Feast date: May 30

Today is the feast of St. Joan of Arc, the patroness of France. Joan was born to a peasant family in Champagne, France in the early 15th century.

From a young age she heard the voices of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret speaking to her. Then, in 1428, when she was 13 years old, she received a vision telling her to go to the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom from the invading forces of England and Burgundy.

Overcoming opposition and convincing members of the court and of the Church, she was given a small army. She charged into battle bearing a banner which bore the names “Jesus” and “Mary” as well as a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

Due to her leadership and trust in God, she was able to raise the siege of Orleans in 1429. Joan and her army went on to win a series of battles. Because of her efforts, the king was able to enter Rheims. He was crowned with Joan at his side.

Eventually, Joan was captured by the forces of Burgundy in May of 1430. When her own king and army did nothing to save her, she was sold to the English. She was imprisoned for a time and then put on trial. Bishop Peter Cauchon of Beauvais presided over her trial. His hope was that in being harsh with Joan, the English would help him become archbishop.

Joan was condemned to death on counts of heresy, witchcraft, and adultery. On May 30, 1431, she was burned at the stake in Rouen, France. She was 19 years old.

Thirty years after her death, her case was retried and she was exonerated. In 1920, she was canonized by Pope Benedict XV. She is the patroness of France, captives, soldiers, and those ridiculed for their piety.

Feast date: Apr 28

Gianna Beretta Molla was born on October 4, 1922 in Magenta, Italy. She was the tenth of 13 children in her family. She grew up in a devout Catholic home and quickly learned the value of prayer. As a young adult, she joined the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.

Gianna began to study medicine during World War II. In 1950 she opened her own medical office in Mesero, which was near her hometown. A couple years later she began to specialize in pediatrics and was drawn towards mothers, babies, the elderly, and the poor.

In 1954 Gianna met Pietro Molla, an engineer who worked in her office. In September of 1955 the two became husband and wife. Between 1956 and 1959 the couple had three children, Pierluigi, Maria Zita and Laura.

Gianna embraced the vocation of being a wife and mother with all her being and completely dedicated herself to "forming a truly Christian family."

In 1961, Gianna became pregnant with their fourth child. It was during this pregnancy that doctors discovered that Gianna had developed a uterine tumor.

The doctors gave her three choices: an abortion, which would save her life and allow her to have more children but take the life of her baby; a complete hysterectomy, which would save her life but prevent her from having more children and take her baby’s life; or removal of the fibroma only, which posed the risk of future complications but could save the life of her baby.

Gianna chose to have only the tumor removed. She was willing to lose her life for the sake of her baby’s. She knew that she may not make it through delivery, but she made it very clear that if a choice needed to be made between saving her own life or the child’s, the child needed to be saved.

Throughout her pregnancy, Gianna found strength in the Lord and asked him to take any pain away from the child.

On April 21, 1962 Gianna Emmanuel Molla was successfully delivered by Cesarean section. However, after complications arose with the tumor, Gianna passed away 7 days later on April 28.

Gianna was beatified by Saint Pope John Paul II on April 24, 1994 and canonized as a saint on May 16, 2004. Her husband and children attended her canonization.

During her canonization, Saint Pope John Paul II said, “Shortly before her wedding, in a letter to her future husband, she wrote: "Love is the most beautiful sentiment that the Lord has placed in the spirit of men.”

“Following the example of Christ, who ‘having loved his own ... he loved them to the end’ (John 13:1) this holy mother of a family was heroically faithful to the commitment she took on the day of her marriage. The supreme sacrifice that sealed her life testifies that only the one who has the courage to give himself totally to God and to neighbor finds fulfillment,” he added.

The pope described her as, "a simple, but more than ever, significant messenger of divine love."

St. Gianna Beretta Molla is the patron saint of mothers, physicians, and unborn children.

Feast date: Feb 21

Saint Robert Southwell, SJ (c. 1561 – February 21 1595,) an English Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, is one of the 40 martyrs of England & Wales murdered during the English anti-Catholic Reformation.

