She was born Marie de Lajemmerais in Quebec in 1701. Her father died when she was only 7, and she and her four brothers and sisters and their mother were very poor. Her great-grandfather paid for her to be educated by the Ursuline nuns in Quebec for two years, and when she returned home, she helped support her family and taught her brothers and sisters.
It’s hard to imagine spending five weeks in bed, let alone five years. But in 1657, when Marguerite Marie Alacoque was 10 years old, she became very ill with a disease that left her paralyzed. So for five years she stayed in bed—long before television or video games could provide amusement. So what did she do? She prayed.
Do you ever wonder who was the first person to call the community Jesus established the “Catholic Church”? It was Saint Ignatius of Antioch. It was his way of explaining that the Church was open to anyone who wanted to be a follower of Jesus.
Peter was born in Spain in 1499. Faith and education were both important in Peter’s life from the time he was a young boy. He joined the Franciscans after he graduated from college at the age of 16. He was known for his acts of penance which he believed helped him grow closer to Christ and to understand the great suffering Jesus took on out of love for all people. For example, he would never eat large meals and would often fast from eating anything at all.
Luke was an Evangelist, the writer of the third Gospel. He never met Christ in person, but in his Gospel he says that he came to know about Jesus by talking to eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus’ life, death, and Resurrection. Hearing those stories helped Luke to become a believer, and he wrote his Gospel so that others would come to know and love Jesus.
On October 19, we honor the six Jesuit priests and two lay missionaries who we have come to know as the North American Martyrs.
Paul Daneii was born in Italy in 1694. Because Paul had no formal education, he became a soldier and fought in a religious war against the Turks. After the war, he spent time alone in prayer asking God to guide him in living his faith. He decided not to marry and not to accept the inheritance an uncle had left him.
A legend about St. Paul tells us that he had a dream in which he was wearing the habit, or clothing, of a priest. However, the habit did not look like the habits of any religious orders Paul knew. He saw this as a sign that God was calling him to establish a new order of priests.
One of the strongest role models for girls in South America in the last few decades has been Laura Montoya, a Colombian nun who was canonized by Pope Francis on May 12, 2013.
Many people who knew young Karol Wojtyla in Poland thought he might someday be an actor or a writer. Instead, he became pope. Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in the town of Wadowice in Poland in 1920. He was the youngest of three children, and his mother died when he was only nine. When he graduated from high school and went to college, he studied drama. But as World War II approached, the university was closed, and Karol went to work in a quarry and then a factory to earn money and avoid being sent to Germany to serve in the army.
Both Simon and Jude were ordinary men who were chosen by Jesus himself to teach others about God’s love and to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Their lives help us to understand that even the most average people can become saints when they decide to follow Jesus.