Mariam Thresia Mankidiyan was born to a poor Catholic family in the southern Indian state of Kerala. When she was twelve her mother died, forcing her to leave school to…

Marc Sangnier, who was born in France to a wealthy family, determined from an early age to apply his faith to the social problems of his day. With fellow Catholic…

St. Rita of Cascia   Widow (ca. 1377–1457)   St. Rita was born to a peasant family in Umbria, Italy. Though she wished to become a nun, she acceded to her parents’…

Larry Rosebaugh   Oblate Priest (1935–2009)   Fr. Larry Rosebaugh spent his life among people on the margins, those most vulnerable to the violence of the world. It was thus not surprising…

Blessed Clara Fey   Founder, Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus (1815–1894)   Clara Fey, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, was born in Aachen, Germany. In her youth, she observed the…

By tradition they became the first Franciscan tertiaries.

But increasingly he emphasized a new mission—humane care of the mentally ill.

Cornelia Connelly was born in 1809 to a wealthy Philadelphia family. In 1831 she married an Episcopal priest, Pierce Connelly, who subsequently renounced his Anglican orders and, joined by Cornelia,…

Thurman’s brand of mysticism was an intense awareness of “a conscious and direct exposure” to God, in which “we find our true dignity and the sacred core of our being.”

They instilled in her a desire to serve God through other people.