In the early 1960s, Cesar Chavez wrote a new chapter in the history of the American labor movement by organizing the first successful union of farmworkers. Through his commitment to…

Lucien Botovasoa was born to a family of poor farmers in a small village in Madagascar. At thirteen he was baptized in the Christian faith; his parents followed later. After…

Ursulina, a young girl of Parma, began receiving heavenly visions and other mystical experiences from an early age. By the time she was fifteen, she felt called to a daunting…

Pandita Ramabai, the daughter of a wealthy Brahmin scholar and his much younger wife, was born in Karnataka, India. Having been instructed by her father to read Sanskrit, she set…

Maria Kutschera, who was orphaned at seven, grew up with no interest in religion; for the “holy water girls” in her class, she felt only scorn. Yet, while studying to…

Chiara Lubich, a schoolteacher and Third Order Franciscan, was born in Trent, Italy. Her true vocation took form in 1943 under the Allied bombing of her city when she and…

Martin Niemoeller served as a highly decorated German U-boat commander in World War I. Though he became a Lutheran pastor, he continued to dream of national glory and initially welcomed…

This day commemorates the heroic charity of Christians during an outbreak of plague in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in 261. So virulent was the disease that every house in…

St. Margaret was raised in a poor family in Tuscany. After the death of her mother, when she was eleven, her new stepmother turned her out of the house. Eventually…

The French artist Georges Rouault began his career as an apprentice in a studio for stained-glass restoration, an experience that influenced his painting style—easily recognized by the use of color…