This glorious saint is the Patroness of Italy, her country. She was the youngest child in a family of twenty-five children. Her mother and father wanted her to wear pretty clothes and choose a husband, but Catherine wanted only to become a nun. When she cut off her long, beautiful hair, to make herself unattractive, her family was so angry that they scolded her all day long and made her work like a slave in her own home. At last, however, they let her become a sister.

St. Catherine suffered terrible temptations after, but she always fought them bravely. Once she said to Jesus, "Where were you, Lord, when I had such shameful temptations?" And Jesus answered, "Daughter, I was in your heart and I made you win with my grace."

Jesus often appeared to St. Catherine and talked with her lovingly. One night, when all the
people were out on the streets celebrating, He appeared to her praying alone in her room. With Him was His Blessed Mother. She took Catherine's hand and lifted it up to her Son. Jesus put a ring on the Saint's finger and so she became His bride.

In St. Catherine's time, the Church had many troubles, and there were fights going on all over Italy. The Saint wrote letters to Kings and Queens and went herself to beg rulers to make their peace with the Pope and to avoid wars.

Catherine never forgot that Jesus was in her heart—no matter how busy she was. And through her, Jesus converted the sick people she lovingly nursed and the prisoners she visited in jail. The Pope himself accepted Catherine's advice to go back to Rome from France because it was God's will that he govern the Church from Rome. The Pope listened to St. Catherine and went back, because he knew how close she was to God.

Let us offer our whole heart to God so that like St. Catherine, we will discover how wonderful it is to love the Lord.

As a young boy, this Italian Saint learned of the Catholic Faith, although his parents were not Catholic. So well did he know his religion that no argument could make him change his mind. And so good a Catholic was he that no bad example led him into sin.

He was still young when he entered the Dominican Order. St. Dominic himself gave him the holy habit. Later, as a priest, Peter traveled up and down Italy preaching and converting many people. However, before God gave him the grace of martyrdom, He permitted him to suffer very much.

In fact, he was falsely accused of having received women into his cell. His Superiors scolded him very strongly for this, but the humble Saint did not defend himself. He was forbidden to preach any more, and he accepted this penance without a word of complaint. Yet deep in his heart, he suffered greatly.

One night when he could not sleep, he fell to his knees in front of the crucifix and sobbed, "Jesus, You know I am pure and innocent. Why do You let me suffer like this?" Back came this answer from the crucifix: "And I , Peter, what did I do to deserve My passion and death?" That gave the Saint courage, and soon afterwards, his innocence was proved.

The enemies of the true Faith, too, made St. Peter suffer. They did all they could to stop him from preaching. Yet he continued without fear. At last he was attacked and murdered. Just before he died, he dipped his finger in his own blood and wrote on the ground: "I believe in God." His murderer, a man named Carino, soon repented of his crime. He became a Catholic, joined the Dominican Order, and died a holy death.

When we recite the Apostles' Creed, let us say it with all our heart, and be grateful to God for giving us the same Faith the Saints had.

From the time he was seven, this French boy took care of his father s sheep. Though poor, he was intelligent and loved his Faith, too. One day, a good parish priest met him and thought so much of Peter that he asked his parents if he could educate him.

In this priest's little school and later in the seminary, Peter won the admiration of everyone. While he was a parish priest, he was so kind to the sick of his parish that many people decided to change their bad lives and return to God.

Because he had a great desire to be a missionary, St. Peter became a Marist. He hoped he would be sent to the pagans far away, and after a few years, his wish came true. He and a group of his brother missionaries were sent to the islands of the South Pacific. Father Peter and one brother were assigned to the island of Futuna. There the people willingly listened to Father Peter preach. "This man loves us," one of the tribesmen said. "And he does what he teaches."

However, the chief of this tribe became jealous of St. Peter s success. When his own son was baptized, he was furious and sent a band of his men to kill the missionary. All Father Peter said as he lay dying was, "It is well with me." Within a short time after his martyrdom, the whole island became Christian.

Jealousy leads people to do many evil things. If we see others doing good, let us thank God for it and try to imitate their good example.

Peter was a, Dutchman whose father wanted him to be a lawyer. To please him, young Peter began to study law after he had finished all his other studies.

Soon enough, however, he realized that he would never be happy in that life. About that time, people all over were talking about the wonderful preaching of Blessed Peter Faber, who was one of the first members of the Jesuit Order. When Peter Canisius listened to him, he knew he, too, would be happy serving God as a Jesuit. So he entered, and after more years of study and prayer, he was ordained a priest.

