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On May 22, the Church celebrates the feast day of St. Rita of Cascia, who the late John Paul II called “a disciple of the Crucified One” and an “expert in suffering.”
“Long live Christ the King and the Virgin of Guadalupe!”
The Catholic Church honors St. Bernardine of Siena on May 20. A Franciscan friar and preacher, St. Bernardine is known as “the Apostle of Italy” for his efforts to revive the country's Catholic faith during the 15th century.
Celestine is a saint who will always be remembered for the unique manner in which he was elected Pope, for his spectacular incompetence in that office, and for the distinction of being the first pontiff ever to have resigned.
On May 18, the Catholic Church honors the first “Pope John” in its history. Saint John I was a martyr for the faith, imprisoned and starved to death by a heretical Germanic king during the sixth century.
Pascal was born at Torre-Hermosa, in the Kingdom of Aragon, on May 24, 1540. He was born on the Feast of Pentecost, which in Spain is called "the Pasch of the Holy Ghost", which is why he received the name Pascal. He died at Villa Reale, May 15, 1592, on Whitsunday.
On May 16, the Catholic Church remembers Saint Simon Stock, a twelfth- and thirteenth-century Carmelite monk whose vision of the Virgin Mary is the source of the Brown Scapular devotion.
Isidore was born in 1070 in Madrid, Spain. His family was poor, and he labored as a farmer on the land owned by a rich man named John de Vergas.
Matthias, whose name means “gift of God”, was the disciple chosen to replace Judas as one of the twelve Apostles. The Acts of the Apostles state that he was also one of the 72 disciples that the Lord Jesus sent out to preach the good news.
May 13 is the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to three shepherd children in the small village of Fatima in Portugal in 1917. She appeared six times to Lucia, 9, and her cousins Francisco, 8, and his sister Jacinta, 6, between May 13, 1917 and October 13, 1917.
On May 12 the Catholic Church honors Saint Epiphanius of Salamis, an early monk, bishop and Church Father known for his extensive learning and defense of Catholic teachings in the fourth century.
St. Ignatius of Laconi was a Capuchin Friar. He was born in 1701 and died in 1781. He was canonized 1951 by Pius XII.
St. Pachomius can justifiabley be called the founder of cenobitic monasticism, monks who live in community. Even though St. Antony the Great was the first to go into the desert to live a life of seclusion pursuing evangelical perfection, he lived a heremitic life, that is, a primarily solitary life.
St. Bernadette Soubirous is the renowned visionary of Lourdes. She was born into a poor family in Lourdes, France, in 1844 and was baptized with the name Mary Bernard.
Known as "the Holy Washerwoman", St. Hunna was a 7th century noblewoman who cared for and bathed the poor of Strasbourg, France.
Catholics celebrate the memory of Pope St. Martin I on April 13. The saint suffered exile and humiliation for his defense of orthodoxy in a dispute over the relationship between Christ's human and divine natures.
On April 11, the Catholic Church honors the memory of the 11th-century bishop and martyr St. Stanislaus of Krakow, who died for the faith at the hands of King Boleslaus II.
St. Fulbert was a scholar and philosopher, and was also the bishop of Chartres, France. He spent much of his time as bishop rigorously defending monasticism and orthodoxy.
St. Waudu, also known as St. Waltrude, came from an extremely saintly family in Belgium. Her parents, her husband and her three children were declared saints.
St. Julie Billiart, co-foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, came to her religious vocation late in life, at the age of 51. She was born in 1751, the fifth of seven children. As a child, she developed a great love for Jesus in the Eucharist. At 16, she began to teach to help support her family.