Saint Spotlight

Blessed Jane lived in the French town of Toulouse during the 13th century. A Carmelite monastery was founded in the same town in 1240 which exposed Jane to the Carmelite lifestyle and spirituality.

On March 18, the Roman Catholic Church honors St. Cyril of Jerusalem, a fourth-century bishop and Doctor of the Church whose writings are still regarded as masterful expressions of Christian faith.

Saints Perpetua and Felicity were martyrs who died for the faith around the year 203, killed at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa.

Conrad was born into a noble family in northern Italy. He married the daughter of a nobleman, Euphrosyne.

Joseph of Leonessa, OFM Cap., was the third of eight children born at Leonessa (Italy) on January 8, 1556. At baptism, he was given the name Eufranio.

St. Marianne Cope was born in western Germany in 1838. She entered religious life in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1862.

Brother André was born Alfred Bessette to a poor Quebec family in 1845, a biography from St. Joseph’s Oratory says.

In the first ages, during the night before every feast, a vigil was kept. In the evening the faithful assembled in the place or church where the feast was to be celebrated and prepared themselves with prayers, readings from Holy Writ (now the Offices of Vespers and Matins), and sometimes also by hearing a sermon.

St. Lucy is a virgin and martyr of Syracuse in Sicily, whose feast is celebrated on December 13. According to tradition, St. Lucy was born to rich and noble parents in the year 283.

St. Jude, known as Thaddaeus, was a brother of St. James the Lesser, and a relative of Jesus. Ancient writers tell us that he preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia and Lybia. According to Eusebius, he returned to Jerusalem in the year 62 and assisted at the election of his brother, St. Simeon, as Bishop of Jerusalem.