Saint Joanna
Saint Joanna was the wife of Chuza, steward of King Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. She was one of the women who helped provide for Jesus and the Apostles and was one of the three women who discovered the empty tomb of Jesus on the first Easter morning.
Saint Julia
Saint Julia was a noble virgin of Carthage, who was captured and sold as a slave to a pagan merchant named Eusebius. When she refused to offer sacrifice to pagan gods, the pagan ruler, in great anger, had her struck on the face and her hair torn from her head. She was next put on a cross to hang there until she died.
Saint Rita of Cascia
Saint Rita of Cascia, the patroness of the Impossible, led a life of many trials was married to an abusive husband and bore twin sons to him. After her husband was murdered, her sons also died within the year of illness. She became an Augustinian Nun. She bore a stigamta on her forhead and was confined to bed for the last four years of her life.
Saint Bernardine of Siena
Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444) was a Franciscan missionary, reformer, popular preacher, peacemaker, an is often called 'the Apostle of Italy.
Pope Saint Celestine V
Pope Saint Celestine V reigned a mere five months. The primary objective of his pontificate was to reform clergy. He abdicated on 13 December 1294, the last pope to do so until Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Saint John I
Little is known of Pope Saint John I's life before he took office as pope, except that he was born in Tuscany. After a journey to Constantinople concerning Ariansism, he was arrested by Theordric, Arian king of the Ostrogoths. Worn out by his journey and probably starved, John died in prison soon after. Pope St. John I is honored as a martyr.
Saint Paschal Baylon
Saint Paschal Baylon (24 May 1540 – 17 May 1592) was a Spanish friar (OFM). He was a mystic and contemplative, and he had frequent ecstatic visions. He would spend the night before the altar in prayer many nights. At the same time, he sought to downplay any glory that might come from this piety/ He is the patron saint of Eucharistic congresses and Eucharistic associations.
Saint Brendan
Saint Brendan, known also as St. Brendan the Voyager was an Irish missionary. According to pious legend he sailed with a company of monks in search of a land called Terra Repromissionis. Some historians believe he discovered the New World in the 6th century.
Saint Isidore the Farmer
Saint Isidore the Farmer (c. 1070 – 15 May 1130) was a Spanish day laborer known for his goodness toward the poor and animals. He is the patron of farmers, rural communities and of Madrid, Spain.
Saint Matthias the Apostle
Jesus' choice of 12 Apostles points to a consciousness of a symbolic mission—originally there were 12 tribes of Israel—that the community maintained after the Crucifixion. Acts reveals that Matthias accompanied Jesus and the Apostles from the time of the Lord's Baptism to his Ascension and that, when it became time to replace Judas, the Apostles cast lots between Matthias and another candidate, St. Joseph Barsabbas.
