerstätter was remembered as a normal, everyday person with faults. Sometimes he took his faith lightly. He chased after girls, rode a motorcycle, and fathered a child outside of marriage.
Zepherin Namuncura was born in Argentina in 1886, one of 12 children. His father was the Mapuche chief of the Araucanian-speaking Indians of the Argentine Pampas. A few years before Zepherin was born, his mother and several brothers and sisters were captured by European soldiers. In order to have them returned, Zepherin's father, Manuel, signed a treaty with the army.
Antoine-Frédéric Ozanam was born into a large family in Milan, Italy, in 1813. His parents were originally from France, and the family returned there in 1815. Frédéric believed that faith should be put into action by serving the poor. In 1833, he founded the St. Vincent de Paul Society. This is an organization that serves the poor. Today, the Society is active in 131 countries of the world and offers services such as thrift stores, home visits, food pantries, and shelters.
Francis Xavier Seelos was born in Fussen, Bavaria, in Germany in 1819. He was named after St. Francis Xavier, the famous Jesuit missionary. When he was a little boy, Francis’ mother asked him what he was going to be when he grew up. He answered by pointing at a picture of his name saint and said, “I’m going to be another St. Francis.”
Many of our greatest saints and holy people knew that they could raise others up by helping to educate them. Eulalie Durocher was one such person. Born on October 6, 1811, at Saint Antoine-sur-Richelieu in Quebec, Canada, she was the youngest of 10 children. Her parents valued education, and her mother, who had studied with the Ursuline Sisters in Quebec City, taught all of her children. Eventually young Eulalie attended a boarding school with the Notre Dame Sisters and began to dream of becoming a nun.
At the 2010 Mass that proclaimed John Henry Newman “Blessed,” some of the hymns sung were written by that very man. But John was not simply a man who wrote hymns. He was someone who inspired others with his life and his writings.
In 1971, after praying and hoping for a baby for more than 10 years, Ruggero and Teresa Badano of Sassello, Italy, welcomed a little girl whom they named Chiara.
Bernhard Lichtenberg was a Catholic priest who served the people of Berlin at St. Hedwig’s Cathedral during a time of great crisis. Born in 1875 in the Prussian province of Silesia, Father Lichtenberg was ordained to the priesthood in 1899 and witnessed the growing power of the Nazi party and its persecution of the Jewish people. His faith in Jesus Christ gave him the courage to speak out.
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.