Religious Saints

For centuries, Augustine's writings have moved and fascinated readers. With the keen eye of a writer whose own intellectual analysis won him a Pulitzer Prize, Gary Wills examines this famed fourth-century bishop and seminal thinker whose grounding in classical philosophy informed his interpretation of Christian doctrine. Saint Augustine explores Augustine's thought as well as the everyday man who set pen to parchment. It challenges many misconceptions.

Saint Edith Stein was born in Poland on October 12, 1891. Her parent were Jewish. She was a brilliant student. When she turned seventeen, she entered a Girl's High School in Breslau. At the same time, in another part of Germany, another teenager - Adolph Hitler was failing an entrance exam to the Academy of Arts and already blaming it all on the Jews. Two teenagers, one a Saint and the other damned to hell for all eternity.

From childhood to his deathbed, this story follows the decisions of Francis at various stages of his remarkable life. From an audience with the Pope to an audience with a sultan, Francis was always grounded in a remarkable message.

Learn about the life of Saint Martin De Porres.

We discuss the life of Saint Padre Pio at San Giovanni Rotondo, where he spent 50 years.

Saint John Eudes, founder of the Congregation of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and founder of Eudists. Come with Bob and Penny as they follow the fascinating life of St. John Eudes.

She was born with a crippled and paralyzed right arm and a disease commonly called in those days “Scrofula”, which is a form of tuberculosis that affects the neck. In her case, it also made her neck and cheeks malformed and not at all pleasant to look at. At times, she suffered from swelling and open, puss-filled sores. No one knew for sure who her parents were. Laurent Cousin may have been her father, but that was never determined for sure.

St. Robert Bellarmine, brilliant follower of St. Ignatius of Loyola, has been credited with being one of the most outspoken critics of the heresies of Martin Luther and John Calvin. He focused the church of his time on the true teachings of the Catholic faith, which were contradicted by the Protestant Reformation. He is one of the powerful men discussed in this book whom the Lord sent to construct a suit of spiritual armor to defend his Church in this crucial time of crisis.

When a pilgrim goes to the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, he is given a pamphlet which reads: “An Encounter with Saint Francis in Assisi”. This is what we will attempt to do in this book: introduce you to and pray you experience such an encounter with the Poverello of Jesus. Your heart will burn to learn more about him. There is so much to know about Saint Francis of Assisi that it’s impossible in this short book to tell it all. In addition, Francis touches everyone in a different way, as does Jesus.

Saint Dominic Savio was born of very poor but holy peasant stock, one of ten children. His parents were from Castelnuovo D’Asti, ten miles outside Turin. When things got desperate they were forced to leave, to find work in a small village outside of Chieri called Riva. There on April 2, 1842, a boy child was born to Charles and Brigid Savio, whom they baptized Dominic. When Dominic was two years old, the family moved once again, to a village near their home town of Castelnuovo d’Asti, Murialdo.

The reason we call Saint Louis Marie de Montfort a prophet of the last days, even though he lived between the last half of the 17th century and the first part of the 18th century, is because of what we read in his prophecies. It deal with the last days.

Being of the laity and never feeling worthy to be a priest, Philip Neri desired nothing but to serve as a lay man. He had been preaching in the hospitals and on the street corners, waiting for the office workers to leave for lunch or home. He would speak to them and instruct them with the true teachings of the Church. He taught with such love and such fire that more and more came and stayed longer and longer, until they began following him, visiting the poor and the infirm. The confraternity of the Laity was formed!

This book examines the life of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. We start at the birthplace of Bernadette, the Boly Mill in Lourdes and visit the Cachot where she lived during the apparitions, and La Maison Paternelle where she lived after the apparitions. We enter the Grotto of Massabiele, where our Lady appeared to her and go to Nevers to see her beautiful, incorrupt body.

Our Saint was born in the beautiful countryside of Verdu in Catalonia, Spain in or around 1581. There's not much known about his childhood, other than he was born of a distinguished old family of Catalonia. However, his family instilled in him the love of Jesus and the love of his fellow man. Otherwise, how could he possibly have dedicated his life to helping the poorest of the poor, the lowest of the low. From an early age, it was well known that he was destined to live his life for the Church. So when he was old enough, he was enrolled in the University of Barcelona.

Although he was born in what was considered the backwaters of the Roman Empire, Saint Augustine of Hippo has long been renowned for his early religious and philosophical thought. He has been called a doctor of the Church for his unrivaled ability of patching up even the most complex of theological questions. He tackled such things as the condition of the soul and the omnipotence of God. During the course of his tenure as bishop of the North-African city of Hippo, Augustine often gained as many critics as he did followers.

Saint Matthew is an example of God’s love and mercy not just for those who are saints, but also for those who are struggling with sin and feeling disconnected from God. The many layers of Matthew’s story teach us about true love and the powerful and sustaining force God’s love offers to us.

Just who was Saint Patrick? Many know him as the figure behind the huge festival of fun and drinking that takes place every year on March 17. But look a little more closely and see that there is more to the patron saint of Ireland than meets the eye.

While St. Francis of Assisi is one of the most beloved saints in history, the relevancy of St. Francis for our times in light of the election of Pope Francis has yet to be explored. This book is written with the intention of filling that gap. While it is biographical in nature, it also freely explores themes that relate to St. Francis but are not a part of his life.

St. Therese of Lisieux (1873 - 1897) is one of the most popular saints in modern times. What makes her life so outstanding and such an inspiration to so many people? She had no sustained spiritual visions, unlike St. Bernadette of Soubirous before her or the three children of Fátima after her. She had no stigmata, was not a martyr, was not a teacher during her lifetime, and did not start a religious order.

After the conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus, the dramatic conversion of St. Augustine - as he himself tells it in his Confessions - is the most significant conversion story in Christian history. Augustine's experience speaks to his dilemma that many people have understood when counting the cost of converting to Christ. He had come to intellectual certainty about the truth of Christianity but he could not embrace it in faith.