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

    A 19th-century portrait of Saint Anthony Mary Claret in episcopal dress.
    Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop
    A Spanish weaver's son survived over a dozen assassination attempts as archbishop of Cuba, then became confessor to a queen who couldn't save him from exile.
    An ancient fresco medallion portrait of Pope Callistus I.
    Saint Callistus I, Pope and Martyr
    He was a slave, then a convict sentenced to the mines of Sardinia, then a pope whose mercy toward sinners outraged the strictest churchmen of Rome.
    A Baroque painting of Saint Catherine of Alexandria leaning against the breaking wheel of her martyrdom.
    Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr
    Legend says fifty of Egypt's finest philosophers set out to argue her out of her faith, and she converted them all instead, before the empire had her killed.
    A Baroque painting depicting the martyrdom of Pope Saint Clement I, cast into the sea with an anchor.
    Saint Clement I, Pope and Martyr
    An anchor around his neck, thrown into the Black Sea, gave sailors an unlikely patron and gave us one of the oldest Christian letters outside the New Testament.
    A 15th-century altarpiece panel depicting Saint Denis, bishop and martyr.
    Saint Denis, Bishop, and Companions, Martyrs
    The Roman soldiers cut off his head on a hill north of Paris, and tradition holds that he stood up, picked it up, and kept walking. Meet the patron of France.
    An 18th-century altarpiece showing Saint Jane Frances de Chantal in a black habit, kneeling in prayer beside Saint Francis de Sales.
    Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, Religious
    A widowed mother of four stepped over her own son's body on the doorstep to answer a call to religious life, then founded an order for women others turned away.
    A 17th-century engraving depicting the mission and martyrdom of Saint John de Brébeuf among the Huron people.
    Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs
    A giant of a Norman priest learned an entire language spoken by no European before him, then died for it beside the people he had spent twenty years trying to serve.
    A period engraving portrait of Saint John Eudes.
    Saint John Eudes, Priest
    A missionary who nursed plague victims twice and rebuilt a life for former prostitutes went on to found the devotions to the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart.
    A devotional painting portrait of Saint John Leonardi.
    Saint John Leonardi, Priest
    A pharmacist's apprentice from Tuscany got so far under his city's skin that its leaders exiled him twice — then he helped found the Vatican's mission office.
    A 17th-century engraving of Saint John of Capistrano leading troops at the Siege of Belgrade.
    Saint John of Capistrano, Priest
    A former judge turned Franciscan friar stood on the walls of a besieged fortress at seventy, crucifix raised, urging exhausted defenders into one last charge.
    An 18th-century oil painting of Saint John of Kanty, an elderly priest with a halo, miraculously mending a broken clay jug for a kneeling peasant woman as onlookers and angels watch.
    Saint John of Kanty
    The Polish professor famous for giving away his shoes and dinner, and a private rule of conduct so gentle it still guides how Catholics handle conflict.
    A 19th-century painting depicting the martyrdom of Saint Josaphat Kuntsevych.
    Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr
    A mob that wanted him dead for reuniting their church with Rome got its wish — then felt, by his own bishop's account, remorse strong enough to change history.
    A 19th-century painting of Saint Joseph Calasanz teaching children.
    Saint Joseph Calasanz, Priest
    A Spanish priest opened Europe's first free public school in a Roman slum, convinced that poor children deserved an education as much as anyone else's.
    A monochrome painting of Saint Joseph, an elderly carpenter, guiding a young Jesus by the hands as the child works a hand-cranked grindstone in a village workshop.
    Saint Joseph the Worker
    Why Pope Pius XII gave Saint Joseph a second feast day on May 1, 1955, and what the Church teaches about the dignity of human labor through him.
    An 18th-century portrait of Saint Juan Diego kneeling in a landscape, clutching his tilma to his chest, with a small image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and scattered birds above him.
    Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
    How a widowed Aztec convert became the visionary of Guadalupe, why his tilma still hangs above the altar, and how he became the Americas' first Indigenous saint.
    A Renaissance painting of Saint Lawrence the deacon, holding the gridiron of his martyrdom.
    Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
    Given three days to hand over the Church's treasures, a Roman deacon presented the city's poor instead, and was martyred for it on a gridiron.
    A statue of San Lorenzo (Lawrence) Ruiz inside Binondo Church in Manila, Philippines.
    Saint Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs
    A Filipino father boarded a ship to dodge a false accusation at home, sailing unknowingly into one of history's deadliest anti-Christian persecutions.
    A 19th-century painting of King Louis IX of France in royal and devotional dress.
    Saint Louis
    A medieval king who personally heard the legal grievances of his poorest subjects under an oak tree became the only French monarch the Church ever canonized.
    A statue of Saint Martin de Porres in Lancones, Peru.
    Saint Martin de Porres, Religious
    Lima's Dominican priory almost refused to admit him over his mixed race — he ended up feeding the whole city, animals included, from its kitchen scraps.
    A Baroque painting of Saint Matthew the Evangelist writing his Gospel, guided by an angel.
    Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
    A tax collector despised by his own countrymen for working with the occupying power got up from his booth and followed a stranger who said only two words to him.