Saint Francis was an Italian Catholic Friar, deacon and preacher. He founded the men’s order of Friar Minor, the women’s Order of saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land. He is one of the most venerated religious figures in Christianity. He was born in 1181 in Assisi Italy. He enjoyed life until 1202 when he had a serious illness which changed his behaviour. He turned to God and spent his time and money on helping the poor and sick people especially those with leprosy. In 1209 he started to live like a hermit- he lived in a hovel near the church he was rebuilding. In 1210, with eleven friends, he went to see Pope Innocent 111. They were officially recognised - it was the beginning of the Franciscan Order - now world wide. 1217 saw him involved with the Crusades He preached in the Saracens camp and spoke with Sultan. He attempted to make a truce with the Christians and Muslims. He decided in 1220 to give up the leadership of the Order. His health began to fail but his joyful spirit never failed. He had frequent visions and received the Stigmata - marks on his hands, feet and side in his own flesh. Before he died in 1226 he composed the Canticle of the Sun. Saint Francis was known for his love of nature and animals. He was canonized in 1228, just two years after his death. There is a great deal of information to found about him. Wikipedia gives him 22 pages. I have put together a mixture of different types of data. Ducksters gives children an outline of his life. !2 interesting questions are asked and answered. I have included a translation of the* Canticle of the Sun.* Sources used wikipedia * The Church’s Year* Charles Alexander Encyclopedia.com Canticle of the Sun Biographies for Kids Catholic Encyclopedia

John was an English Anglican priest and poet who was one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Keble College, Oxford was named after him. In 1806 he won a scholarship to Corpus Christi College Oxford. He excelled in his studies and achieved a first-class honours in both English and Latin in 1810. He was ordained in 1816 and became a curate first to his father at Coln St. Aldwyns and then curate in Eastleach Martin in Gloucestershire. He became a fellow at Oriel and was a tutor there between 1817-23. On the death of his mother in 1823 he returned to live with his father and two surviving sisters in Fairford, John anonymously published The Christian Year - a book of poems for Sundays and feast days of the Christian year, It appeared in 1827 . The authorship soon became known and in 1831 he was appointed to the Chair of a Poetry at Oxford. The book was very successful - by 1873 when the copyright expired 375,000 had been sold with 158 editions. ( For more of his writings read Other writings) 14 July 1833 he delivered his famous Assize Sermon on National Apostasy. It gave the first impulse to the Oxford Movement, also known as the Tractarian movement. The movement resulted in the establishment of Anglican religious orders for both men and women. ( See notes on Oxford Movement) In 1835 his father died, he married Charlotte Clarke and he became vicar at Hursley in Hampshire. Here he stayed until his death in 1866. John was a brilliant scholar, but self effacing, he was much sought after for his spiritual guidance. Sources Wikipedia The Hodder & Stoughton Book of Famous Christians

I had not realised when I began my research that Saint Barnabas is mentioned over thirty times in the first half of the Acts of the Apostles. Barnabas introduced Saint Paul, formerly Saul, to the disciples in Jerusalem. Together they went on Paul’s first missionary journey. They took the the Good News to the Gentiles. Together they were responsible for the founding of the young Jewish/Gentile Christian church in Antioch. Paul went on to establish himself as the writer of many of the epistles in the New Testament. Barnabas went back to Cyprus to bring them the Good News. Barnabas means* son of encourager*

Peter, the Hermit was a Roman Catholic Priest from Amiens. Pope Urban 11 called for a crusade to liberate the Holy Places (1095)- destination the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem. Peter toured Europe preaching the crusade. He was a key figure during the military expedition from France to Jerusalem, known as the People’s Crusade or Crusade of the Paupers. He was one of the preachers of the armed pilgrimage and leapt to fame as an emotional revivalist. Historians agree that 1000s of serfs and peasants eagerly took the cross at his bid. Some historians think the crusade would have included well-armed soldiers and nobles. The Crusade to the Holy Land began in the spring of 1096. He received permission from Patriarch Simeon 11 of Jerusalem. He recruited from England, Lorraine, France and Flanders. The start was disastrously with the massacre of Jewish civilians ( ReadMassacre of Jewish civilians) They then had to go through Hungary, Belgrade and Sofia. They started in April 1096 with 40,000 men and women from Cologne and arrived in Constantinople with 30,000 by the end of July. (The ‘locals’ were expected to feed the vast host of paupers for the remainders of their journey.)r ( Read Hungary, Belgrade Sofia and Constantinople) During the winter (1096/7), with little hope of securing Byzantine support, the Crusade waited for the armed crusaders as their sole source of protection in completing the pilgrimage. The numbers, to a small degree, were replenished with disarmed , injured or bankrupted crusaders. . After a few rousing speeches Peter now played a subordinate role, The Crusade settled on a military campaign to secure the pilgrimage routes and holy sites in Palestine. When they reached Antioch at the beginning of 1098 he gave a stirring speech before the half-starved Crusaders gained victory over the superior Muslim army besieging the city. In 1099 he appears as the treasurer of the alms at the siege of Arqa. He was leader of he supplication processions around the walls of Jerusalem before it fell and later, within Jerusalem, after the surprising victory at the Battle of Ascalon (August). At the end of 1099 he went to Latakia and sailed for the west. From this time he disappears from the historical records except in his obituary in the chronicle at Neufmoustier Abbey. ( read Later Life) In 1100 he returned to Europe to be the prior at the monastery he had founded in Neufmroutier near Huy. H e died in 1115 and his tomb is in Neufmoustier Abbey.-* His name. He is called Pierre l’Ermite in French. The structure of the name in French unlike in English has led some francophone scholars to treat l’Ermite as a surname rather than a title. Sources Wikipedia The Hodder & Stoughton Book of Famous Christians by Tony Castle

