Feast Day: 1 March What little we know about St David is from a biography written around 1090 by Rhygyfarch, son of the Bishop of St David’s. David was reputedly born on a cliff top near Capel Non (Non’s chapel) on the South-West Wales coast during a fierce storm. Both his parents were descended from
Today is the feast day of St Josephine Bakhita…
Feast Day: 23 September Padre Pio was born on 25 May 1887 in Pietrelcina, southern Italy. He was tutored privately until his entry to the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at the age of 15. Of feeble health but strong will, with the help of grace, he completed the required studies and was ordained a
Feast Day: 3 September Gregory was the prefect of Rome before he was 30. After five years in office he resigned, founded six monasteries on his Sicilian estate, and became a Benedictine monk in his own home at Rome. Ordained a priest, Gregory became one of the pope’s seven deacons, and also served six years
Feast Day: 31 August St Aidan, also known as Aidan of Lindisfarne and the Apostle of Northumbria, lived from about 590 until 31 August 651. He was an Irish monk and missionary who is said to have restored Christianity to Northumbria. In 635 he founded a monastic settlement on the tidal of Lindisfarne and served
Feast Day: 28 August St Augustine, bishop of Hippo in north Africa (354 to 430 A.D.), was one of the great minds of the early Christian church, a theologian whose ideas forever influenced both Roman Catholics and Protestants. But Augustine did not come to Christianity by a straightforward path. At an early age he began
Feast Day: 30 August St Margaret Clitherow was born in York, the youngest of four children of Thomas Middleton (d.1567), wax chandler and freeman of York, and his wife, Jane (c.1515-85), daughter of Richard Turner, innkeeper. She was almost certainly baptised at the church of St Martin, Coney Street where her father was churchwarden between
Feast Day: 27 August If you’ve ever prayed really hard for a miracle and felt discouraged by the response (or lack of) that you received from your pleas, take your cue from St Monica. She is an inspirational woman who showed us that through love and prayers we can move mountains, or in her case,
Feast Day: 24 August In the New Testament, Bartholomew is mentioned only in the lists of the apostles. Some scholars identify him with Nathanael, a man of Cana in Galilee who was summoned to Jesus by Philip. Jesus paid him a great compliment: “Here is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him” (John
Feast Day: 25 August St Joseph Calasanz was born into a noble Spanish family in 1557. At the age of fourteen he decided to become a priest, but his parents refused to support his vocation. In the meantime he studied philosophy and law, graduating with his doctorate. Following the death of his mother and brother,
