St. Paul the Apostle, originally named Saul, was an intelligent and zealous Jewish scholar and Pharisee who fiercely persecuted the first Christian converts among the Jews. While on his way to Damascus with permission to arrest Christians, he received a vision of the resurrected Christ. Jesus rebuked him for his actions and struck him blind, and through this encounter St. Paul was converted....

His mother was Mella, his father Sillán, son of Conall, descendant of Rudraige Mór of Ulster. He was a monk and spiritual student of Saint Ciarán at Clonmacnoise. He founded a monastery to the west of Lemanaghan, Ireland, c.645 on land obtained by Saint Ciarán from the king of Connacht. The monastery has a healing well that came from a spring that opened when Manchán, out of water, struck a...

According to the legend of St. Agnes, Emerentiana was her foster-sister.  St. Agnes was a rich Roman heiress who was martyred after refusing her engagement due to her Christian religion. Emerentiana’s mother was the wet nurse and nanny of Saint Agnes.  A few days after Agnes' death, Emerentiana, who was a catechumen still learning about Christianity before being officially...

Saint Gaudentius was a bishop of Novara in the late fourth and early fifth century. He is considered the first of that city. Tradition states that he was born to a pagan family at Ivrea, and was then converted to Christianity by Eusebius of Vercelli. Some sources say that Eusebius ordained Gaudentius a priest, and that Gaudentius was sent to Novara by Eusebius to assist a Christian priest...

Walter of Bruges (Gualterus Brugensis OFM), was a Franciscan theologian, who flourished at the University of Paris in 1267-69. He entered the Franciscans in Bruges in about 1240 and was sent to Paris for his studies. A student of Bonaventure, he was regent master at Paris from 1267 to 1269. He was elected Minister Provincial of the French province in 1269, then became bishop of Poitiers in...