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Documents for "Saints":
  • Adalbert, Saint 956-97, bishop of Prague, b. Bohemia. He was a missionary in Russia, Prussia, and Poland and was martyred in Danzig. He is patron of Bohemia and Poland. Feast: Apr. 23.
  • Agatha, Saint 3d cent., Sicilian virgin, martyred under Roman Emperor Decius. She is mentioned in the Martyrology of Jerome and the Calendar of Carthage in the 6th cent. Agatha is invoked against outbreaks of...
  • Agnes, Saint 4th cent., virgin martyr. A noble Roman girl martyred at the age of 13 after rejecting a well-born suitor. She was included in the Depositio Martyrum of 354. On her feast day lambs are blessed and...
  • Alban, Saint 3d or 4th cent., traditionally the first British martyr. He lived and died at Verulamium, now St. Albans. In 793 an abbey was founded there in his honor. Feast: Roman Catholic Church, June 22;...
  • Albertus Magnus, Saint or Saint Albert the Great, b. 1193 or 1206, d. 1280, scholastic philosopher, Doctor of the Church, called the Universal Doctor. A nobleman of Bollstädt in Swabia, he joined (1223) the Dominicans and taught at Hildesheim,...
  • Aldhelm, Saint 639?-709, English churchman and scholar. He was abbot of Malmesbury (from 675) and became the first bishop of Sherborne (705). A distinguished student of the classics whose own Latin prose style...
  • Aloysius, Saint 1568-91, Italian Jesuit, b. Luigi Gonzaga, heir to the marchese de Castiglione. Highly devout from childhood, he renounced his title and entered (1585) the Society of Jesus under the tutelage of...
  • Alphonsus Liguori, Saint 1696-1787, Italian churchman, Doctor of the Church. He was named Alfonso Maria de' Liguori. In 1732 he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists) for religious work...
  • Ambrose, Saint 340?-397, bishop of Milan, Doctor of the Church, b. Trier, of Christian parents. Educated at Rome, he became (c.372) governor of Liguria and Aemilia—with the capital at Milan. He was highly...
  • Anastasia, Saint 4th cent., Roman noblewoman, kind to the poor, martyred under Diocletian. Her cult can be traced back to 5th-century Rome. In the Roman Catholic Church, her feast is Dec. 25 and is commemorated in...
  • Angilbert, Saint d. 814, Frankish statesman and courtier under Charlemagne, abbot of Centula (now Saint-Riquier), near Amiens. He was highly regarded in the Carolingian revival as a writer of Latin poetry. Feast:...
  • Anne, Saint in tradition, mother of the Virgin and wife of St. Joachim. She is not mentioned in Scripture, but her cult is very old. In the West she has been especially popular since the Middle Ages. She is...
  • Anselm, Saint 1033?-1109, prelate in Normandy and England, archbishop of Canterbury, Doctor of the Church (1720), b. Aosta, Piedmont. After a carefree youth of travel and schooling in Burgundy he became a...
  • Anthony of Padua, Saint 1195-1231, Portuguese Franciscan, Doctor of the Church, b. Lisbon. He was renowned for his eloquence. According to tradition, in a vision he received the child Jesus in his arms and is usually thus...
  • Anthony, Saint 251?-c.350, Egyptian hermit, called St. Anthony of Egypt and St. Anthony the Abbot. At the age of 20 he gave away his large inheritance and became a hermit. At 35 he went into seclusion and at...
  • Antoninus, Saint 1389-1459, Italian churchman, b. Antoninus Pierozzi. He was a Dominican and became archbishop of Florence. He ruled well and was renowned for his charitable work in the city. His Summa moralis is a pioneering work in moral theology, of interest for its treatment of commercial ethics and the morality of banking. It is a valuable record of the effect the new economic changes were having on...
  • Aristides, Saint 2d cent., Greek philosopher, author of an early Christian apology. It was presented (c.126 or 136) to the emperor to protest anti-Christian slanders and persecutions. The text is embedded in...
  • Athanasius, Saint c.297-373, patriarch of Alexandria (328-73), Doctor of the Church, great champion of orthodoxy during the Arian crisis of the 4th cent. (see Arianism ). In his youth, as secretary to Bishop Alexander, he took part in the christological debate against Arius at the Council of Nicaea (see Nicaea, First Council of ), and thereafter became chief protagonist for Nicene orthodoxy in the long struggle for its acceptance in the East. He defended the homoousion formula that states that Jesus is of the same substance as the Father, against the various Arian parties who held that Jesus was not identical in substance with the Father. Made bishop of...
  • Augustine of Canterbury, Saint ô´gestēn, -tĬn; ôgŭs´tĬn , d. c.605, Italian missionary, called the Apostle of the English, first archbishop of Canterbury (from 601). A Roman monk, he was sent to England, as the head of some 40 monks, by Pope St. Gregory...