William was born during the reign of Elizabeth 1 (1558-1603) and beheaded during the reign of Charles 1 (1625-1649). William was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles 1 in 1633. and was a key advocate of his religious reforms. He was a highly effective parliamentarian and a key adviser ad policy-maker. He was bishop of Bath and Wells, then London before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury i in 1633 He was a firm believer in episcopalianism -the rule by bishops.* Laudianism refers to liturgical practices designed to enforce uniformity within the C of E as outlined by Charles 1. He was accused of Arminianism - favouring doctrines of the historic church prior to the Reformation. He was opposed to Calvinism. The Long Parliament of 1640 accused Laud of treason. Impeached in the the Grand Remonstrance of 1641 and was imprisonment in the Tower of London. In 1644 he was brought to trial which ended without a verdict. Parliament took up the issue and eventually passed a bill of attainder , under which Laud was beheaded on Tower Hill on 10 th of January 1645. He was buried in the chapel of St. John’s College, Oxford. This was towards the end of the First English Civil War (1642-6) Charles 1 towards the end of his life admitted he had put too much trust in William and warned his son not to rely on anyone else’s judgment. William was born in Reading, Berkshire. Source Wikipedia.

John was an English Anglican, Baptist, then Mennonite minister and a defender of the principle of religious liberty. He attended Christ’s College, Cambridge where he became a fellow in 1594 and was ordained for ministry in the C of E the same year. He became a Puritan preacher, then a Separatist pastor, which led to exile in Amsterdam. He became a se-baptist (baptised himself)(c,1609) and set up the first Baptist church(1612) in Britain… He believed in believer’s baptism by immersion not infant baptism. In February 1610 he and other church members wrote to a Mennonite community in Waterland to join their movement. The group earned the name General Baptists because they claimed that Christ died for all men rather than for the elect only. See notes also on Mennonites. The Hodder & Stoughton Book of Famous Christians Wikipedia

Sergius also known as Sergiy Radonezhsky, Serge of Radonexh and Sergius of Moscow was a spiritual leader and monastic reformer of medieval Russia. In the village of Varnitsa he received the baptismal name of Bartholomew in honour of the Apostle Bartholomew. H e was an intelligent boy but had a problem with reading. His biography states that a spiritual leader gave him some holy bread (prosphora) to eat and then he was able to read. He was:- Abbott of Radonezh Miracle Worker of all Russia Russian Monastic Reformer Teacher of the Faith The memory of Segius has lived on thanks to the unique manuscript entitled The Life of St, Sergius of Radonezhs written by the famous hagiographer Pachomius the Serb. The original script is housed in the National Library of Russia. He is remembered in the C of E witha commemoration on 25th September.

Joseph William Livesey was an English temperance campaigner, social reformer, local politician, writer, publisher, newspaper proprietor and philanthropist. He engaged energetically in local politics, filled many public posts and was a leader in every kind of philanthropic effort, especially identifying with the teetotal movement. He published a number of publications TheMoral Reformer(1833) which became the* Preston Temperance* (1834-8). This became the* British Temperance Advocate.* Moral Reformer (1838/9) revived. The Struggle(1841) Preston Guardian (1844-1859) established with his sons *Teetotal Progressionist * (1851/2) Staunch Teetotaller (1867-9)

