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Verdiana was born in Castelfiorentino (province of Valdelsa in Tuscany), a commune recently named by the Bishop of Florence. Historical sources place her birth in 1178 and popular tradition describes her as a young servant in the household of the Attavanti family.
“Do not ever forget these three things, devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, devotion to Mary Help of Christians and devotion to the Holy Father”, Don John Bosco said to his companions, shortly before he died.
Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco was born on 16 August 1815 in Becchi, Castelnuovo d'Asti, to a poor and humble rural family. His parents' names were Francesco Bosco and Margherita Occhiena. He had two brothers, Giuseppe and Antonio.
Saint Martina, venerated as a virgin and martyr, lived in Rome in the 3rd century. She belonged to a Patrician family. According to tradition, she was persecuted for her Christian faith during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus.
Sulpicius Severus was born in Aquitaine around the year 350 into a family of high rank. Like many young men of his time, he initially pursued a career in law, considered the quickest path to prestige and honors.
“Because we cannot know what God is, but rather what he is not, we have no means for considering how God is, but rather how he is not”, Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote. Thomas was born in 1225 in Roccasecca, in the province of Frosinone, to one of the most prominent families in Italy. Because he was the youngest child, he was destined for an ecclesiastical career. At the age of five, he entered Montecassino as a “puer oblatus”, and at fifteen, he studied Aristotelian philosophy, grammar, natural sciences, Arabic science and Greek philosophy at the University of Naples.
In a courageous and innovative way for the 16th century, Saint Angela Merici developed a new form of consecrated life for women: no longer in the cloister, but out in the world. She founded the Company of St. Ursula for these women. Angela was closely attentive to the signs of the time, and based her model on the example of the early Church, lived by the Apostles and the early Christian communities, thus paving the way for modern devotion.
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