Edward was born a prince, the son of King Ethelred II and Queen Emma; half-brother to King Edmund Ironside and King Hardicanute. When his father was unseated by Danish invasion. Edward and his brother were sent to Denmark to be quietly killed, but the officer in charge took pity on the boys, and sent them to Sweden, and from there they went to the King of Hungary to be raised and educated....

St. Angela of Foligno, T.O.S.F., was an Italian Franciscan tertiary who became known as a mystic from her extensive writings about her mystical revelations. Due to the respect they engendered in the Catholic Church, she is known as "Mistress of Theologians". Angela was noted not only for her spiritual writings, but also for founding a religious community which refused to accept...

St. Genevieve (c.422-512 A.D.) was born to a respectable family in a small village outside Paris, France. When she was seven years old a famous bishop, St. Germain, spotted her in a crowd and prophesied to her parents about her future sanctity. At his invitation, St. Genevieve expressed her desire to live in a state of perpetual virginity and made her vows under him, after which St. Germain...

Ortolana di Fiumi, wife of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso was a noblewoman who mothered three daughters, two saints and a blessed, Saint Clare, Saint Agnes and Blessed Beatrice. Upon the death of her husband, Ortolana joined her elder daughters, Clare and Agnes at the Convent of San Damiano, becoming thus a spiritual daughter of her own blood daughter, whom the latter welcomed her with...

The list of saints for the first day of January is long, filled with the names of martyrs and confessors of the faith. One of them is St. Odilo of Cluny. He was born to the French nobility, the son of Berald de Mercoeur and Gerberga who became a nun when widowed. Cured of an unnamed malady in childhood by the intervention of Our Lady, he became a monk at Cluny at age 29. He was named Abbot at...