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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.

As her illness had taken a toll on her strength, Saint Gemma Galgani was not able to return to school. She remained at home and taught her sisters and brothers. At her beatification, one of her brothers said, "Gemma always brought the olive branch." She lovingly cared for the needs, both spiritual and physical, of her family, often at the neglect of herself. She had no use for fancy clothes, and adorned herself in simple, extremely austere black dresses.

This story is about another who suffered, only as a Dry Martyr for her Lord, a willing victim of sacrifice for her Church. Just as Blessed Anna Maria Taigi was being born in Italy, another child was coming into the world, Napoleon Bonaparte. When Anna Maria opened her eyes and let out her first cry, it was to a world groaning in pain, a world inundated by sin and perversion, very like our own. The throne of France was heading madly toward its own destruction and demise, taking Christianity down with it.

Saint Anthony of Padua was proclaimed a doctor of the church. There are 33 doctors of the church. In the 2,000 years since the church was instituted, out of its millions of holy people, and thousands of canonized Saints, only 33 have been given the honor of this title. We have written about 15 of them thus far. Saint Anthony of Padua, the saint we pray to for lost objects, is one of these honored people. But until the Lord decided to put St. Anthony into active ministry, he was a dish washer and confessor to Franciscan hermits.

It is said of St. Francis of Assisi that he didn't trust books and never wanted his friars to get distracted and influenced by the words of authors, whose works he also didn't trust. He trusted the Bible, but not certain people's interpretations of it. He was finally willing to bend in his staunch stand against book learning on the advice of St. Anthony of Padua, who was not only brilliant, but whom St. Francis trusted.

The Shrine of Saint Michael the Archangel in the Gargano was the first monument of the archangel that we ever visited. We pray that Michael and his shrine touch you in the same way they have touched us, as we have been called back, again and again. Come with us now, and experience the kingdom, the glory, and the power of God as shown to us through his angels, especially the prince of the angels, our Michael.

Saint Margaret of Cortona began her life on earth in the 13th century. Let us go back to that time, to a little farmhouse in Laviano, in the province of Tuscany. There was a flurry in the quiet kitchen. Dusk had no sooner settled into night, when dawn was desperately trying to break through. Water was boiling; the midwife was there to assist the bringing into the world of a new life. It was a girl! The pain of childbirth soon disappeared, as the mother held her new baby in her arms.

When Saint Leopold Mandic had dreamed of the priesthood, his eyes traveled over the Adriatic Sea to far-off lands to bring the Gospel of Hope to brothers and sisters starving and thirsting for this Lord who died for them. He was not to even travel from village to village, like Father Francis and Saint Anthony (Saint of Padua), proclaiming the good news.

The life of Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica, who brought about his conversion.

Come with us to the little hamlet of Ars in France, where we trace the life of the this super saint, known as a saint of the eucharist, and perfect confessor. Discover his church in Ars, and venerate his incorrupt body; discover his confessional, the rectory he lived in, his bed the devil set afire, the shrine to his incorrupt heart, and the altar where our lady appeared to him and where he was healed through the intercession of St. Philomena.

Born of a very devout mother and father who, in times when families were feuding amongst themselves, were called by some, "Jesus Christ’s peacemakers," it would appear from the very moment of her birth, God had special designs on Rita. There is a tradition in Roccaporena that as an infant, while she slept in a basket, in the fields where her parents were working, white bees swarmed around Rita’s open mouth. Not only did the bees not sting her, but it is said that they dropped honey into her mouth without her uttering a cry of warning to her parents.

Paray le Monial is a beautiful, quiet town nestled in the center of France. But the power that emanates from this town is pure Holy Spirit. You can still feel the presence of our Lord Jesus. For, it is here that our Lord appeared to a nun over a period of 17 years. He brought his faithful message of love to an unfaithful people who had grown cold. Here, he, once again, spoke of that tremendous love of his to become man and suffer death - even death on the cross.

Blessed Angela of Foligno is a great mystic of the Middle Ages. We travel to Foligno, Italy, near Assisi, for the life of this great Franciscan mystic and contemplative.

Saint Paul was born in Tarsus, a port city in the southeastern part of Turkey. He was from a Jewish family who traced their roots back to the tribe of Benjamin. This Jewish community had been sent to Tarsus during the Diaspora. Pompey had made Tarsus the capital of the province of Cilicia. Mark Anthony gave the people of Tarsus freedom, immunity, and the right to become Roman citizens, which accounts for Paul's reference to, and pride in, his Roman citizenship. He invoked his rights as a Roman citizen many times during his ministry to get out of some serious scrapes with the Jews.

The convent in which Dina spent her nine years as a religious nun burned to the ground in 1983. Therefore, there was no room where she had lived, no infirmary where she died, and nothing physical that you could touch in the new convent and school which was built after her death. But she was there, in every room we visited, every corner we turned, in the chapel where she is buried, and most importantly, in the eyes and spirit of every sister in the community. They all reflected the spirit of their sister in Christ, the precious little Saint of Québec.

Apostle of the devotion to the precious blood was born in Rome on January 6, 1786. As a devoted priest, Saint Gaspar del Bufalo revived the works of the apostolate in Rome and later became a dedicated missionary. In his missionary travels of Italy, he invited the faithful to reflect upon and to adore the precious blood of Christ.

Possibly the only thing the nobility and merchants in Assisi agreed on was the anger that rose up in them when they heard the name of Francis di Bernardone. To their way of thinking, he had disgraced his family and stolen from his father to give to beggars and lepers. He must surely be crazy. To add to their indignation, many of the sons of the nobility of Assisi kept flocking to Francis, joining him in his insanity.

The name of Saint Maria Goretti has a special place for me. I would judge that most everyone in my generation has grown up having heard the story of the little crimson and white rose of Jesus, Saint Maria Goretti. Her story inspires such emotions in us, such a desire to bring ourselves to Jesus and his mother Mary as pure buds, ready to flower into whatever vocation they desire for us, whether it be religious, lay people, or as in the case of little Maria, saints who gave their lives as martyrs.

Bob and Penny Lord track the life of Saint Joseph of Cupertino, the Flying Saint, and Patron of Students. They travel to Osimo, Italy, where the saint spent his last seven years, where he is buried, and where his shrine is located. They visited Assisi, where he spent much of his apostolate; Rome, where he had a special Audience with the Pope; and Loreto, where he flew to venerate Our Lady in the Holy House of Nazareth. See his chapel, his vestments, and learn about the wisdom and spirituality of Saint Joseph