Blessed are They

Born: September 15, 1858 Died: December 1, 1916 Feast day: December 1 Charles was born in France in 1858. After a dissolute young adulthood he had a conversion experience and became a priest and missionary, making his home, finally, in Algeria around the turn of the 20th century. Like Francis of Assisi, he , ...

Born: December 1, 1863 Died: August 19, 1950 Black Elk was thoroughly and completely Catholic. After his baptism in 1904, he taught himself to read the Bible in Lakota. Because of his zeal, the Jesuits appointed him to the position of catechist, which in Black Elk’s community functioned much like a permanent deaco , ...

Born: April 7, 1506 Died: December 3, 1552 Feast day: December 3 Patron saint of: missionaries, epidemics Saint Francis Xavier veered from his original plan when on Aug. 15, 1534, he, Peter Faber, Ignatius Loyola, and four other men decided to dedicate themselves to God at a church in Montmartre, near Paris. T , ...

Born: December 14, 1947 Died: June 1, 2021 Robert J. Schreiter (or “Bob,” as he convinced me to call him after many years and some exasperation on his part) was first part of a farming family in Nebraska; then a priest of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood; later a protégé of the late, great Edward Schillebeec , ...

Born: May 11, 1899 Died: December 27, 1944 Feast day: December 27 Salkaházi started her work life as an elementary school teacher but left for political reasons. After a stint as a bookbinder, she became a journalist for the official paper of the National Christian Socialist Party of Czechoslovakia. Salkaházi , ...

Born: December 29, 1937 Died: March 30, 1990 Thea Bowman became a scholar of distinction, a wise mentor, an authority on William Faulkner, an acclaimed singer, a spellbinding international speaker, a mystic, a prophet. Her myriad gifts propelled her before eager students and pressing audiences. Her friends were le , ...