  • Barbara, Saint fl. 3d or 4th cent., virgin martyr, whose life is shrouded in contradictory legends. Her father is said to have shut her up in a tower and then to have killed her for being a Christian. He was...
  • Basil the Great, Saint c.330-379, Greek prelate, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, Doctor of the Church and one of the Four Fathers of the Greek Church. He was a brother of St. Gregory of Nyssa. In his student days at...
  • Bellarmine, Saint Robert 1542-1621, Italian theologian, cardinal, Doctor of the Church, and a principal influence in the Counter Reformation. His full name was Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino. He joined the Jesuits (1560) and taught at Louvain (1569-76) and at the Roman College (1576). In 1599 he was made cardinal and from 1601 to...
  • Benedict of Aniane, Saint c.750-821, French abbot who became a monastic adviser to Louis I. He first founded (c.780) an austere monastic community at Aniane in Languedoc, based on Eastern asceticism. In 799, he founded a large monastery based on the more moderate Benedictine Rule (see Benedict, Saint ). As the leading reformer of French monastic houses, he presided over a series of councils of abbots at Aachen (816-819) that centralized and imposed regulations on all Carolingian monasteries...
  • Benedict the Black, Saint d. 1589, Sicilian friar. Born a slave, he became a hermit and later a Franciscan lay brother. Although illiterate, his humility and extraordinary powers as spiritual director caused him to be made...
  • Benedict, Saint d. c.547, Italian monk, called Benedict of Nursia, author of a rule for monks that became the basis of the Benedictine order, b. Norcia (E of Spoleto). He went to Rome to study, then withdrew to...
  • Benno, Saint d. 1106, German prelate. He was bishop of Meissen and an ardent supporter of Pope Gregory VII against Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, and the emperor had him deposed. He was reinstated on Gregory's...
  • Bernadette, Saint 1844-79, French peasant girl who claimed to see the Virgin Mary in apparitions at a grotto near Lourdes, her home, in 1858. She was born Marie Bernarde Soubirous. The authorities, skeptical of her...
  • Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint 1090?-1153, French churchman, mystic, Doctor of the Church. Born of noble family, in 1112 he entered the Cistercian abbey of Cîteaux, taking along 4 or 5 brothers and some 25 friends. In 1115 he...
  • Bernard of Menthon, Saint d. 1081?, Italian churchman, founder of the Alpine hospices of Saint Bernard. His life was spent working among the people of the Val d'Aosta. Also known as Bernard of Montjoux, he is the patron of...
  • Bernard, Saint see Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint ; Bernard of Menthon, Saint. For the two Alpine passes, see Saint Bernard.
  • Bernardine of Siena, Saint 1380-1444, Italian preacher. He was a Franciscan of the Observant congregation and one of the most effective and most widely known preachers of his day. His popular, lively sermons still make good...
  • Bonaventure, Saint 1221-74, Italian scholastic theologian, cardinal, Doctor of the Church, called the Seraphic Doctor, b. near Viterbo, Italy. His original name was Giovanni di Fidanza. He entered (1238 or 1243) the...
  • Boniface, Saint c.675-754?, English missionary monk and martyr, called the Apostle of Germany, b. Devonshire, England. His English name was Winfrid. He was educated in the monastery of Nursling, near Winchester...
  • Boniface, Saint d. 1009, German missionary, known also by his lay name, Bruno of Querfurt. He evangelized the Balts and died a martyr. He is known as the Apostle of the Prussians. Feast: June 19.
  • Brébeuf, Jean de, Saint 1593-1649, French Roman Catholic missionary, one of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America. A Norman, he was sent (1625) to Quebec and did missionary work among the Huron. The warfare of the Huron...
  • Brendan, Saint d. 577?, Irish abbot of Clonfert, Co. Galway. A popular medieval story told how he traveled westward to wonderful islands—an Irish version of a widespread legend. His feast is May 16. A perhaps...
  • Bridget of Sweden, Saint c.1300-1373, Swedish nun, one of the great saints of Scandinavia. She was a noblewoman at court and the mother of eight children. After her husband's death she founded (1346) the Order of the Most...
  • Bridget, Saint 453?-523?, Irish holy woman. She is often called St. Brigid, St. Bride, or St. Bridget of Kildare. Little is known of her, but she did found a great monastery at Kildare. She is buried at...
  • Bruno, Saint 925-65, German churchman and statesman; brother and chief adviser of the first Holy Roman emperor, Otto I, whose chancellor he was from c.950. He was made (953) archbishop of Cologne and in the...
  • Bruno, Saint c.1030-1101, German monk, founder of the Carthusians , b. Cologne. He studied and taught at Reims. In 1084 he took six companions and founded a little monastery in the Alps, which became the mother...