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

    The modern shell-shaped shrine church of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, with its sweeping arched roof and glass walls.
    San Giovanni Rotondo, the Home of Padre Pio
    A remote mountain town in southern Italy became one of the world's busiest pilgrimage sites, built around one Capuchin friar's fifty years there.
    The modern curved white facade and glass tower of the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Łagiewniki, Kraków, against a partly cloudy sky.
    The Shrine of Divine Mercy, Kraków
    In a quiet Kraków convent, a barely educated nun's diary became a worldwide devotion. Inside the Łagiewniki shrine built around her tomb.
    The neo-Romanesque facade and twin spires of the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in Quebec, Canada
    Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré
    How a group of shipwrecked sailors' vow beside the St. Lawrence River in 1658 grew into Quebec's largest pilgrimage shrine and a reported site of healing.
    A mosaic of Saint Peter above a sealed Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica, with a scroll inscribed with a pope's name and jubilee year.
    The Four Papal Basilicas of Rome
    What makes St. Peter's, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls a set of four, and what a Holy Door actually is.
    A late-medieval illuminated manuscript miniature showing the martyrdom of Saints Victor and Corona, with a soldier binding Victor while a woman in a red gown looks on.
    Saint Corona, the Martyr Whose Name Means Crown
    Saint Corona was an early Christian martyr venerated across Central Europe for centuries; her name means crown, and it long predates the modern virus.
    A 19th-century devotional engraving of Saint Drogo as a shepherd, haloed and dressed in pilgrim's clothing, standing among his sheep in front of a village church.
    Saint Drogo, the Hermit Who Watched Mass Through a Wall
    Saint Drogo lived forty years walled into a cell after a disfiguring illness, becoming patron of unattractive people, shepherds, and coffeehouse keepers.
    A detail from a Flemish Renaissance painting showing a goldsmith's workshop, with a craftsman weighing a ring for a well-dressed couple beside shelves of gold cups, jewelry, and precious stones.
    Saint Eligius, Patron of Goldsmiths
    A goldsmith so skilled he made two royal thrones from the gold meant for one, then gave away his fortune to become a bishop who ransomed slaves.
    A medieval illuminated manuscript miniature of Saint Fiacre, haloed and wearing a red hood, holding an open book, with a church and garden landscape in the background.
    Saint Fiacre, Patron Saint of Gardeners
    The story of Saint Fiacre, the 7th-century Irish-born hermit who settled in France and became one of the Church's most beloved patron saints of gardeners.
    A tempera panel painting of Saint Homobonus of Cremona, wearing a red hood and dark merchant's robes, holding a small white sack of alms in his hand.
    Saint Homobonus, the Merchant Canonized in Record Time
    Saint Homobonus was a Cremona tailor and merchant canonized within two years of his death, patron of businesspeople who prove trade and holiness aren't opposites.
    A 17th-century oil painting of a dense forest with a kneeling hunter in red hose praying before a great oak tree, his hounds resting nearby and a stag visible in the shadows to the right.
    Saint Hubert of Liège, Patron of Hunters
    A nobleman hunted straight through Good Friday until a stag stopped and turned to face him, a crucifix glowing between its antlers.
    An 18th-century engraving of an elderly bearded man in flowing robes standing on a rocky shoreline, his arms crossed over his chest, based on William Blake's depiction of Joseph of Arimathea.
    Saint Joseph of Arimathea and His Tomb
    Who Saint Joseph of Arimathea was in the Gospels, why he gave up his own tomb for Jesus, and how later legend linked him to Glastonbury and the Holy Grail.
    A marble statue of Saint Longinus by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, showing a bearded Roman soldier in flowing robes gazing upward with arms outstretched, one hand holding a long spear.
    Saint Longinus, the Centurion at the Cross
    Who Saint Longinus is, why later tradition names the soldier who pierced Christ's side, and how that legendary story differs from what Scripture actually records.
    A 17th-century engraving of Saint Medard shown as a bearded bishop with an eagle sheltering him from rain, spreading its wings above his head, captioned "S. Medardus Epus."
    Saint Medard and the Forty Days of Rain
    French farmers still watch the sky on June 8 — a 6th-century bishop's feast day that folk tradition insists sets the weather pattern for forty days after.
    A painting showing Jesus and Nicodemus seated on a rooftop terrace at night, deep in conversation, with the hills and rooftops of Jerusalem visible in the moonlit background.
    Saint Nicodemus, the Pharisee Who Came by Night
    Who Saint Nicodemus is in Scripture, why he visited Jesus after dark, and what later Christian tradition adds to his brief but pivotal biblical story.
    A stained glass window depicting a crowned, haloed bishop or king figure in blue and gold vestments, holding a cross-topped staff, from a Gothic chapel window at All Souls College, Oxford.
    Saint Oswald of Northumbria
    A king raised in exile reclaimed his throne with a wooden cross and a battle prayer, then spent his short reign rebuilding Christianity across northern England.
    An 18th-century devotional painting showing a kneeling friar in a black habit before a crucifix, with an angel touching his leg and a young angel attending nearby.
    Saint Peregrine Laziosi, Patron of Cancer Patients
    The story of Saint Peregrine Laziosi, the Italian friar honored as patron of cancer patients after tradition holds his leg was healed on the eve of amputation.
    An 11th-century illuminated manuscript miniature showing Saint Radegund enthroned under a canopy, veiled and holding an open book, from the Life of Saint Radegund manuscript at Poitiers.
    Saint Radegund of Poitiers
    A Frankish queen who fled her husband's court to found a monastery, then spent decades quietly brokering peace among the very kings who might have hunted her down.
    A tempera altarpiece panel showing Saint Servatius as a bishop in full vestments and mitre, seated at a writing desk with an open illuminated book.
    Saint Servatius, Bishop and Ice Saint of Old Europe
    Saint Servatius, a 4th-century bishop of Tongeren, defended church orthodoxy at two major councils and became one of Europe's folk-tradition Ice Saints.
    A tempera panel painting of Saint Walburga as a haloed Benedictine abbess in a dark habit and grey veil, reading from an open illuminated book, with a forest and abbey ruins in the background.
    Saint Walburga, the Abbess and Her Healing Oil
    Saint Walburga, an English-born Benedictine abbess who helped evangelize Germany, governed monks and nuns alike, remembered for her shrine's healing oil.
    Saul thrown from his horse and struck blind by a heavenly light on the road to Damascus, from Caravaggio's Conversion on the Way to Damascus
    The Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle
    The Damascus road story that turned Christianity's fiercest persecutor into its greatest missionary, and what the three biblical accounts actually say.