St. John Bosco was born near Turin, Italy. Like many Saints, he was a poor farm lad, who was brought up by his holy mother in the love of God and Our Lady. John's father died when he was young and his mother had to work very hard to feed her family. John, too, worked as hard as he could to help his mother. He was an intelligent lad, who knew how to keep his playmates from offending God. He would do tricks to win their attention and then he would talk to them about spiritual things.

In order to become a priest, John had to work his way through school. He did all kinds of work. He was a carpenter, a shoemaker, a cook, a pastrymaker, a farmer, and many other things. At the same time he was a fine student and was always happy and cheerful.

After he became a priest, Don Bosco, which means Father Bosco, began his great mission of
helping orphan boys. He gathered together hundreds of these boys who had no home. He taught them all kinds of work, so that they would not steal and get into trouble. At first, people were angry with Don Bosco, because they did not think those boys would turn out to be good. But he proved that they would.

"Do you want to be Don Bosco's friend?" he would ask each new boy who came to him. "You do? Then, you must help me save your soul."

Every night, he wanted his boys to say three Hail Marys, so that the Blessed Mother would help them avoid sin. He also recommended that they go to Confession and Communion as often as possible. One of Don Bosco's boys became a saint, St. Dominic Savio.

Later on, Don Bosco founded two Religious Orders to take care of poor children and he also
built many homes and schools for them.

Let us help our parents at home as much as we can. The more things we learn to do, the better we can serve God.

A coloring picture can be found below.

While in school, this young Frenchman received the highest honors. His greatest joy was to be with God in prayer, and when he was given time to play, he would read the lives of the Saints and reflect on their love for God.

St. Francis gave up the chance to be a great man in the eyes of the world, for he wanted to be a priest. He wanted to become great in the eyes of God.

At that time there were many people who had lost the true faith. Francis set out to convert them. He went on foot with a Bible, a breviary and one companion, his cousin, Father Louis de Sales. Every place they went, they met people who wanted to kill them. They were insulted and made to suffer. Yet, they did not turn back. And, after four years of hard work, the Saint had converted 72,000 souls! He gave all the credit to God, Who had given him the power to preach and convert.

St. Francis once had a very hot temper, but after praying and trying to correct this fault, he finally became a model of gentle meekness. He became Bishop of Geneva and founded the
Order of the Visitation. He also wrote wonderful books that teach everyone how to grow holy. As Bishop, he lived in a very simple house and practiced mortification. He sacrificed himself to help everyone. Once, a group of men came to ask his help. They lived in a town high in the mountains. Part of a mountain had fallen and blocked off the road leading to their town. They needed someone to go to see what had happened and then tell the King.

"I'll go at once," said the Saint. The men were so surprised! A bishop would come to climb over those rocks just to help them! Yes, St. Francis de Sales would do anything to help people. After a life spent in good works, this kindly Saint died. Pope Pius IV gave him the title of Doctor of the Church.

To keep peace with everyone, we will watch our words. Those who do not sin with the tongue, says the Apostle St. James, are saints.

A coloring picture can be found below.

St. Peter Nolasco was born in France. Even while he was just a boy, he found great joy in helping the poor. He loved the Blessed Virgin with all his heart and made up his mind to spend his life serving his neighbor. St. Peter felt especially sorry for all the Christians who had been dragged off as slaves by the Moslems. He prayed hard for them, and the Blessed Mother appeared to tell him to start a Religious Order to help them. She said it would please her and Jesus very much, and she would protect the new religious. When St. Peter told his Confessor, St. Raymond of Pennafort, he found that Our Lady had appeared to him, too. Together they went to tell the King, but they were surprised to learn that he, too, had seen the Blessed Mother! So, all three dedicated themselves to the new work of mercy. They promised to do all they could to free the slaves, even if they had to sacrifice their own lives.

Right from the beginning, a great number of slaves were freed, not only in Spain, but also in Africa. St. Peter was not afraid to risk his life many times to come to the rescue of the poor prisoners.

The person who sins becomes a slave of the devil. When temptations come, let us ask our Blessed Mother to help us, so that we may win over the devil and remain faithful to our Divine King.

