Author: Editor

(c. 843-615) St. Columban was from Leinster, Ireland, and went on to become an abbot, a writer, speaker and one of the greatest missionaries of the Celtic Church initiating a revival of spirituality in Europe. He went to the great monastic seat of learning at Bangor in Northern Ireland, where he was educated by St. […]

(Martyred c. 230 Ad) The picture of St. Cecelia above comes from the ceiling over the choir loft at St. Mary of Mount Carmel / Blessed Sacrament Parish. Today we celebrate her feast. Her story is contained in the Passio Sanctae Caeciliae, a more literary than historical text. It tells us that Cecilia was betrothed […]

(1842-1902) Born Frances Siedliska, into a family of privilege and wealth in mid-19th century Poland, Frances hungered for a deep spiritual life that expressed itself in the radical commitment of vowed religious life. As she traveled through Europe seeking cures for her physical ailments, she eventually recognized and accepted God’s invitation to begin a new […]

(1769-1852) St. Rose was born in Grenoble, France. She learned political skills from her father and a love of the poor from her mother. Rose entered the Visitation of Mary convent at 19 and remained despite family opposition. As the French Revolution broke, the convent was closed, and she began taking care of the poor […]

(1240-1298) Matilda Von Hackeborn-Wippra belonged to one of the noblest and most powerful Thuringian families. Her sister was the saintly and illustrious Abbess Gertrude von Hackeborn. Matilda was so fragile at birth, that the attendants, fearing she might die unbaptized, hurried her off to the priest who was just then preparing to say Mass. After […]

(880–942) St. Odo was born in about 880, on the boundary between the Maine and the Touraine regions of France. His father consecrated him to the holy Bishop Martin of Tours, in whose beneficent shadow and memory he was to spend his entire life, which he ended close to St Martin’s tomb. Odo was still […]

(1207 -1231) Today’s saint, Elizabeth, has been honored in our community through the name of one of our local hospitals. Elizabeth’s father was Andrew II, the rich and powerful King of Hungary. To reinforce political ties, he had married the German Countess Gertrude of Andechs-Meran, sister of St Hedwig who was wife to the Duke […]

(1045-1093) Margaret of Scotland, or Margaret of Wessex, was an English princess born in Hungary to Princess Agatha of Hungary and English Prince Edward the Exile around 1045. Her siblings, Cristina and Edgar the Atheling were also born in Hungary around this time. The family returned to England when she was 10 years old and […]

(1206-1280) Albert was made the Prior of a Dominican Province in Germany, was a personal theologian and canonist to the pope, preached a Crusade in Germany and was appointed the Bishop of Regensburg for fewer than two years before resigning. Neither ruthless nor politically minded, the complex web of elites who had interests in his […]

(1178-1240) Serapion Scott was born at the turn of the year 1178 in the British Isles and was a relative of the Scottish monarch. Still a child, he was at the side of King Richard the Lionhearted on the Third Crusade, fighting for the faith and for the liberation of the Holy Land. Even then, […]