Saints

Augustinian nun. Patron of desperate cases and difficult marriages. Rita was born in 1377 at Roccaporena in Umbria. She was to become a nun but her parents made her marry. Her husband was violent and unfaithful. They had two sons. She endured the marriage for 18 years, until one day her husband was killed in a vendetta. In 1407 Rita became a nun. She prayed and meditated on the Passion of Christ... Read More

Martyr. Jesuit priest. This Polish saint was born in 1591. He became a Jesuit at Vilno (Vilnius) in 1609 where he preached at the church of St Casimir before being appointed superior at the house at Bobruysk. During an epidemic of plague he worked night and day caring for the sick and dying. Later he served as a missionary, bringing whole villages of Orthodox Christians into communion with the Ca... Read More

This 12th century saint was a Scottish fisherman from Perth. As a young man he experienced a conversion and devoted himself to caring for orphans and the poor. One child in his care had been abandoned as a baby on a church doorstep. In 1201 he set off on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but only reached Rochester in Kent, when he was set upon by thieves and murdered. According to the legend, his ... Read More