Jozef De Veuster was once a gregarious boy who loved life — even a skating champion near his Tremelo, Belgium, hometown. Brought up in a faithful family, he chose to follow in the footsteps of his older brother and entered religious life with the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in 1859. Better known by his religious name, Damien, this saint had the heart of a missionary and was known to pray each day to become one. In 1863, Damien volunteered for Hawaiian missions in place of his sickly priest-brother who was supposed to go. Soon, his zeal for souls earned St. Damien De Veuster the title “apostle to the lepers,” and ultimately led to his canonization by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
St. Raymond of Peñafort
St. Raymond of Penyafort, whose feast we celebrate on January 7, was a Spanish Dominican friar in the 13th century, who compiled the Decretals of Gregory IX, a collection of canon laws that remained a major part of Church law until the 20th century. Watch a short video about him online.
St. Albert the Great and polar bears, oh my!
Why was St. Albert so great? He was an amazing priest and preacher whose most famous student was St. Thomas Aquinas! Watch the video and find out how St. Albert […]
Trick or treat? Teaching about All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days
Halloween traditions often bring about much debate among Catholics. Are we glorifying evil and dead things? Isn’t it just too scary? Is it a pagan holiday? The simple answer to […]
The Family of God: All Saints and All Souls
“All you holy men and women pray for us!” We believe in the Communion of Saints. We proclaim this when we pray the Creed each Sunday at Mass. The Communion […]