Between 1225 and 1227 in the city of Florence, Italy, seven cloth merchants from the city's prominent families joined the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They desired to live a penitential life dedicated to her title of Mother of Sorrows. Our Lady appeared to the seven men on the feast of the Assumption in 1233, asking them to live a life of seclusion and prayer. They obeyed and...

A group of Christians who ministered to other Christians who were condemned to work the mines of Cilicia in the persecutions of Maximus. They were arrested, tortured and martryed by order of the governor Firmilian. Their names were Daniel, Elias, Isaias, Jeremy, and Samuel. The group also includes the three other known to have been sentenced to the mines – Pamphilus, Paul of Jamnia,...

On April 23rd 2021, three Spanish-born MSC priests and seven lay catechists of the indigenous Maya people became “blessed” and were beatified in the Cathedral of Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala. Pope Francis signed a decree which recognised all ten as martyrs, and on April 23rd, Guatemalan Cardinal Álvaro Leonel Ramazzini celebrated the beatification Mass in El Quiché. Three...

Saints Cyril and Methodius (826–869, 815–885;) were two brothers who were Byzantine Christian theologians and Christian missionaries. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they received the title "Apostles to the Slavs." They are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe Old Church...

St. Catherine del Ricci (1522-1590) was born with the name Alessandra in Florence, Italy, to a respectable merchant family. Her mother died while she was very young, so that from her childhood Alessandra took the Blessed Virgin Mary as her mother. She was given to prayer and religious fervor, and at the age of fourteen decided to enter a strict Third Order Dominican convent, taking Catherine...