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Scholastica, the twin sister of Saint Benedict of Nursia, is inextricably linked to her brother’s name. She served God in contemplation and communal life. Saint Gregory the Great’s Second Book of Dialogues, which focuses on Benedict’s life, contains only a few hagiographical accounts of her life.
The story of Apollonia is known thanks to an indirect testimony handed down by Eusebius of Caesarea, who lived between the 3rd and 4th centuries. In his work, he refers to a letter written by Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria and addressed to Fabian, Bishop of Antioch. The text describes details of what happened to Apollonia, of which the author claims to have been a direct witness.
She was a happy girl from a fairly well-off animist family that lived in Olgossa, in Sudan’s Darfur region. In 1878, when she was nine years old, she was abducted by slave traders and her life soon turned into a nightmare. The resulting trauma was so profound that she could no longer remember her name, and her captors mockingly called her “Bakhita”, which means “lucky”.
Elected at the age of 54, Pius IX holds the record for the longest pontificate in history: 32 years, even longer than the one tradition attributes to Saint Peter. He served the Church with great zeal, imitating the Good Shepherd, promoted missions and fostered the formation of the clergy and religious life. He is responsible for furthering devotion to the worship of the Eucharist, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
Saint Paul Miki and his companions are shining witnesses of a faith lived without compromise, in joy and suffering. Paul was born in 1556 near Kyoto, Japan, into a family of the Japanese aristocracy. His father, a member of the Samurai class, had become a Christian along with some Buddhist monks. Paul received baptism at a very young age and, as he grew, discovered his vocation. He therefore decided to join the Jesuits, where he pursued his studies until priestly ordination.
Young Agatha is one of the most well-known and venerated martyrs of early Christianity. She was killed during the persecution of Christians, ordered by Emperor Decius (249-251) in Catania.
Information about her can be found in Jacobus de Voragine’s The Golden Legend (1261-1268) and in the Acta Sanctorum (1643-1648), as well as in writings by Methodius I, Patriarch of Constantinople, from the ninth century, and by Symeon Metaphrastes from the 10th century.
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