The Feast of Corpus Christi is a special celebration of the Eucharist - the Lord’s Supper- remembering the Holy Body and Blood of Christ. It is liturgically celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday or*** where the Solemnity of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ is not a holy day of obligation, it is assigned to the Sunday after the Most Holy Trinity as its proper day.*** At the end of the Holy Mass there is a procession of the Blessed Sacrament generally displayed in a monstrance -an open or transparent receptacle in which the consecrated Host is displayed for veneration. Corpus Christi wreaths, which are made of flowers, are hung on the doors and windows of the faithful in addition to being erected in gardens and fields. The procession is followed by the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. In Rome the Eucharistic procession is presided over by the Pope. In Arundel, England, they have a central aisle of flower heads laid down in a colourful pattern. The institution of Corpus Christi as a feast in the Christian Calender resulted from approximately 40 years of work on the part of Juliana of Liege, a 13th century Norbertine canoness. Source Wikipedia

Muriwhenua, to give him his full first name, may have been born with a hole in his heart but he had a whole heart for Jesus. Muri’ s uncle was the Maori bishop of Aotearoa and his mother, Meriana, hoped he would become an Anglican clergyman. Muri, on the other hand, desired to be a leader of a dance band! Aged 16 he went to Auckland to finish his schooling. He stayed at the United Maori Mission where Charlie Bennett was the minister. Charlie impressed Muri with his sincerity and genuineness. He attended a YMCA meeting and was asked, ‘Why don’t you receive Christ?’ He replied, ‘All right , I’ll give it ago’. Slowly a change in heart and mind happened. He read biographies of famous preachers and evangelists. In January 1954 Jim Duffecy, an Open Air Campaigner (OAP), landed in Auckland. Muri inspired by Jim gained confidence to take his own aggressive and unorthodox style to his own people. An OAP branch was opened in New Zealand - Muri was one of its first evangelists. He went to the USA but his heart was giving him problems. On returning home he went to hospital - given a 50/50 chance of surviving an operation. No operation until 17 years later! Those 17 years were fruitful ones for evangelism. In 1963 he married Ena. She was a loyal support and strength until the end. In 1970 he went to the Solomon Islands - the Charisma of Revival. There there was a new breath of the Spirit. ( See notes) In 1972 there were the Jesus matches (See short note). Muri was a prophet of God,singularly devoid of airs and graces, and worldly ambition. He took the Gospel of Christ to the Maoris -his brothers and sisters. Sources used Ambassadors for Christ editor J. D. Woodbridge - contributor David Stewart World Press - Donald Daily Victoria University of Wellington Library

Letsie ll is the only Catholic sovereign of a non-European lineage anywhere in the world. He has been credited with having promoting the principles of the Catholic faith in Lesotho Source Wikipedia

They were sentenced to be hanged in 2009 for converting to Christianity in Iran. For 259 days they were held in the notorious prison EVIN where they were tortured and interrogated. Eventually the United Nations’ Amnesty International enabled their release. After gaining freedom they wrote** Captive in Iran** which detailed their experiences. Source Wikipedia

For approximately 20 years he was an actor and broadcaster who specialized in theatrical story telling and performance poetry He wrote ’ The Street Bible’ . In 2004 it was the Book of the Year for the Christian Booksellers Convention Ltd (UK He takes you through the Bible in a very unconventional way. This fresh paraphrase- come-running commentary brings the text alive. Bible stories are retold as mini -blockbusters;psalms as song lyrics; epistles as emails. He unfortunately died of bladder cancer aged just 43 years of age Source Fly of the book

Saint Brigid of Kildare or Saint Brigid of Ireland is the patroness saint (mother saint) of Ireland. She is one of the three national saints with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish hagiographies she was the abbess who founded the important abbey of Kildare (Cill Dara). It is said that she was buried at the high altar of the original Kildare Cathedral and a tomb raised over her adorned with gems and precious stones and crowns of gold and silver. On February 1st Brigid Crosses are weaved ( see picture). In 2023 it became a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland.The feast is shared with Dar Lugdach who tradition says was her student, close companion and successor. (There is a debate whether Brigid was a real person- read the notes.) Source Wikipedia

Saint Genevieve was a consecrated virgin and is the patron saint of Paris in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. She was recognized as the patron saint of Paris in the 14th century. She was recognized for her religious devotion at a young age. Miracles and healings happened around her from an early age. Her prayers saved Paris from being destroyed by Attila the Hun in 451 and other wars. Her organisation of the city’s women was called a ‘prayer marathon’ and her ‘most famous feat’. She was involved with two major constructions - a basilica for Saint Denis of Paris in 475 and the basilica dedicated to the Holy Apostles Saint Peter and Paul around c500. Between 885 and 1791 Genevieve was publicaly invoked 153 times during emergencies, Genevieve performed miracles both before and after her death. Sources Wikipedia Saints Over 150 Patron Saints for Today Editor Elizabeth Hallam

