Saints and Heros

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Saints

  • Saint Agnes
    The question might have seemed silly to someone else. The choice was to have all the privileges and wealth of the society of her time, or die a cruel and most painful death.
    Feastday: January 21
  • Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
    Despite his parent’s resistance, Aloysius entered the Society of Jesus as an adolescent.
    Feastday: June 21
  • Saint Anthony Claret
    He did a little of everything. He was a weaver, an itinerant preacher, and editor.
    Feastday: October 24
  • Saint Francis of Assisi
    He was lacking nothing at home. His father was a rich merchant. He could enjoy life with his friends, go to war if he wished (it was an era of great wars) and, in the end, wait to inherit a fortune.
    Feastday: October 4
  • San Isidore the Farmer
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    Some say that while Isidore prayed, angels took care of his field. The truth is that Isidore was not a slacker and he worked honestly.
    Feastday: May 15
  • Saint John Bosco
    He had to do something. He saw so many young people in the streets, without an education and without a future, and he could not bear it.
    Feastday: January 31
  • Saint John Vianney
    No one thought much of him. He was considered slow, useless. Only a priest recognized the goodness in him and encouraged and supported him until he could become a priest.
    Feastday: July 4
  • Saint María Goretti
    She was a poor young girl; her father had died and she was the eldest of many siblings. She was only fourteen when she died.
    Feastday: July 6
  • Saint Mariana de Paredes
    She was born in Quito, Ecuador, October 31st in 1618. By the time she was 6 years old, she lost both parents and went to live with an aunt.
    Feastday: May 26
  • Saint Martin of Porres
    He was born in Lima, Peru, in 1579, the son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed black slave. He was a mestizo and as such, despised by the society of his time.
    Feastday: November 3
  • Saints Perpetua and Felicity
    Felicitas was not an opportunist. She was the servant of Perpetua, a young rich woman in Carthage. The church celebrates them together as saints, at the same level.
    Feastday: March 7
  • Saint Peter Claver
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    He was a slave of the slaves. It seemed strange to many, but St. Peter Claver left his quiet, comfortable life in Spain to serve slaves in Colombia.
    Feastday: September 9
  • Saint Rose of Lima
    She was born in Peru in 1526. When she was 20 years old, she joined the Franciscan Third Order and from then on lived in austerity, sacrifice, and surrender to God’s will.
    Feastday: August 23
  • Saint Therese of Lesieux
    St. Thérèse of Lisieux was almost a child when she died; she had never left her convent and died at age 24. And yet she is the patroness of missions and one of only three women doctors of the church.
    Feastday: October 1
  • Saint Toribius of Mogrovejo
    With a name like Turibius Mogrovejo, he couldn’t afford to be mediocre. Turibius was a bishop, and he walked and walked and walked for thousands of miles to care for his diocese, which extended all the way from Nicaragua to Argentina.
    Feastday: March 23

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Heroes

  • Bartholomé de las Casas
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    He did not rush to answer his vocation to the priesthood.
  • Dorothy Day
    She was a mother, a pacifist, a nurse, a suffragist, and a journalist. She never grew tired of denouncing the injustices she witnessed.
  • Felix Varela
    Sometimes they say you must bloom wherever you are planted. That was the case with Félix Varela, a young Cuban man who always wanted to be a priest and always wanted to be with his people.
  • Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
    Almost blind, her skin marked by chicken pox, persecuted by her tribe for becoming a Christian, Kateri died at 24 years of age, but all who met her were affected by her life.
    Feastday: July 14
  • Blessed Miguel Pro
    He did not live many years but they were marked by their intensity, pain and a bit of adventure. He was born in Mexico in 1891.
    Feastday: November 23
  • Oscar Romero
    He was born to a middle-class family of El Salvador. He was called to the priesthood early in life.
  • Blessed Victoria Diez
    She was a teacher in a rural area of Spain, and had great artistic talent. She devoted her time to teaching, praying, and taking care of her parents.
    Feastday: August 12

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Our Lady of...

  • Our Lady of Angels, patroness of Costa Rica
    Our Lady of Angels is a new example of the Christian message of inclusion and non-discrimination and defense of the most vulnerable.
    Feastday: August 2
  • Our Lady of Charity, patroness of Cuba
    In the 17th century, three young people—an indigenous one, a black one, and a European, now known as the three juanes—had gone to the Nipe Bay in Cuba in search of salt.
    Feastday: September 8
  • Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, patroness of Colombia
    Maria Ramos was a Spanish woman living in Colombia in the 16th century. Maria was very pious and she had found in a storage room a very damaged painting on which, with difficulty, you could see the image of Our Lady of the Rosary.
    Feastday: July 9
  • Our Lady of Coromoto, patroness of Venezuela
    She is venerated both in the city of Guanare, where she appeared approximately 350 years ago, and throughout the country.
    Feastday: September 8
  • Our Lady of Divine Providence, patroness of Puerto Rico
    The advocation of Our Lady of Divine Providence initiated in Italy in the 18th century. It was a popular devotion, which later spread to Spain where a shrine was built in Catalonia.
    Feastday: November 19
  • Our Lady of Mercy, patroness of Peru
    The devotion to Our Lady of Mercy in Peru dates back to the time of the foundation of Lima. The Mercy Friars came to Perú together with the colonizers and built their first church by 1535.
    Feastday: September 24
  • Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of Chile
    On July 16 we celebrate Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a feast initiated in the 14th century by the Carmelites who wanted to honor the Virgin for all the blessings bestowed upon their religious family.
    Feastday: Last Snday of September.
  • Our Lady of Quinché, patroness of Ecuador
    According to legend, some people had commissioned an artist with making an image of Our Lady, and then were unable to pay for it. The artist gave it to the Oyacachi Indians in exchange for wood.
    Feastday: November 21
  • Our Lady of the 33, patroness of Uruguay
    The small image of our Lady is carved in wood and it comes from the workshops that the Jesuits had in Paraguay around the middle of the 18th century. The image was made in one of the Guaraní workshops.
    Feastday: Second Sunday of November.
  • Our Lady of the Miracles of Caacupé
    A Guaraní Indian, a convert from a mission in Paraguay, was in grave danger. He was surrounded by Ambayae warriors, a tribe who had refused the Christian faith and was a fierce enemy of Christians.
    Feastday: December 8

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