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

    19th-century engraved portrait of Pope Gregory VII in profile, wearing the papal tiara
    Saint Gregory VII, Pope
    The reforming pope who faced down Emperor Henry IV at Canossa, fought to free the Church from secular control, and permanently reshaped the medieval papacy.
    Period portrait of Saint Andrew Kim Taegon wearing a traditional Korean gat hat and hanbok, holding a book
    Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs
    How a fisherman's son crossed a closed border to become Korea's first native priest, and why September 20 honors him alongside 102 other Korean martyrs.
    Marble statue of Saint Anthony Mary Zaccaria in clerical vestments holding an open rule book and a sprig of flowers
    Saint Anthony Zaccaria, Priest
    The physician-turned-priest who founded the Barnabites, preached in Renaissance Milan's streets, and pushed for frequent, reverent reception of the Eucharist.
    Detail of Saint Eusebius of Vercelli in bishop's cope, gazing upward, from an 18th-century altarpiece
    Saint Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop
    How a 4th-century bishop pioneered communal life for parish clergy, defied an emperor's demand to condemn Athanasius, and paid for it with years of exile.
    17th-century painting of an angel unchaining Saint Jerome Emiliani in prison as the Virgin Mary appears above
    Saint Jerome Emiliani, Priest
    How a Venetian soldier chained in a dungeon during a losing war became the priest who built a network of orphanages and founded the Somaschi Fathers.
    Photographic portrait of Pope John XXIII smiling, wearing red papal vestments, 1959
    Saint John XXIII, Pope
    How a 76-year-old "caretaker" pope elected as a safe compromise ended up calling the council that reshaped the modern Catholic Church.
    Sepia photograph of Saint Josephine Bakhita in her Canossian religious habit, kneeling in prayer before a crucifix, circa 1910
    Saint Josephine Bakhita, Virgin
    A Sudanese girl kidnapped into slavery and renamed by her captors found freedom in an Italian convent and became the Church's patron for trafficking victims.
    17th-century painting of Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi in mystical ecstasy, crowned by an angel, with a crucifix and skull nearby
    Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, Virgin
    A Florentine noblewoman entered a Carmelite convent seeking silence and had ecstasies so vivid her sisters wrote down her words for forty nights straight.
    Christ handing the keys to a kneeling Saint Peter before a crowd of apostles, from Pietro Perugino's Delivery of the Keys fresco
    The Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle
    What the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter actually celebrates, why it isn't about a piece of furniture, and how Bernini's bronze reliquary came to be.
    The Theotokos of Vladimir, a 12th-century Byzantine icon of Mary holding the infant Jesus, his cheek pressed against hers, against a gold background.
    Mary, Mother of God
    Why the Church opens every calendar year by calling Mary "Mother of God" — a title born from a 5th-century fight over who Jesus really is.
    Raphael's Sistine Madonna, showing Mary holding the infant Jesus, standing on clouds between green curtains, flanked by Saint Sixtus and Saint Barbara.
    Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
    Why the Catholic Church calls Mary "Mother of the Church," from Christ's words at the cross to a title Pope Francis added to the universal calendar in 2018.
    Piero della Francesca's Baptism of Christ, showing Jesus standing in the Jordan River with hands joined in prayer as John the Baptist pours water over his head and the dove of the Holy Spirit descends.
    The Baptism of the Lord (Feast)
    Why the Church gives the Jordan River scene its own feast day, closing the Christmas season — and what the feast celebrates that the Gospel narrative alone does not.
    The golden IHS monogram of the Holy Name of Jesus surrounded by a sunburst and gilded cherubs above the high altar of the Church of the Gesù in Rome.
    The Most Holy Name of Jesus
    Why the Church keeps a feast for a name — what "Jesus" actually means in Hebrew, why Saint Paul called it the name above every name, and how devotion to it spread.
    The 6th-century apse mosaic of Saint Apollinaris in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, showing the bishop-saint standing in a green pastoral landscape with twelve sheep.
    Saint Apollinaris, Bishop and Martyr
    The story of Apollinaris of Ravenna, an early bishop and martyr whose relics and basilica made his city one of early Christianity's great artistic centers.
    A medieval illuminated manuscript miniature showing King Ethelbert of Kent being baptized at a font by Saint Augustine of Canterbury, who stands at right in a bishop's mitre.
    Saint Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop
    Sent by a pope to a kingdom he had never seen, Saint Augustine of Canterbury became the first Archbishop of Canterbury and founder of English Christianity.
    A stained-glass window portrait of Saint Augustine Zhao Rong, shown in traditional Chinese dress holding a Bible and a martyr's palm branch.
    Saint Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs
    The story of Augustine Zhao Rong and the 120 Chinese martyrs canonized together in 2000, spanning centuries of persecution against Christians in China.
    A gold-ground panel painting of Saint Bernardine of Siena in Franciscan grey habit, holding his signature wooden tablet bearing the radiant IHS monogram of the Holy Name of Jesus.
    Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest
    Saint Bernardine of Siena preached with a wooden tablet bearing Christ's monogram — discover the Franciscan friar who reformed Italian preaching and devotion.
    A hand-colored devotional print of Saint Camillus de Lellis kneeling in prayer before an altar, wearing his black cassock with the red cross of his order, gazing upward toward a shaft of divine light.
    Saint Camillus de Lellis, Priest
    The story of Camillus de Lellis, a former soldier and gambler who founded a religious order for the sick and became patron saint of hospitals and nurses.
    A black-and-white period portrait photograph of Father Cristobal Magallanes Jara, a Mexican priest in a clerical collar, taken before his martyrdom in 1927.
    Saint Christopher Magallanes, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs
    Saint Christopher Magallanes was executed in Mexico's religious persecution for the crime of being a priest — a shepherd of souls shot on his way to say Mass.
    A polychrome statue of Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen in a Capuchin habit, crowned with a martyr's radiant halo, gazing upward while holding a spiked club, a relic of his violent death.
    Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr
    A successful lawyer who gave up his practice for the priesthood, then walked into a Swiss valley of Calvinist militants knowing he likely would not walk out.