The great St. Ignatius soon realized what an obedient and zealous apostle St. Peter Canisius was. He sent him to Germany where Peter labored for forty years.

It would be hard to name all St. Peter Canisius'
great works, prayers and sacrifices to save many cities of Germany from heresy and to bring back to the Catholic Church those who had accepted false teachings. It is said that he traveled about twenty thousand miles in thirty years, sometimes on foot and sometimes on horseback.

In spite of all this, St. Peter Canisius still found time to write many books on the Faith. He realized how important books are. So he made a campaign to stop bad books from being sold. And he did all he could to spread good books to teach the Faith. The two catechisms St. Peter Canisius wrote were so popular that they were printed over two hundred times and were translated into fifteen languages. To those who said he worked too hard, St. Peter
Canisius would answer, "If you have too much to do, with God's help, you will find time to do it all."

Most of the wrong ideas on our Faith are the result of not knowing enough about it. Let us often take out books from our school or parish library so that we will know our holy Faith well and be able to explain it to others.

Good Counsel means "good advice." The beautiful devotion of Our Lady of Good Counsel goes way back to the year 1467. Even before then, Christians had prayed to our Blessed Mother for her help and advice when they were in doubt. But devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel really spread everywhere when on April 25, 1467, a most beautiful picture of her appeared in the old Church of Santa Maria at Genazzano, Italy. It was a small picture but the wonderful thing about it was that it stayed right in mid-air, without being held up by anything!

At once people began to come from all over to visit
the Church of Santa Maria. Many miracles happened and are still happening at this shrine of Mary. Bishops and even Popes have had great devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel. One Pope had her holy picture crowned with gold. There are also many churches named for Our Lady of Good Counsel.

When we have a problem, who can give us better advice than our own good Mother Mary? Let us always pray to Our Lady of Good Counsel to ask her help.

Mark lived in Palestine at the time of Our Lord. He was a relative of St. Barnabas. While still a young man, he went with the great Apostles Paul and Barnabas on a missionary journey to bring the teachings of Christ to new lands. Before it was over, though, he grew discouraged and went back home to Jerusalem. Later, he was much braver, and he became a beloved disciple of St. Peter, the first Pope.

With St. Peter, he went to Rome. Here St. Peter preached about Jesus to the Romans. The people asked St. Mark to write down everything St. Peter said, and he did. This book is called the Gospel of St. Mark.

It is a life of Christ told by St. Peter himself and it gives us many little details that are not in the other Gospels. Mark was consecrated a bishop and sent to Egypt. There he converted many people. After a life of sufferings serenely endured for the glory of God, he went through a long and very painful martyrdom. His wicked enemies tied his feet with rope and dragged him through the streets for a whole day. The ground was stained with St. Mark's blood, but he was happy for the chance to suffer for Jesus. That night in prison, Jesus Himself came to comfort and strengthen St. Mark. The next day his enemies dragged him on the ground again until he died of his many wounds.

St. Mark's relics were later brought to Venice and today they are venerated in the beautiful Basilica of St. Mark.

There is no book in the world more important than the Holy Gospels. The wisest and holiest of men have always loved to read them over and over again. Let us, too, make sure we have a copy of the Holy Gospels and that we read them.

This Saint's name was Mark Rey. He was born in Germany and went to the famous University of Freiburg to become a lawyer. Even as a young student, he liked to visit the sick and the poor and to spend many hours praying. His brother became a Capuchin priest, but Mark finished his studies andbecame a famous lawyer. Many times he would help poor people who had no money to pay a lawyer. For this reason, he was given the nickname, "The Poor Man's Lawyer."
Because he was very honest and polite, Mark became disgusted with the arguments and dishonesty of those law courts. He decided to become a Capuchin priest. He received the holy robe of the monks and took the name, Fidelis, which means "faithful."

Father Fidelis was filled with joy when he was told to go to Switzerland to preach. In Switzerland there were many enemies of the Catholic faith, and he wanted to try to win these people back to Jesus. His preaching brought wonderful results, and many people were converted. The bitterest enemies grew wild with anger at his success.