A coloring picture can be found below.

St. John Chrysostom was born at Antioch. His father died when he was a baby and his good young mother did not want to marry again. She gave all her attention to bringing up her son and daughter in the holy love of God. She made many sacrifices so that John could have the best teachers. He was very intelligent and could have become a great man in the world. When he gave speeches everyone loved to listen to him. In fact, his name, Chrysostom, means "Golden-mouthed." Yet, John wanted to give himself to God. He became a priest and later was made Bishop of the great city of Constantinople.

St. John was a wonderful bishop. Although he was always sickly, he accomplished a tremendous amount of good. He preached once or twice every day, fed the poor, took care of orphans, corrected bad customs, and stopped bad plays from being given. He loved everyone, but he was not afraid to tell even the Empress when she did wrong.

Because he fought sin, St. John had enemies— the Empress was one. She had him sent away from Constantinople and on the trip he suffered greatly from fever, from lack of food and sleep. Yet, he was happy to suffer for Jesus and just before he died, he cried out, "Glory be to God!" A terrible hailstorm fell on Constantinople at his death and four days later, the bad Empress died. Her son honored St. John's body and showed how sorry he was for what his parents had done.

God sees us all the time. If we do everything well and for Him, then we do not have to he afraid of what others say or do against us.

St. Polycarp was a beloved disciple of St. John the Evangelist. Like St. John he was good and kind to everyone, but he avoided the company of bad men. Once when someone was preaching some- thing different from what Our Lord said, Polycarp plugged his ears! All that he learned from St. John, he taught to others.

When Christians were being put to death, St. Polycarp, too, was captured. He gave a meal to the men who came to capture him and then asked them to let him pray awhile. The judge tried to make him save himself from death by cursing Jesus. " I have served Jesus eighty-six years," answered the Saint, "and He has never done me any wrong. How can I curse my King who died for me?"

The soldiers tied St. Polycarp's hands behind his back and placed him on a burning pile. But the fire did not harm him! One of the soldiers then stabbed a, lance into his heart. And so the holy martyr went to be forever with the Divine Master he had served so well.

Let us at once break off a friendship with anyone who gives bad example, and let us keep only good friends. Their example will help us to he the kind of boys and girls Jesus wants.

Paul was first called Saul. As a young man, he was a very bright student of the Hebrew religion. When he grew older, he persecuted the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem because he did not know Jesus was God. It was he who held the robes of the men who stoned to death the first martyr, St. Stephen.

But one day when he was on his way to hunt down more Christians in the city of Damascus, a great light suddenly shone all around him. As he fell from his horse, he heard a voice say,

"Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" And Saul asked,
"Who art thou, Lord?" Our Lord answered,

"I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goad." Afraid and trembling, Saul said,

"Lord, what will you have me do?"

At that moment, Saul became a great lover of Jesus. After his baptism, he thought only of making everyone know and love the Lord Jesus, our Savior.

We know Saul by his Roman name of Paul. He is the great Apostle who travelled all over the world, preaching about Jesus and converting millions of people in one city after another.
He worked and suffered, and his enemies tried to take his life many times. Yet nothing could stop him from bringing souls to Christ. When he was old and tired, he was once again put in prison and sentenced to die. Still St. Paul was happy to suffer for Christ.

This great Apostle wrote fourteen marvellous letters to the Christians. They are in the Holy Bible. These letters, called Epistles, are read almost every morning at Holy Mass.

God asks us, too, to love Jesus very much. Do we often tell Our Lord that we love Him?

A coloring picture can be found below.

St. Timothy was born in Asia Minor. His father was a pagan and his mother a Hebrew. When St. Paul went to preach in his city, the lad Timothy, his mother and his grandmother all became Christians.

Several years later, St. Paul came back and found Timothy now a young man, whom people said would do great things. St. Paul saw that he would make a good missionary and the young man was eager to go with him. So it was that Timothy left his home and his parents to follow St. Paul, to share in his sufferings and to bring the word of God to many people. St. Timothy was the great Apostle's beloved disciple. He was his dear son in Christ, faithful always.

