St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi was born at Florence, Italy, on April 2, 1566. She was christened Caterina, but in the family was called Lucrezia, out of respect for her paternal grandmother, Lucrezia Mannucci. Even as a girl Caterina was attracted to prayer, solitude, and penance. At the age of nine Pazzi was taught how to meditate by the family chaplain, using a recently published work...

St. Simeon Stylites the Younger (521-596 A.D.) was born in Antioch in ancient Syria (present-day Turkey). Like his namesake and predecessor, Simeon was drawn from a young age to a life of penance and austerity out of his great love for God. His mother was considered a saint. As a young boy he attached himself to a monastery of hermits. Their spiritual director, John, lived night and day at the...

Giovanni Battista de' Rossi (22 February 1698 – 23 May 1764) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest. He served as the canon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin after his priest cousin died, and he was a popular confessor despite his initial fears that his epileptic seizures could manifest in the Confessional. Rossi opened a hospice for homeless women not long after his ordination, and he became...

St. Julia was a virgin of Carthage in North Africa. A dedicated orthodox Christian, she refused to embrace the heretical tenets of the Arians and was sold into slavery by the Vandals – themselves Arian adherents – in 439 and sailed with her new master, a Syrian merchant. The vessel stopped at the island of Corsica, and Julia was commanded to participate in a local pagan ceremony....

The 1917 Mexican constitution was pointedly anti-clerical and anti-Church, and its adoption instituted years of violent religious persecution including expulsion of foreign priests, closing of parochial schools, and the murders of several priests and lay leaders who worked to minister to the faithful and support religious freedom. Hundreds were martyred over the years; 25 of them who died at...