Blog

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

    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.
    A 17th-century painting of Saint Frances of Rome, veiled in white, holding an open prayer book beside her guardian angel, depicted as a young winged figure in a laurel wreath.
    Saint Frances of Rome, Religious
    The Roman noblewoman who ran a household by day, served plague victims by night, and founded a community of women living in the world.
    A medieval illuminated manuscript miniature showing Emperor Henry II being crowned by Christ, flanked by two bishops, in gold, blue, and red pigment.
    Saint Henry: Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor
    The story of Henry II, the Holy Roman Emperor canonized in 1146, remembered for founding dioceses, reforming the Church, and a marriage lived in mutual consecration.
    Black-and-white 19th-century engraving of Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort in clerical collar, hands folded in prayer before a small crucifix
    Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort, Priest
    The wandering French missionary priest whose small, nearly lost book on Marian devotion later shaped Pope John Paul II's own spirituality and papal motto.
    Devotional fresco medallion of Saint Maria Goretti, a young girl with a golden halo, holding a martyr's palm branch and white lilies
    Saint Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr
    The story of Maria Goretti, an eleven-year-old Italian girl martyred in 1902, canonized in 1950 as one of the Church's youngest saints.
    Renaissance painting of Saint Mark the Evangelist standing in a stone archway, haloed, with his hand raised to his face
    Saint Mark the Evangelist
    The Gospel writer said to have fled naked from Gethsemane, then recorded Peter's own preaching and became patron of a city built around his relics.
    19th-century engraved portrait of Pope Saint Martin I wearing a papal mitre, with the papal keys and tiara emblem beside him
    Saint Martin I, Pope and Martyr
    The last pope venerated as a martyr, arrested by imperial troops and worked to death in Crimean exile for defying an emperor's theology.
    Black-and-white photograph portrait of Pope Paul VI in profile, wearing a white zucchetto
    Saint Paul VI, Pope
    Saint Paul VI guided the Church through the closing sessions of Vatican II and its turbulent aftermath — the pope who steered reform without losing the center.
    Gold-ground icon of Saint Peter Chanel, haloed, holding a crucifix, labeled 'St Peter Chanel'
    Saint Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr
    The first martyr of Oceania, killed by the chief who had welcomed him, on an island where his death, not his preaching, finally opened the way for the Gospel.
    Baroque painting of Saint Raymond of Penyafort kneeling on his cloak as it sails across the sea, haloed, holding a book and keys
    Saint Raymond of Penyafort, Priest
    How a Catalan canon lawyer organized centuries of scattered Church law into one usable code — and became the patron saint of lawyers along the way.