Saints

Roman martyr, patron saint of music. According to legend, Cecilia was a Roman Christian from a patrician family who lived in the 2nd or 3rd century. She had decided to remain single and devote her life to God, but was forced into an arranged marriage. While the wedding guests danced at her wedding, she sat apart singing only the psalms. Valerian, her husband, turned out to be very understanding ... Read More

Bishop. Saint Liberalis was born at the end of the ninth century in Brive, in southwest France. Little is known about his early life. As a young man he sought a life of solitude and prayer and went to live in the mountains as a hermit near the city of Embrun. The clergy and people there came to recognize his great humility, his holiness and other virtues, and he was eventually chosen to become t... Read More

Monk. Ireland's sixth century missionary to Europe. Born in Leimster in Ireland around 543, Saint Columban was a monk at Bangor in County Down under St Comgall, before he left for Europe with several companions. Passing through England and Brittany he founded the great monastery of Luxeuil in Burgundy in 591 and was abbot there for 20 years. Columban's rule there became very influential among t... Read More