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    Stories of saints, biblical events, angels, and sacred places.

    A 15th-century painting depicting two robed saints, one of them a young noblewoman associated with a story of marital cruelty and martyrdom.
    Saint Godelieve of Gistel
    A young noblewoman's husband abandoned her at their own wedding feast, then had her strangled years later — and the Church canonized her within fourteen years.
    A 19th-century painting depicting a crowd of pilgrims and their horses gathered at a shrine, a hallmark of the traditional Anderlecht pilgrimage.
    Saint Guy of Anderlecht
    A poor sacristan gave away everything he owned, lost the rest in a shipwrecked business deal, and still became the saint Belgian farmers bring their horses to honor.
    Circa 1830 oil portrait of Saint Julie Billiart in the habit of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, seated with a calm, direct expression
    Saint Julie Billiart, Founder of Notre Dame de Namur
    Paralyzed for twenty-two years after witnessing an attack on her father, a French farm girl was suddenly and inexplicably able to walk again on the day she prayed.
    A medieval manuscript miniature of a robed monk standing outdoors with a small black bird perched near him.
    Saint Kevin of Glendalough
    An Irish hermit once stood in prayer so long that a blackbird nested in his open hand — legend says he held still until the eggs hatched and the chicks flew away.
    19th-century oil portrait of Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat in the black habit of the Society of the Sacred Heart, seated with hands folded
    Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat, Founder of the Sacred Heart Sisters
    A shopkeeper's daughter tutored by a strict older brother in a locked room founded a teaching order that spread to six continents before her death.
    1845 colonial-style oil portrait of Saint Mariana de Jesus de Paredes, shown in simple dark robes with a lily, the symbol of her purity and her nickname
    Saint Mariana de Jesus de Paredes, Lily of Quito
    When an epidemic and an earthquake struck colonial Quito at once, a young mystic offered her own life in exchange for the city's, and the disasters stopped.
    1672 posthumous oil portrait of Saint Marie of the Incarnation in the black habit of the Ursuline order, hands folded in prayer
    Saint Marie of the Incarnation, Mystic of New France
    A widowed businesswoman who ran a shipping company left her only child behind in France to cross the Atlantic and build a school in the frozen wilderness of Quebec.
    A medieval illuminated manuscript miniature showing a gaunt, robed woman kneeling in the desert before a monk.
    Saint Mary of Egypt
    An invisible force stopped a woman at a church door in Jerusalem — and rather than fight it, she walked into the desert alone and never returned to a city again.
    Byzantine-style icon of Saint Moses the Black, dark-skinned and robed as a desert monk, shown alongside fellow desert fathers Poemen and Elijah
    Saint Moses the Black, Desert Father
    A gang leader feared across the Egyptian countryside walked into a monastery to hide from the law and never left, becoming one of the desert's fiercest ascetics.
    A 19th-century chromolithograph of a young woman in simple robes holding a cross made of two crossed vine branches.
    Saint Nino of Georgia
    A young woman crossed into a pagan kingdom carrying nothing but a cross of grapevine bound with her own hair, and left it a Christian nation within a decade.
    An 18th-century oil painting of a regal woman in Byzantine-style dress and headdress, seated with a solemn expression.
    Saint Olga of Kiev
    Before she became the first Christian ruler of Rus and a canonized saint, Olga of Kiev answered her husband's murder with three acts of calculated revenge.
    A Byzantine-style icon of a bearded, robed monk standing atop a tall stone pillar with a small platform and railing.
    Saint Simeon Stylites
    A Syrian monk climbed onto a stone pillar to escape the crowds chasing his holiness — then stayed up there, on ever-taller pillars, for thirty-seven years.
    1721 Ethiopian manuscript painting depicting Saint Walatta Petros in traditional dress with a halo, surrounded by her community of nuns
    Saint Walatta Petros of Ethiopia
    A noblewoman walked away from her marriage and wealth to lead a decade-long religious resistance movement across the highlands of 17th-century Ethiopia.
    The exterior of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
    What Is a National Shrine? Explained
    A national shrine is a Catholic church formally designated to draw pilgrims from an entire country, distinct from a basilica, cathedral, or ordinary parish.
    The exterior facade of the Basilica of Saint Mary in Kevelaer, Germany, one of the country's largest Marian pilgrimage churches
    The Basilica of Kevelaer
    Kevelaer became Germany's largest Marian pilgrimage site after a merchant reported a vision at a wayside cross in 1642, a story still central to its shrine today.
    The Basilica of Saint Anne and the small octagonal Chapel of Grace at the Marian shrine of Altötting, Bavaria
    The Basilica of Our Lady of Altötting
    Altötting in Bavaria houses a tiny octagonal chapel with a centuries-old Black Madonna, making it the most important Marian pilgrimage site in Germany.
    The ruined marble columns and arches of the Basilica of Saint John near ancient Ephesus, Turkey
    The Basilica of Saint John, Ephesus
    A Byzantine emperor built a vast cross-shaped basilica over what tradition holds is the tomb of the Apostle John, near ancient Ephesus in modern Turkey.
    The rocky hillside entrance to the Cave of the Apocalypse on the Greek island of Patmos
    The Cave of the Apocalypse, Patmos
    Exiled to a remote Greek island by Roman authorities, John is said to have received the visions of Revelation inside a small cave still venerated today.
    The twin-towered Baroque facade and forecourt of Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland
    Einsiedeln Abbey and the Black Madonna
    Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland grew from a hermit's cell into one of Europe's great pilgrimage sites, home to a revered Black Madonna venerated for centuries.
    The Gate of Dawn city gate in Vilnius, Lithuania, with its chapel built into the upper level above the archway
    The Gate of Dawn, Vilnius: A Shrine Built Into a City Wall
    The Gate of Dawn in Vilnius holds a revered icon of Mary set above a working city gate, drawing pilgrims of multiple faiths to a chapel built into the wall itself.