Liturgically, this has been a week of martyrs. Sunday was the feast of St. Benedicta of the Cross, or Edith Stein, Monday was St. Lawrence, today is St. Pope Pontian and companions, and tomorrow the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe. These martyrs were the focus of Pope Benedict XVI’s Sunday Angelus address — you can ...read more

There is a wonderful story from the life of St. Clare of Assisi, whose feast we celebrate today. I’ll grab it from New Advent’s Catholic Encyclopedia entry on St. Clare: When, in 1234, the army of Frederick II was devastating the valley of Spoleto, the soldiers, preparatory to an assault upon Assisi, scaled the walls ...read more

Among the key patron saints of World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Blessed Mary MacKillop stands out as being the only native-born Australian. During her beatification in 1995, Pope John Paul II said that Mary MacKillop embodies the best of Australia and its people: “genuine openness to others, hospitality to strangers, generosity to the needy, ...read more

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Marie Vianney. As many of our readers know, this holy priest is the patron not only of parish priests, but of the Year for Priests that Pope Benedict XVI launched this past June 19th, on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This ...read more

Since it is World Youth Day month, I’d like to share a little something about my first World Youth Day experience, which was last year in Australia! In particular, I’d like to talk about one of the patron saints of WYD 2008 — Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint (well, technically she’s Blessed Mary MacKillop, a ...read more

On this day in history (July 7, 1946) the first American Saint was canonized in Rome. Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, known to the world as “Mother Cabrini” left an indelible imprint on the Church in the United States and around the world. As we commemorate the anniversary of her canonization I reflect on just one ...read more

As we celebrate this Canada Day, my mind turns to one of our great saints — St. Marguerite Bourgeoys. Born in France, she traveled to what is now Canada in 1653. She worked tirelessly in the new colony and is considered not only the founder of the Congregation of Notre-Dame, but also a co-foundress of ...read more

If I weren’t the Director of Marketing and Development at Salt + Light Television, I might be designing shoes. I know I dream about them a lot, and seem to have accumulated my fair share of pairs. And, I have managed to effectively pass along the shoe aficionado gene to my daughters and now granddaughters. ...read more

I was recently doing some research on saints and came across a favourite of ours here at Salt + Light: Saint Gianna Beretta Molla. Saint Gianna, whose feast day we celebrate on April 28th, was a physician (specializing in pediatrics), a wife, and a mother. Early in what would be her final pregnancy she experienced ...read more

This weekend the Church will recognize five men and women as saints as Pope Benedict XVI presides over the first of two scheduled Canonization Masses this year. Italy is strongly represented in this new group of saints: Italian diocesan priest Blessed Arcangelo Tadini. His ministry coincided with the Industrial Revolution and much of his work ...read more