Blessed are They

Born: April 6, 1901 Died: July 4, 1925 Feast Day: July 4 Patron of: students, young people, mountaineers and skiers, World Youth Day  Pier Giorgio was a vibrant young man who lived a life of energetic faith. He was incredibly involved with groups for students and youth, and even established a newspaper based o , ...

Born: January 4, 1271  Died: July 4, 1336 Feast Day: July 4 Patron of: widows, peace, victims of adultery/difficult marriages, the falsely accused Elizabeth was descended from a line of royalty. Her father and brothers were both kings, as was her husband; however, the families could not have been be more , ...

Born: March 5, 1912 Died: July 7, 1945 Feast day: July 7 Patron of: married couples, catechists, Rakunai, World Youth Day 2008 Peter To Rot was from the Austronesian-speaking Tolai people of Papua New Guinea. To Rot was the third son of Angelo Tu Puia, one of the tribal chiefs and the first adult to be bapti , ...

Born: January 13, 1902 Died: July 7, 1977 Feast Day: July 7 Patron saint of: N/A Blessed Maria is a trailblazer in multiple capacities: she is both a “saint of the new millennium” and the first beatified person from Central America. During a severe childhood illness leading to paralysis, she was healed through , ...

Born: March 2, 480 Died: March 21, 547 Feast day: July 11 Patron saint of: agricultural workers, civil engineers, farmers, inflammatory diseases, monks, students, and people in religious orders Benedict was born in Nursia, Italy and died at the abbey he founded in Monte Cassino (c. 480–547). All that we know o , ...

Born: September 16, 1917 Died: July 13, 1943 Feast day: July 13 In the spring of 1942, while a medical student at Munich’s Maximilian University, Alexander Schmorell co-founded an anti-Nazi group that christened itself the White Rose. The inspiration was a passage in Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazo , ...

Born: May 25, 1550 Died: July 14, 1614 Feast Day: July 14 Patron of: people who are sick, hospitals, nurses and physicians  Camillus de Lellis had what you might kindly call a checkered career. He spent the first half of his life losing the shirt off his back and the second half giving away shirts to othe , ...

Born: 1656 Died: April 17, 1680 Feast day: July 14 Patron saint of: ecology, the environment, people who have lost their parents, Indigenous people Kateri Tekakwitha blazed her own trail as the first Native American to be canonized. A woman of Algonquin and Iroquois ancestry, Kateri grew up in the midst of bru , ...

Born: November 11, 1484 Died: July 18, 1566 Feast day: July 18 If Christopher Columbus had known what he was unleashing when he brought Pedro de las Casas with him to the New World in 1493, he probably would have sailed the gentleman back to Spain and made sure that no member of his family ever set foot on a s , ...

Born: c. 327 CE Died: July 19, 379 CE Feast day: July 19 Her little brother, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, told everyone of her beauty; but in the long run it was her brains and her spirit that impressed him the most. Another brother, Saint Basil, borrowed her creative ideas on monastic life to craft his own monasti , ...

Born: Unknown Died: Unknown Feast day: July 22 Patron saint of: contemplative life, converts, hair dressers, pharmacists, and women Readers of scripture first meet Mary Magdalene during Jesus’ preaching and healing ministry in Galilee as someone healed “from whom seven demons had gone out” (Luke 8:2). Later al , ...

Born: July 28, 1844 Died: June 8, 1889 Feast day: N/A Patron saint of: N/A Though art and God seemed incompatible to him, Gerard Manley Hopkins unified the two in verse like no other poet before or since. According to critic W.H. Gardner, it is best to think of Hopkins as a poet of nature, a poet of innovation , ...

Born: March 27, 1935 Died: July 28, 1981 Feast day: July 28 Patron saint of: N/A In 1953, a martyr’s death seemed unlikely for Stanley Rother, who struggled with his studies as a seminarian before flunking out. His bishop saw something special in this unassuming farm boy, however, and arranged for him to enter , ...

Born: November 25, 1870 Died: July 31, 1957  Feast day: July 30 Patron saint of: N/A Solanus discerned the diocesan priesthood in Milwaukee. However, he was turned away because those considering his application were concerned about his academic ability and his difficulty in grasping German. He was encouraged t , ...

Born: October 23, 1491 Died: July 31, 1556 Feast day: July 31 Patron saint of: soldiers, spiritual retreats, educators and education I first encountered St. Ignatius of Loyola when I was a boy. My grandmother had volunteered with Father Pedro Arrupe (one of the great Ignatian social activists), and although sh , ...