Author: Editor

(1620–1684) Miguel Baptista Gran Peris was the only child in a farm family. He married at age 18, but became a widower just 16 months later. He then followed a call to religious life, and Franciscan friar at the convent of Sant Miquel d’Escornalbou, making his religious profession on July 14, 1641, and taking the […]

(1245–1305) Compagnonus de Guarutti and Amata de Guidiani, were childless until a prayerful visit to a shrine of St. Nicholas of Myra in Bari, Italy. In gratitude, the couple named their son Nicholas. Nicholas became an Augustinian friar at age 18, and a student with Blessed Angelus de Scarpetti. He was first a monk at […]

(1581–1654) In a time when people are marching in our streets shouting “Black lives matter,” we recall St. Peter Claver, who held to that principle more than 400 years ago. Peter left his homeland of Spain forever in 1610 to be a missionary in the colonies of the New World. He sailed into Cartagena; a […]

(1486–1555) Thomas García Martínez was born in 1486 in Fuenllana, Ciudad Real, Spain. He spent his childhood in the family home in Villanova de los Infantes. A gifted student, Thomas entered the University of Alcalá at the age of 15. He earned a degree in theology in a very short time and was asked to […]

(1813–1853) Frédéric was the fifth of Jean and Marie Ozanam’s 14 children, one of only three to reach adulthood. As a teenager he began having doubts about his religion but eventually came to terms with his doubts. Frédéric wanted to study literature, although his father, a doctor, wanted him to become a lawyer. Frédéric yielded […]

(6th century BC) Zechariah was of the tribe of Levi and was born in Babylon during the Babylon captivity. He returned from exile to Judea as an old man shortly before the dedication in 515 BC of the rebuilt temple. Zechariah is sometimes identified with the prophet Jesus spoke of who was killed by his […]