The Scillitan Martyrs were a company of twelve North African Christians who were executed for their beliefs on 17 July 180 AD. The martyrs take their name from Scilla (or Scillium), a town in Numidia. The Acta of the Scillitan Martyrs are considered to be the earliest documents of the church of Africa and also the earliest specimen of Christian Latin. The martyrs' trial and execution took...

July 16 is the feast day of seven of the Martyrs of Orange. The Martyrs of Orange is a group of 32 beatified religious women martyred at Orange, France, during the French Revolution between July 6 and July 26, 1794. Two were Cistercian nuns from Avignon; the others were from Bollène, near Avignon, and included 16 Ursulines, 13 Sacramentine nuns, and one Benedictine nun. For refusing to take...

Saint Joseph, Archbishop of Thessalonica, was brother of Saint Theodore the Studite (November 11), and together they pursued a life of asceticism under the guidance of Saint Platon (April 5) in the monastery at Sakkudion, Bithynia. Because of his ascetic life, Saint Joseph was unanimously chosen archbishop of the city of Thessalonica. He and his brother opposed the unlawful marriage of the...

St. Francis came from a leading family in Andalusia, Spain. Perhaps it was his popularity as a student that enabled Francis in his teens to stop two duelists. He entered the Friars Minor in 1570, and after ordination enthusiastically sacrificed himself for others. His care for the sick during an epidemic drew so much admiration that he became embarrassed and asked to be sent to the African...

Ezra (or Esdras) and his contemporary Nehemia are the major sources for the period of time named “The Restoration,” the years immediately following the end of the Babylonian Captivity. So in our canon of the Hebrew Scriptures, they appear at the end of the historical section. Ezra may have written even more, but only one book of the Hebrew Scriptures is considered the inspired...