Venerable Matt Talbot
Venerable Matt Talbot can be considered the patron of men and women struggling with alcoholism. Matt was born in Dublin, where his father worked on the docks and had a difficult time supporting his family. After a few years of schooling, Matt obtained work as a messenger for some liquor merchants; there he began to drink excessively. For 15 years—until he was almost 30—Matt was an active alcoholic.
Saint Emily de Vialar
Saint Emily de Vialar, Virgin, Foundress of the Sisters of St. Joseph "of the Apparition". Because of the anti-Church sentiment of the years following the French Revolution, Emily was baptized in secret, and was taught religion at home by her mother.
Saint John Francis Regis
Saint John Francis Regis was a French priest of the Society of Jesus. Making himself available to the poor, he spent the afternoon at prisons and hospitals.
Saint Germaine Cousin
Born in 1579 of humble parents at Pibrac, a village about ten miles from Toulouse; died in her native place in 1601. From her birth she seemed marked out for suffering; she came into the world with a deformed hand and the disease of scrofula, and, while yet an infant, lost her mother. Her father soon married again, but his second wife treated Germaine with much cruelty.
Saint Joseph the Hymnographer
Saint Joseph the Hymnographer was the most prolific of the Greek hymn writers. St. Joseph is credited with the composition of about one thousand canons. A native of Sicily, he was forced to leave his island in 830 in the wake of an invasion by the Arabs, journeying to Thessalonica and then to Constantinople. He abandoned the Byzantine capital in 841 to escape the severe Iconoclast per secution, but on his way to Rome he was captured by pirates and held for several years in Crete as a slave.
Saint Anthony of Padua
Saint Anthony of Padua, Doctor of the Church, patron saint of lost and stolen articles, was a powerful Franciscan preacher and teacher.
Solemnity of The Most Holy Trinity
Trinity Sunday, or formally The Solemnity of The Most Holy Trinity, is celebrated a week after Pentecost Sunday in honor of the most fundamental of Christian beliefs—belief in the Holy Trinity.
Saint Barnabas
Saint Barnabas was one of the Seventy Apostles and the companion of the Apostle Paul on some of his missionary voyages.
Saint Olivia
Saint Olivia was described as a ravishing beauty when captured by Saracens at 13. When she died, her soul was seen to fly to heaven in the form of a dove.
Saint Ephrem
Saint Ephrem the Syrian, a deacon and doctor of the Church, is best known for his prolific hymn-writing and defense of orthodox trinitarianism against the Arians. His many hymns have earned him the title “Harp of the Holy Spirit.”