St. Paul once said that he had no one else like him. He went everywhere with St. Paul, until the Apostle made him Bishop of the great city of Ephesus. It was very hard for St. Timothy to be far away from Paul, but he made the sacrifice for the love of God. Before he was martyred, St. Paul wrote Timothy a beautiful letter from his prison cell in Rome. He encouraged him to become a saint, to read the Bible and to try to please God. He wanted him to pay no attention to busybodies, and to give good example to everyone.

As St. Paul, Timothy, too, died a martyr. He was beaten and stoned to death because he opposed the worship of false gods.

Let us not be busybodies or "chatterboxes". Like St. Timothy, let us read holy books in order to be able to know and love God more.

A coloring picture can be found below.

Born in Spain, St. Raymond was a relative of the King of Aragon. From childhood he had a tender love and devotion to the Blessed Mother. Raymond finished his studies at an early age, and became a famous teacher. Then he gave up all his honors and entered the order of the Dominicans. St. Raymond was very humble and very close to God. He did much penance and was so good and kind that he won many sinners to God.

With King James of Aragon and St. Peter Nolasco he founded the order of Our Lady of Ransom. The brave religious of this Order devoted themselves to saving poor Christians captured by the Moors.

Once he went with King James to the Island of Majorca to preach about Jesus. King James was a man of great qualities, but he let himself be ruled by passions. There on the Island, too, he was giving bad example. The Saint commanded him to send the woman away. The King said he would, but he did not keep his promise. So St. Raymond decided to leave the island. The King declared he would punish any ship captain who brought the saint back to Barcelona. Putting all his trust in God, St. Raymond spread his cloak upon the water, tied up one corner of it to a stick for a sail, made the Sign of the Cross, stepped onto the cloak, and sailed along for six hours until he reached Barcelona. This miracle moved the King. He was sorry for what he had done, and he became a true follower of St. Raymond.

When we have done wrong, we must be sorry at once, and make up our minds not to sin again.

A coloring picture can be found below.

St. Vincent was a Spanish deacon. Because he preached about God, he was put into prison and tortured without mercy.

First, he was tied to a red-hot iron and scourged with iron hooks. Then salt was rubbed into his open wounds. But while all this was going on, St. Vincent kept his eyes raised to Heaven in constant prayer. The courageous saint was next cast into prison without food or visitors.

Later the Christians were permitted to come to visit Vincent in jail and they took care of him. They kissed his wounds and took home clothes dipped in his blood as relics.

When St. Vincent died, the emperor ordered his body to be left for animals to destroy, but God protected it. Then the ruler had it tied to a heavy stone and thrown into the sea. But again God worked a miracle to honor St. Vincent. His body floated on top of the water and when the waves brought it ashore, the Christians buried it and built a large church over it.

Let us, too, learn to offer up our little sufferings bravely for the love of Jesus.

St. Agnes was a Roman girl who was only thirteen years old when she suffered martyrdom for her Faith. Agnes had made a promise to God never to stain her purity. Her love for the Lord was very great and she hated sin even more than death! Since she was very beautiful, many young men wished to marry Agnes, but she would always say,

"Jesus Christ is my only spouse."

Procop, the Governor's son, became very angry when she refused him. He had tried to win her for his wife with rich gifts and promises, but the beautiful young girl kept saying, " I am already promised to the Lord of the Universe. He is more splendid than the sun and the stars, and He has said He will never leave me!" In great anger, Procop accused her of being a Christian and brought her to his father, the Governor. The Governor promised Agnes wonderful gifts if she would only deny God, but Agnes refused. He tried to change her mind by putting her in chains, but her lovely face shown with joy. Next he sent her to a place of sin, but an Angel protected her. At last, she was condemned to death. Even the pagans cried to see such a young and beautiful girl going to death. Yet, Agnes was as happy as a bride on her wedding day. She did not pay attention to those who begged her to save herself. " I would offend my Spouse," she said, "if I were to try to please you. He chose me first and He shall have me!" Then she prayed and bowed her head for the death-stroke of the sword.

If we are careful about what we look at, it will be easier to keep our heart pure for love of God.

A coloring picture can be found below.

A printable story-coloring book of Saint Agnes can be found on our download page.