From her childhood, Saint Katharine Drexel—the second American-born canonized saint—engaged in charitable and philanthropic works, but her path to canonized sainthood was facilitated by meeting a Pope.
For Saint Angela Merici, the 15th-century Italian educator and founder of the Ursuline Sisters, one might say that her
One of the most prominent of the contemporary saints is Pope John Paul II, the Polish-born pontiff who served as Pope from 1978 to 2005, who traveled to more than 100 countries, and was known for his impact on Catholicism and the larger world.
Today, her orders number more than 5,000 sisters and more than 450 brothers, who manage orphanages, schools, shelters, AIDS hospices and charity centers to care for refugees, the blind, the disabled, the aged, alcoholics, the poor and the homeless in 139 countries.
Without a doubt, Saint Thomas the Apostle is one of the best known of Jesus’ 12 Apostles.
Though his appearances in the Gospels are relatively brief, John the Baptist, the precursor to Jesus, stands as a key figure in Jesus’ story.
There’s not a Christian anywhere in the world who does not know Saint Joseph, and it is generally agreed that he is one of the most important figures in Christianity.
More than a millennium before the Second Vatican Council established Mass in the vernacular, rather than Latin, as the norm, Saints Cyril and Methodius—now known as the Apostles to the Slavs and co-patrons of Europe—set about offering Mass in the Slavonic languages.
He was the third American saint to be canonized, in 1977. His feast day is January 5.
Saint Michael—whose name in Hebrew means “Who is like God?”—is generally recognized as the chief archangel of the heavenly choir of angels.
