Bernardine preached at great length, sometimes for as much as four hours. For nearly a quarter of a century he crisscrossed Italy on foot, calling people to repentance.
He was ordained a priest in 1841 and soon settled into his life work: the education and apostolate of boys and young men, especially of the working class.
Priscilla was one of a number of women who played a prominent role in the early church—not simply as “helpers” to the male apostles, but as evangelists and church administrators in their own right.
Solanus spent his fifty-three years as a priest in menial service as a sacristan and porter at St. Bonaventure’s monastery in Detroit and worked in the friars’ soup kitchen.
