ALL POSTS TAGGED: FRANCISCAN

Do you remember the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:29-37? Mother Marianne of Molokai brought Jesus’ story to life in her ministry to the lepers of Hawaii.

Marianne Cope was born Barbara Koob in Germany in 1838. When she was two years old, her family emigrated to the United States, to upstate New York, to find a better life. After eighth-grade graduation, she worked in a factory to earn money to help her family. Her dream of becoming a nun had to be delayed until her younger brothers and sisters could support themselves. She joined the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse when she was 24.


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Clarice Mariscotti was probably a typical upper-class girl in Viterbo, Italy, in her time. As a teenager right at the beginning of the 1600s, she liked to have fun. Her father, Count Antonio of Mariscotti, and her mother, Ottavia, who was descended from royalty, were quite wealthy, so she had the finest clothes and education.


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Benedict was a slave, but he always knew that his only true master was Jesus. Benedict’s parents, Christopher and Diana Manasseri, were taken from their home in Africa and sold into slavery in Messina, Italy, where Benedict was born in 1524.


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As a young shepherd, Paschal was so honest that he once offered to give farmers money to repay any harm done when his sheep walked through their crops. Born to a poor Spanish family in 1540, Paschal was put to work as a shepherd at the age of 7. He often prayed when he heard the town church bells ringing during Mass. He worked hard to teach himself to read and, when he could, he read religious books while tending his sheep. He was so holy even as a young man that his friends called him “Blessed Paschal."


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Verena Bütler had a very happy childhood in Switzerland. She loved nature and learning. When she made her First Communion in 1860 at the age of 11, her family was pleased by her strong commitment to her faith and spirituality.


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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.


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Clare’s parents wanted a good life for their daughter, who was born in Assisi in Italy in 1194. But what they wanted for Clare was not what Clare had in mind. At age 15 she refused to marry. One day she heard St. Francis, who was also from Assisi, preach. At that moment, she knew what she must do with her life. She knew she wanted to be like Francis. She would live a humble life dedicated to Jesus.


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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.


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