The work of the Passionists was to preach to the poor, principally on the theme of Christ’s passion. It is said that, while listening to his sermons, even battle-hardened soldiers would “tremble from head to foot.”
Fry was motivated by the conviction that prisoners, regardless of their crimes, were human beings who bore within them the spark of the divine image.
For many Christians over the past thousand years, the example of St. Francis has offered a distinctive key to the Gospel.
Mosaic of the Archangel Michael on the northern entrance of the Church of Saint Spyridon, Trieste, Italy. Image attained via Getty Images
Statue of Blessed Emily Tavernier. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Dante Alighieri, one of the great literary geniuses of all time, was also a man of action, committed to social justice and the affairs of his native Florence.
Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997. By that time she had long been acclaimed as a living saint.
St. Giles was among the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of saints commonly invoked in the Middle Ages for protection against illness and misfortune.
Though her thinking became increasingly Christ-centered, she believed her vocation was to remain on the “threshold of the Church”—in solidarity with all those outside. She could not bear to separate herself from “the immense and unfortunate multitude of unbelievers.”
John Eudes was initially attracted to the French Oratory of Jesus, a society of priests living in community and pursuing a life of prayer and devotion.
