In 1974, Robert Gutherman was a 14-year-old youth, one of 11 children growing up in the shadow of the convent of St. Katharine Drexel in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. He and his brothers had often served mass for the sisters. Though not yet declared venerable at the time, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament believed their foundress to be a saint. An… Read more →
If you ever wondered whether the holy men and women of the Old Testament are considered saints by the Church, December has your answer. The Eastern Rite calendar contains the individual feast days of five prophets: Nahum, Habacus, Sophonias (aka Zephaniah), Aggeus, and Daniel. That’s not all. The two Sundays before Christmas are devoted to the Holy Forefathers and the… Read more →
Here we have a saint who left her husband and daughter to become a monk. Nope. Not a typo. St. Matrona is complicated. So much so that you might reasonably wonder: Why is she a saint? Let us see. St. Matrona was born in 492 in Pamphylia, in present-day Turkey. She was educated in the liberal arts and while young,… Read more →
Just in time for Halloween, this month’s saint was a real charmer. Literally. Don’t get him mixed up with the other, famous, respectable St. Cyprian who was once bishop of Carthage and is now mentioned in the Mass. This is the other one. The one who went around conjuring up Satan. Cyprian was born in Antioch of devout pagan parents. It… Read more →
A certain percentage of my husband is Irish. The rest of him reluctantly concedes being Scottish and Welsh – a fact that some would say makes him a danger to his own bodily well-being. Like his Chinese/Irish buddy who isn’t sure which half is which, he likes to joke that he isn’t sure where exactly his Irishness is located. But… Read more →
St. Gianna Molla embraced life with gusto. She was adventurous and passionate by nature. Her oldest child, Pierluigi, remembers that his mother loved to drive fast. If the roads were clear she put the pedal to the metal. She was that way with love too. Whatever or whomever she loved, she loved daringly with her whole self—God, the Church, her parents,… Read more →
There is not a lot of information about Saint Bucolus but that suits a greater purpose. You see, Saint Bucolus was the first bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor (present day Turkey to you and me). He reposed peacefully in the Lord (died) sometime between the years 100 and 105. His feast day is Feb. 6. Other than that, sources… Read more →
When Immaculée Ilibagiza first published her memoir Left to Tell, it was with the modest hope of sharing the book with friends. Her agent, however, told her to quit her job. The book tells in harrowing detail about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Africa, in which ordinary people took to the streets to wipe out 800,000 of their own friends… Read more →
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction. (James 1:27) Nazar sits in a crib in a bare room, smiling and laughing. Staffers gather around in amazement. They’ve never seen the young teen laugh before, though he has been in this orphanage in western Ukraine since… Read more →
July’s saint may have a funny name but let me tell you, Saint Olha (890 – 969) was no joke. Just ask the Drevlians. They murdered her husband so she murdered them — 5,000 of them. Mafia style. That was before her conversion to Christianity. Olha, whose feast day is July 11, was a Viking princess from Pskov (in the… Read more →