St. Fidelis knew that his life was in danger, yet he went right on preaching. In the middle of one sermon, a shot was fired at him, but the bullet missed. He started back over the road on which he had come to the town. A group of men with guns stopped him and ordered him to give up the Catholic religion. The Saint answered meekly but firmly, " I will not renounce the Catholic faith!" At once, the cruel men struck him down. St. Fidelis pulled himself up and kneeling, prayed: "Lord, forgive my enemies. They do not know what they are doing. Lord Jesus, have mercy on me! Holy Mary, my Mother, help me!" Another blow hit him and then more and more blows until this hero's life was taken away.

It is a great honor to he able to help others come back to Jesus, back to Church. Let us try, by prayer, good example and kind words, to be real apostles.

Pictures of St. George usually show him killing a dragon to rescue a beautiful lady. The dragon stands for wickedness. The lady stands for God's holy truth. St. George was a brave martyr who was victorious over the devil.

He was a soldier in the army of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, and he was one of the Emperor's favorite soldiers. Now Diocletian was a pagan and a bitter enemy of the Christians. He put to death every Christian he could find. George was a brave Christian, a real soldier of Christ. Without fear, he went to the Emperor and sternly scolded him for being so cruel. Then he gave up his position in the Roman army. For this he was tortured in many terrible ways and finally beheaded.

So boldly daring and so cheerful was St. George in declaring his Faith and in dying for it that Christians felt courage when they heard about it. Many songs and poems were written about this martyr. Soldiers, especially, have always been devoted to him.

We all have some "dragon' we have to conquer. It might he pride or anger or laziness or greediness or something else. Let us make sure we fight against these "dragons," with God's help. Then we can call ourselves real soldiers of Christ.

 St. Soter was Pope long ago, in the times of the Roman Emperors. He was a real father to all Christians. He gave much help to those who were poor. He took special care of those who had been condemned to work in dangerous mines because they
would not give up their faith. These brave Christians had little to eat and were not allowed to rest hardly at all. Other Christians were chained in prisons. Good Pope Soter did everything he possibly could to comfort and help them.

St. Soter also helped churches that were far away from Rome. This holy Pope was a great preacher. All the Christians loved to listen to him explain our religion, because he spoke so beautifully. He inspired them with new courage to die for Christ rather than sacrifice to false gods. After ten years as Pope, St. Soter himself gave his life for Jesus.

St. Caius was Pope about one hundred years later. He, too, lived in times of persecution and he did all he could to prepare his good people to keep the Faith at any sacrifice. In order to be of more help to his people, he lived eight years in underground rooms, called catacombs. These were cemeteries where the Christians often met in secret to pray and receive the Sacraments. This was their hiding place from the cruel pagan soldiers, who would kill them if they caught them.

St. Caius was Pope for twelve years. Then, he, too, was put to death for the Faith.

Today people in different parts of the world are persecuted because they are good Christians. Let us offer our prayers and sacrifices that they may keep up their courage.

Anselm was born in northern Italy. From his home, you can see the high mountains called the Alps. When Anselm learned from his mother that God is in Heaven, he loved to look up at the very tops of those mountains. Since he was a little boy then, he thought that the mountains were like ladders leading up to the palace of the King of Heaven.

When Anselm was fifteen, he tried to enter a monastery, but his father was against it. Then Anselm became sick and not long after he got better, his mother died. He was still young and rich and clever, and soon he forgot about wanting to serve God. He began to think only of having good times.

Yet, after a while, Anselm became bored with this way of life. He wanted something better, something more important. So he went to visit the holy Abbot Lanfranc of the great monastery of Bee. He became Lanfranc's very close friend and the holy abbot brought him close to God. He also helped Anselm decide to become a monk.

Three years later, Anselm was made the superior. He was a very warm-hearted man who loved his brother monks dearly. Even those who were jealous of him at first became his friends. When he had to leave them to become Archbishop of the great diocese of Canterbury in England, he told them that they would always live in his heart. The people of England loved and respected Anselm very much.

However, the king at this time was the wicked William Rufus. This king persecuted the Saint in every way and even forbade him to go to Rome to ask the Pope's advice. But Anselm went anyway, and stayed with the Pope until the king died. Then he went back to his diocese in England.

Even in the midst of his many duties, St. Anselm always found time to write important books of philosophy and theology. To please his monks, he also wrote down the many wonderful instructions he had given them about God. He used to say: "Would you like to know the secret of being happy in the monastery? Forget the world and be happy to forget it. The monastery is a real Heaven on earth for those who live only for Jesus."

Let us realize that just having a lot of fun will
not make us happy. True happiness can only be
found in loving God and in helping our neighbor.