Saint Therese,
born Marie Francoise Therese Martin on January 2, 1873, at Alencon, a small
town in the north of France. Just under twenty-five years later, at
approximately twenty minutes past seven on the evening of September 30, 1897,
she died, a nun, in the infirmary of the Carmel of Lisieux, another small town
in the Normandy region of France. Only a handful of people knew anything of
her during her short life, for she entered Carmel when she was fifteen, and
few knew or cared that she was dead. Now she is known and venerated throughout
the world as St. Therese of the Child Jesus. She was canonized by Pius XI on
May 17, 1925, a mere twenty-eight years after her death. The next year she was
declared, with St. Francis Xavier, the principal patron of all missionaries
and missions. Later she was declared the secondary patron of France with St.
Joan of Arc. For more information, please see our Saint Therese book
section.
Saint Faustina Kowalska
was a humble Polish nun who became the instrument for an extraordinary work of
God in the Twentieth Century. Hers is a poignant and moving story, a brief
life lived for the most part in obscurity, a life marked by great suffering
and profound exultation, the life of a nun whose significance was largely
hidden from her contemporaries. She became the apostle of Divine Mercy,
that is, "mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to God's
mercy." For more information about St. Faustina, see our book and video
section on Divine Mercy.
Saint Padre Pio
was born Francesco Forgione, of simple, hardworking farming people on May 25,
1887, in Pietrelcina, a town in southern Italy. He entered the Capuchin Friars
at the age of fifteen. On September 20, 1918, the five wounds of Our Lord's
Passion appeared on his body, making him the first stigmatized priest in the
history of the Church. His whole life was marked by long hours of prayer and
continual austerity. Worn out by over half a century of intense suffering and
constant apostolic activity in San Giovanni Rotondo, he was called to his
heavenly reward on September 23, 1968. Pope John Paul II declared Padre Pio
Blessed on Sunday, May 2, 1999. On Sunday, June 16, 2002, Pope John Paul II
canonized Padre Pio. For more information about Padre Pio, please
see our book and video section on
Saint Padre
Pio.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
- On a hillside just outside what is now Mexico City, in the year 1531, the
Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to an Indian farmer named Juan Diego. She asked
him to see to it that a church be built there in her honor. When Juan
approached his Bishop with Our Lady's request, he was not believed and was
driven out. The Blessed Mother appeared again to the Indian and directed him
to a barren, stony place where she said he would find roses growing. He
wrapped the roses in his cloak and brought them to the Bishop. When he
unwrapped the roses, he discovered the image of the Blessed Mother imprinted
on the cloak. This time he was believed and a basilica was built on the
original spot. The cloak, unfaded by time and authenticated by art experts as
not being any work they can explain, is exhibited on the main altar of the new
basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the shrine that commemorates the miracle of
the cloak. For more information about the image, please see the section on Our
Lady of Guadalupe.
