(Feast Day ~ November 21) The Irishman, Columbanus, born in 543, was intellectually gifted, and his education in grammar, rhetoric, geometry and Holy Scripture could have prepared him for any number of important positions. But instead of other possibilities, he chose to dedicate himself to Christ in the monastic life. If he thought that by […]

(Feast Day ~ November 20) True heroes are rare. Instead, the evening news is filled with examples of ungodly living: terrorists who prey on innocent people, repressive rulers, corrupt politicians, greedy and dishonest business executives, abusive spouses and parents, violent children… Because of our modern technological ability to have these examples ever before us, we […]

Feast Day ~ November 20 As is usual for those glorified as saints by the Church, St. Cyril lived a holy life of prayer and fasting; like some of the saints, he was killed for his refusal to deny Christ. But St. Cyril also spent much of his life being a “thorn in the side” […]

(Feast Day ~ November 17) Every Christian knows how arduous the quest for holiness is, how difficult the struggle to overcome the passions and to live a Christ-like life. Converts to Christianity are also aware of the time that it takes to acquire the Christian “mind-set” – to take on the attitudes of one who […]

(Feast Day ~ November 17) In the year 203, a child, who was given the name Theodore, was born to a wealthy pagan couple in Neocaesaria. This child was destined to play an important part in the life of the Christian Church and to be numbered among the saints. Theodore was an intelligent, precocious child […]

(Feast Day ~ November 13) In reading Holy Scripture and the lives of the saints, we are reminded of how often God takes sinful, fallen men whose lives have been anything but exemplary and, through his merciful kindness, brings them to repentance and change of heart so that others may revere them and look to […]

Feast Day ~ November 12 Many of the saints of the Church have been martyrs for the faith. They have sacrificed their lives rather than deny Christ or compromise the teachings of the Church which have been revealed by God. Most of these saints became martyrs during Christianity’s early years when the prevailing culture was […]

(Feast Day ~ November 11) About the same year that St. Helena discovered the True Cross (c. 316), a son was born to a Roman army officer and his wife in Pannonia (modern Hungary). The parents were pagans, but the child, Martin, was attracted to the Christian religion he learned about when his family moved […]

(Feast Day ~ November 9) The lives of the saints are not tales of happy days, good deeds, reverence by all, and peaceful death. More often, the lives of the saints have been filled with conflict and difficulties of all sorts in which the saint has had to rise above adversities. But these stories are […]

(Feast Day ~ November 9) When St. Patrick, the “Apostle to the Irish”, returned to that land where he had been held as a slave and had accepted God’s challenge to convert its people to the Christian faith, he knew that he needed converts with particular skills who could help in this work. He was […]