Saint Vincent de Paul was an Occitan French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor.I In 1601 he was ordained as a priest and became the chaplain at court for Henry 1V of France. He became the tutor for an aristocratic until he was accused of theft. He remained silent for 6 months until his innocence was proved. Conversion dated from this date. For the rest of his life he combined his working with the rich and fashionable and with looking after outcasts, the sick and poverty stricken, galley slaves and abandoned children. He founded the* Cgngregation of the Mission or the Vincentians. He was zealous in conducting retreats for clergy for when the local clergy’s .morals were flagging. He was a pioneer in seminary education. He founded the* Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent of Paul He was renown for his compassion, humility and generosity. He is the namesake of the Vincentian Family of organisations. Vincent was beatified in 1729 and canonized in 1737. In 1883 Pope Leo X11 named patron of all charitable societies. He is now venerated as a saint by both the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion. Note ‘occitan’ is a romance language spoken in Southern France Sources Wikipedia The Encyclopedia of Saints by Howard Loxton *Saints Over 150 Patron Saints for Today * editor Elizabeth Hallam

Anthony -born Fernando Martins de Bulhoes, was raised by a wealthy family in Lisbon… He died in Padua ). He joined the Augustine canons at an early age. Aged 25 he joined the Franciscan friars. He adopted the name Anthony from the name of the chapel located there, dedicated to Anthony the Great. He was sent to work work among the Muslims in Morocco. Ill health forced to return within the year to Assisi. His exceptional teaching and preaching talents were then discovered. St. Francis of Assisi chose him to teach Theology to the friars at Padua and Bologna. in southern France. He then preached against the Albigensian heretics in Southern France. Between 1227-30 he ruled the Franciscan province in northern Italy. He then retired to Padua and Pope Gregory 1X commissioned him to write a series of sermons for Feast days He died at the age of just 35 in 1231. he was canonized the next year ( one of the most quickly canonized saints in church history). He is the patron saint of lost property The story is that a novice borrowed his written psalter without his permission and was compelled to return it by a terrifying apparition. During his lifetime he gained a major reputation as a worker of wonders and miracles. He was noted by his contemporaries for his powerful preaching, expert knowledge of scriptures and undying love and devotion to the poor and the sick. On 16th January 1946 Anthony was proclaimed a* Doctor of the Church* by Pope Pius X11. Sources Wikipedia Saints Over 150 Patron Saints for Today editor Elizabeth Hallam

Wolfgang is regarded as one of the three great German saints of the 10th century. He was known as the Great Almoner. He was a gifted preacher, teacher, monk and bishop whose ability, learning and humility earned him the admiration of his contemporaries. He exercised a strong and valuable influence at the court of the Holy Roman emperors. He was the tutor to the future emperor Henry11. He was bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria from Christmas 972 until his death in 994. Here he improved standards of discipline and learning among the clergy and monasteries. Towards the end of his life he withdrew as a hermit to a solitary spot in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria. On his death a cult sprang up in Regensburg where many miracles of healing were recorded, notably of the stomach. He is the Patron saint for stomach pains. Wolfgang was canonized in 1052 by Pope Leo 1X. Sources Wikipedia Saints Over 150 Patron Saints for Today editor Elizabeth Hallam

St.Crispin and St. Crispinian’s Feast Day is October 25th. They were probably missionaries from Rome who preached during the day and worked as shoemakers at night. They are the patron saint for cobblers. They were martyred by being deheaded on the orders of emperor Maximian. The official who was tormenting them committed suicide first - he had been infuriated because the brothers had already survived downing and boiling. I have included a short word search. Source Saints Over 150 Patron Saints for Today editor Elizabeth Hallam

Theresa of Lisieux born Marie Francoise- Therese Martin is the Patron saint for Missionaries. She is widely venerated in modern times. She is one of 4 sisters who became a Carmelite nun in the same convent. She was only 14 when she experienced her conversion. She entered the order at the unusual early age of 15. Aged 22 she became assistant to the novice mistress. She considered volunteering for missionary work in Hanoi ( now Vietnam) but contracted tuberculosis and died, aged 24, after 18 months of ’ heroic suffering’. She is now one of the most popular saints in the history of the church although she was obscure during her lifetime. The Story of a Soul - her autobiography. written on orders of her prioress and edited by her eldest sister Marie, was an immediate and sensational success. Her spiritual memoir explains her theology of the ’ Little Way.’ Theresa’s immense popularity and reputation for holiness resulted in her being quickly beatified (1923)and canonized(1925) by Pope Pius X1. In 1997 Pope John Paul 11 declared her a Doctor. of the Church. Sources Wikipedia Saints Over 150 Patron Saints for Today edited by Elizabeth Hallam