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Maria Goretti
 | Learn about Our Patron Saint The story of St. Maria Goretti is both inspiring and sad. Her death in 1902, at the age of eleven, was the result of a violent sexual assault. Because of this, Maria is considered to be a “martyr of chastity.” The forgiveness she granted to her assailant eventually resulted in his conversion. Maria is the youngest canonized saint. St. Maria Goretti was declared a saint by Pope Pius XII in 1950. Her mother attended her canonization, and is the only parent of a saint ever to have done so. St. Maria Goretti’s intercession is sought for rape victims, those who have lost parents, girls, young people in general, as well as against poverty. |
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary (Hebrew: ???????, Miriam; Aramaic: Mary?m; Arabic: ????, Maryam), variously called Saint Mary, Mother Mary, the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, the Blessed Virgin Mary,Mary, Mother of God, and, in Islam, as Maryam, mother of Isa', was an Israelite Jewish[1] woman of Nazareth in Galilee who lived in the late 1st century BC and early 1st century AD, and is considered by Christians to be the first proselyte to Christianity. She is identified in the New Testament[Mt 1:16,18-25][Lk 1:26-56][2:1-7] and in the Qur'anas the mother of Jesus through divine intervention. Christians hold her son Jesus to be Christ (i.e. the messiah) and God the Son Incarnate (see Trinitarian monotheism), whereas Muslims regard Jesus as the messiah and the most important prophet of God sent to the people of Israel (and the second-most-important prophet of all, lesser than Muhammad alone).
The canonical gospels of Matthew and Luke describe Mary as a virgin (Greek ????????, parthénos).[2] Traditionally, Christians believe that she conceived her son miraculously by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Muslims believe that she conceived by the command of God. This took place when she was already betrothed to Saint Joseph and was awaiting the concluding rite of marriage, the formal home-taking ceremony.[3] She married Joseph and accompanied him to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born.[4] In keeping with Jewish custom, the betrothal would have taken place when she was around 12, and the birth of Jesus about a year later.[5]
The New Testament begins its account of Mary's life with the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced her divine selection to be the mother of Jesus. Church tradition and early non-biblical writings state that her parents were an elderly couple, Saint Joachim and Saint Anne. The Bible records Mary's role in key events of the life of Jesus from his conception to his Ascension. Apocryphal writings tell of her subsequent death and bodily assumption into heaven.
Christians of the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, and Lutheran churches believe that Mary, as mother of Jesus, is the Mother of God (????? ????) and the Theotokos, literally Bearer of God. Mary has been venerated since Early Christianity.[6][7] Throughout the ages she has been a favorite subject in Christian art, music, and literature.
There is significant diversity in the Marian beliefs and devotional practices of major Christian traditions. The Catholic Church has a number of Marian dogmas, such as the Immaculate Conception of Mary the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, and the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. Catholics refer to her as Our Lady and venerate her as theQueen of Heaven and Mother of the Church; most Protestants do not share these beliefs.[8][9] Many Protestants see a minimal role for Mary within Christianity, based on the brevity of biblical references.[10]
St. Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J.
St. Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J. 
Confessor Born March 9, 1568
Castiglione delle Stiviere,
Duchy of Mantua,
Holy Roman EmpireDied June 21, 1591 (aged 23)
Rome, Papal StatesHonored in Roman Catholic Church Beatified October 19, 1605, Rome, Papal States by Pope Paul V Canonized December 31, 1726, Rome, Papal States by Pope Benedict XIII Majorshrine Church of Sant'Ignazio,
Rome, ItalyFeast 21 June Attributes Lily, cross, skull, rosary Patronage Young students, Christian youth,Jesuit novices, the blind, AIDS patients, AIDS care-givers
Thérèse of Lisieux
| Saint Thérèse of Lisieux | |
|---|---|
 Photograph of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux in the CarmeliteBrown Scapular (1895) | |
| Virgin and Doctor of the Church | |
| Born | 2 January 1873 Alençon, France |
| Died | 30 September 1897 (aged 24) Lisieux, France |
| Honored in | Catholic Church |
| Beatified | April 29, 1923 by Pope Pius XI |
| Canonized | May 17, 1925 by Pope Pius XI |
| Majorshrine | Basilica of St. Thérèse in Lisieux, France |
| Feast | October 1st October 3rd in General Roman Calendar 1927–1969, Melkite Catholic Church |
| Attributes | Roses |
| Patronage | Missionaries; France; Russia;HIV/AIDS sufferers; florists and gardeners; loss of parents; tuberculosis; the Russicum. |
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (January 2, 1873 – September 30, 1897), or Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin, was a French Carmelite nun. She is also known as "The Little Flower of Jesus" or simply, "The Little Flower".
She felt an early call to religious life, and overcoming various obstacles, in 1888 at the early age of 15, became a nun and joined two of her elder sisters in the cloistered Carmelite community of Lisieux, Normandy. After nine years as a Carmelite religious, having fulfilled various offices such assacristan and assistant to the novice mistress, and having spent the last eighteen months in Carmel in a night of faith, she died of tuberculosis at the age of 24.
The impact of The Story of a Soul, a collection of her autobiographical manuscripts, printed and distributed a year after her death to an initially very limited audience, was great, and she rapidly became one of the most popular saints of the twentieth century. Pope Pius XI made her the "star of his pontificate".[1] She was beatified in 1923, and canonized in 1925. Thérèse was declared co-patron of the missions with Francis Xavier in 1927, and named co-patron of France with Joan of Arc in 1944. On October 19, 1997 Pope John Paul II declared her the thirty-third Doctor of the Church, the youngest person, and only the third woman, to be so honored. Devotion to Thérèse has developed around the world.[2]
Thérèse lived a hidden life and "wanted to be unknown," yet became popular after her death through her spiritual autobiography - she also left letters, poems, religious plays, prayers, and her last conversations were recorded by her sisters. Paintings and photographs, mostly the work of her sister Céline, further led to her being recognised by millions of men and women.
The depth of her spirituality, of which she said, "my way is all confidence and love," has inspired many believers. In the face of her littleness and nothingness, she trusted in God to be her sanctity. She wanted to go to heaven by an entirely new little way. "I wanted to find an elevator that would raise me to Jesus." The elevator, she wrote, would be the arms of Jesus lifting her in all her littleness. However, according to Guy Gaucher, one of her biographers after her death, "Thérèse fell victim to an excess of sentimental devotion which betrayed her. She was victim also to her language, which was that of the late nineteenth century and flowed from the religiosity of her age."[3] Thérèse herself said on her death-bed, "I only love simplicity. I have a horror of pretence", and she spoke out against some of the lives of saints written in her day, "We should not say improbable things, or things we do not know. We must see their real, and not their imagined lives."[3]
Thérèse is well known throughout the world, with the Basilica of Lisieux being the second largest place of pilgrimage in France after Lourdes.[4]
Ceferino Namuncurá
Ceferino Namuncurá 
Born August 26, 1886
Chimpay, Río Negro Province,ArgentinaDied May 11, 1905 (aged 18)
Rome, ItalyHonored in Roman Catholicism Beatified November 11, 2007, Chimpay, Río Negro Province, Argentina by PopeBenedict XVI Feast August 26