• December 23: Saint John of Kęty

    A teacher in the service of the poor

    Born around 1390 in Kęty, in Poland near Kraków, John showed exceptional intelligence from a young age: at just twenty-seven years of age he was already teaching philosophy. In 1416 he was ordained a priest and almost immediately entrusted with the direction of the school attached to the Monastery of the Holy Sepulchre in Miechów. He remained there for about eight years, until 1429, when he returned to the University of Kraków.

  • May 30: Saint Joan of Arc

    Obedient to the voice of God

    A “strong” woman who followed the impulse of the Spirit and obeyed the voice of the Lord asking her to free her people and to restore faith for those in desolation. A laywoman, consecrated to virginity yet not cloistered, Joan of Arc was involved in the most dramatic conflicts of the Church and society of the time. Condemned as a heretic through a purely political show trial, she was sentenced to a tragic death even before her trial began - burned at the stake in the old market square of Rouen.