Though St. Therese of Liseaux is the most famous of the saints remembered on October 1, St. John Kukuzelis also is commemorated on this day. He was the illegitimate son of an Aragonese noble, Jaime de Palafox, the Marquis of Ariaza; his father would not recognize him, his mother became a Carmelite nun, and Juan was raised by a family of millers. When the boy was ten years old, his father...

Saint Gregory the Illuminator (c. 257 – c. 331) is the patron saint and first official head of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He was a religious leader who is credited with converting Armenia from paganism to Christianity in 301. Armenia thus became the first nation to adopt Christianity as its official religion. Gregory was the son of the Armenian Parthian nobles Anak the...

Honorius was a member of the Gregorian mission to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism in 597 AD who later became Archbishop of Canterbury. During his archiepiscopate, he consecrated the first native English bishop of Rochester as well as helping the missionary efforts of Felix among the East Anglians. Honorius was the last to die among the Gregorian...

St. Wenceslaus (907–935 A.D.) was the son of the Duke of Bohemia. His grandfather was converted to Christianity by the missionaries Sts. Cyril and Methodius. His mother, Dragomir, was the daughter of a pagan tribal chief who was baptized at her marriage. After the death of his father, Wenceslaus received a Christian upbringing from his grandmother, St. Ludmila, while his mother reverted...

Born to the Italian nobility, Lorenzo’s family had a military history and a duty to protect the outer defenses of the city of Pisa, Italy. Lorenzo, however, was drawn to the religious life, began studying for the priesthood, and while a deacon, joined the Dominicans at the convent of Saint Catherine in Pisa in 1396. He went on to be ordained a priest. He worked for reform of the...