Remarkably, in joining the Franciscans he found a new voice as a poet, indeed one of the great lyric poets of the Middle Ages.

Though not the main protagonist of the story of Abraham and Sarah, Hagar helps to characterize the Lord as a God of life who hears the voice of the oppressed and makes a way out of no way.

Through him, she called the Church to heed the voice of the poor, to serve as a vehicle for their cultural and spiritual survival.

Well does he deserve to be remembered as the patron of children, honored not just as the purveyor of toys but as a protector of the innocent, particularly the victims of human trafficking.

In his 2015 speech to Congress, Pope Francis included Dorothy Day among his list of four “great Americans” who offer a “new way of seeing and interpreting reality.”

If we really want to follow Christ we must live as He lived and died.

Before implementing their plan to exterminate the Jewish people, the Nazis advertised their intentions through a number of public spectacles. The most dramatic of these occurred on the night of November 9, 1938, when Nazi storm troopers throughout Germany mounted a coordinated assault on the Jewish community.

Mary gathered a group of coworkers who supported themselves doing laundry while visiting the sick poor in their homes.

Sadako Sasaki was two years old on August 6, 1945, when an American atomic bomb named Little Boy was dropped on her city of Hiroshima.

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.”