During the persecutions of Christians under the emperor Diocletian, it was discovered that Sebastian had comforted some of the martyrs, was himself a Christian, and had actively converted others.
Raymond spread his cloak upon the waters, and, tying one end to his staff as a sail, made the Sign of the Cross and fearlessly stepped upon it making his way across the body of water to Barcelona
In the late sixteenth century, when open hostility typified relations between Catholics and Protestants, Peter Canisius advised charity and moderation.
Neither a gang of strong men nor a team of oxen could shift her. Her wardens could not lift her to take her to the stake for burning. The Holy Spirit, making her miraculously heavy, had filled her.
The caliph ordered John’s hand to be cut off in punishment. John prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary that his hand might be restored. He fell asleep by her image, and when he awoke, his hand had been miraculously restored.
James led a life of exemplary sanctity and set up enterprises to help the poor. He adopted a very penitential life-style and became a most effective preacher in and outside his homeland.
As with Mary’s birth, we read of Mary’s presentation in the temple only in the apocryphal literature, Protoevangelium of James, which dates from the second century.
Martin de Porres was a mulatto, the illegitimate son of a Spanish conquistador and a freed slave woman from Panama. Martin was trained as a physician, but he also possessed gifts of healing.
John Paul II was so unrestrainedly loved, not just among Catholics but also beyond the Church. This was attributable not only to his immense charisma but also to his instinctive gifts as a communicator.
