Faith

In 1531, a “Lady from Heaven” appeared to Saint Juan Diego, a poor Indian from Tepeyac, a hill northwest of Mexico City.

On December 9, Roman Catholics celebrate St. Juan Diego, the indigenous Mexican Catholic convert whose encounter with the Virgin Mary began the Church’s devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Born in Guadalupe on January 13, 1891, Miguel Pro Juarez was one of 11 children. Miguel was, from an early age, intensely spiritual and equally intense in his mischievousness, frequently exasperating his family with his humor and practical jokes.

On November 11, the Catholic Church honors St. Martin of Tours, who left his post in the Roman army to become a “soldier of Christ” as a monk and later bishop.

St. Narcissus was born towards the end of the first century, and he was nearly 80 years old when he was named as the 30th bishop of Jerusalem.

The first Marian apparition in history appeared to St. James the Apostle, the brother of St. John the Evangelist, on the bank of the River Ebro in Saragossa, Spain.

The Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are the only angels named in Sacred Scripture and all three have important roles in the history of salvation.

St. Cornelius was elected Pope in 251 during the persecutions of the Emperor Decius. His first challenge, besides the ever-present threat of the Roman authorities, was to bring an end to the schism brought on by his rival, the first anti-pope Novatian.

St. Beatrice was one 11 children born to Portuguese nobility in Cuerta, Portugal, in 1424. She was the daughter of the Count of Viana, and the sister of St. Amadeus of Portugal.

Not much is known about St. Helena, but it is probable that she was born in the middle of the third century in Asia Minor. She worked as a stable maid as a young woman, according to St. Anselm.