Blessed are They

Born: June 7, 1931 Died: February 12, 2005 Dorothy Stang, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, was killed on February 12, 2005, by two unknown gunmen. She had spent years in Brazil resisting efforts to clear the Amazon, working on sustainable development projects with poor farmers against powerful , ...

Born: December 7, 521 CE Died: June 9, 597 CE Feast day: June 9 Patron saint of: floods, bookbinders, poets, Ireland, Scotland. In 521 Eithne, the wife of Fedelmid Mac Fergus of Donegal, bore a son named Crimthann, which means “wolf.” They hoped he would possess the wolf-like cunning desired by their clan. , ...

Born: December 15, 1579 Died: June 15, 1601 Feast day: June 15 Patron saint of: abandoned people, abuse victims, disabled people, girls from rural areas, illness, impoverishment, sick people, unkind people, physical therapists St. Germaine was born in Pibrac, France in 1579. Her mother died when she was a , ...

Born: June 18, 1942 Died: April 4, 2013 He was perhaps America’s most beloved film critic, but that is not what Roger Ebert thought he wanted to be. The way Ebert tells it, he imagined a career as a columnist, something along the lines of being a Mike Royko, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune colu , ...

Born: June 20, 1940 Died: February 4, 2018 Growing up in Manchester, England, Mahoney enjoyed acting in school plays. Decades later, he sought to scratch that creative itch by taking an acting class with David Mamet. In 1977, at age 37, Mahoney quit his medical editor job to give acting a shot, joining Stepp , ...

Born: February 7, 1478 Died: July 6, 1535 Feast Day: June 22 Patron of: attorneys, salesmen, politicians I can’t help wondering if Tricky Dick Nixon might have been saved from national disgrace if, instead of a staff of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean he had a guy named More. Thomas More.  Or if Oll , ...

Born: January 9, 1902 Died: June 26, 1975 Feast day: June 26 Patron saint of: Opus Dei, people with diabetes St. Josemaría Escrivá, an esteemed Spanish priest and religious leader of the mid-20th century, is best known for founding Opus Dei, a lay spiritual organization within the Catholic Church that beli , ...

Born: June 28, 1703 Died: March 2, 1791 John Wesley was an Anglican priest who came from England to serve as a pastor in Georgia, but after his ministerial return to England, he felt a strong calling from God to start his own ministry. He traveled widely to preach and commission preachers, start aid groups and s , ...