This siint is known as Ethelreda or Audrey. This daughter of a king of East Anglia was the sister to Sts. Ethelburga, Erkenwald, Sexburga, and Withburga. She was married to a prince of a local tribe of Saxons, but he allowed her to remain a virgin. When he died after three years, she entered religious life under St. Ebba at Coldingham, England, and then became abbess of the monastery at Ely....

St. John Fisher is the martyred cardinal of England and close friend of St. Thomas More. He was ordained a priest in 1491 and appointed bishop of Rochester in 1504. In 1529 he was named a counselor of Queen Catherine of Aragon, leading the opposition against King Henry VIII in his quest for a divorce. Twice imprisoned for opposing the king, he refused to sign Henry’s Act of Supremacy in...

St. Willibald was an 8th-century bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria. Information about his life is largely drawn from the Hodoeporicon (itinerary) of Saint Willibald, a text written in the 8th century by Huneberc, an Anglo-Saxon nun from Heidenheim am Hahnenkamm who knew Willibald and his brother personally. The text of the Hodoeporicon was dictated to Huneberc by Willibald shortly before he died....

Patrick O’Healy (about 1543-1579) was probably born in Co. Sligo or Co. Leitrim. He was a Franciscan novice in 1561. He was trained and educated for the priesthood in Spain. Sent to Rome in 1575, he impressed the Minister General and the Pope and the following year was appointed Bishop of Mayo. Some years later he reached Ireland. In the persecutions there, he was betrayed and captured...