Robert was born in Norfolk, the youngest of eight children in a well-to-do family with Catholic sympathies in the midts of the anti-Catholic sentiment started by the Anglican reformation.

In 1576, he was sent to France to study with the Jesuits at the English college at Douai. After completing his education, he requested to join the Society of Jesus, but was rejected because he was too young and the Jesuit seminary was temporarily closed because of the growing confrontations between French and Spanish forces.

But in a show of his conviction, in 1578, set off on foot to Rome to make his case for becoming a Jesuit.

After being admitted to the probation house of Sant' Andrea on 17 October 1578, and after the completion of the novitiate, Southwell began studies in philosophy and theology at the Jesuit College in Rome, and was ordained in 1584.That same year, Queen Elizabeth had passed an edict establishing the death penalty for any British Catholic priest or religious who joined a religious order abroad to remain in England longer than forty days.

Two years later, Southwell requested to be sent back to England as a clandestine Jesuit missionary with Henry Garnet.

Southwell preached and ministered successfully for six years, publishing Catholic catechism and writing spiritual poetry that would make him one of the most important Barroque English poets.

But the Queen's cheif priest-hunter, Richard Topcliffe, pressured a young Catholic woman he had raped to betray Southwell. Once captured, he was initially jailed in Topcliffe's personal prison and tortured 13 different times, trying to get him to name Catholic families involved in the clandestine Catholic mission. Fr. Robert did not betray a single name.

Transferred to the infamous Tower of London, Southwell endured cold and solitude for two and a half years, reading the Bible, the works of St. Bernard and praying the Breviary. During that time he also wrote the most important portion of his poetry.

In 1595, Southwell was finally put on trial accused of treason. During the trial, he admitted being a Jesuit to minister to Catholics, but strongly denied ever being involved in “designs or plots against the queen or kingdom."

After the predictable guilty verdict, he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

On 21 February 1595, in Tyburn, the Jesuit was allowed to address the crowd about his mission as a Catholic priest, then pronounced the words of Psalm 30 prayed in Complines: in manus tuas commendabo spiritum meum (Into your hands i commend my spirit) and made the sign of the cross.

After he was hanged and his severed head presented to the crowd, the traditional shout of “traitor” was replaced by utter silence.

Soon after his martyrdom, his body of poetry started to circulate in manuscripts among Catholics, and later in 1595 his “St Peter's Complaint” and other poems were printed. By 1636, 14 editions had been printed, and other collections of poems, including “Mary Magdalen's Funeral Tears” and Maeoniae.

Southwell was canonized in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Many critics believe that the poem that expresses the best of his dramatic message to his fellow persecuted Catholics in England is “Life is But Losse,” which he wrote in prison:

By force I live, in will I wish to dye;
In playnte I passe the length of lingring dayes;
Free would my soule from mortall body flye,
And tredd the track of death's desyred waies:
Life is but losse where death is deemed gaine,
And loathed pleasures breed displeasinge payne.

.....

Come, cruell death, why lingrest thou so longe?
What doth withould thy dynte from fatall stroke?
Nowe prest I am, alas! thou dost me wronge,
To lett me live, more anger to provoke:
Thy right is had when thou hast stopt my breathe,
Why shouldst thoue stay to worke my dooble deathe?

.....

Avaunt, O viper! I thy spite defye:
There is a God that overrules thy force,
Who can thy weapons to His will applie,
And shorten or prolonge our brittle course.
I on His mercy, not thy might, relye;
To Him I live, for Him I hope to die.

Feast date: Nov 26

Feast date: Aug 18

Not much is known about Saint Helena but it is probable that she was born in the middle of the third century in Asia Minor. She worked as a stable maid as a young woman, according to Saint Anselm.

Helena later married a young Roman official, Constantius Chlorus, who took her as wife despite their difference in social status. In around the year 270 she gave birth to their first son, Constantine.

Constantius quickly rose in the ranks of the Roman military and due to political reasons he was forced to repudiate Helena and marry another. Helena remained at a distance as she watched her son rise in the court of Diocletian.

In 305, Constatius, now Augustus, and Constantine went to Britain to fight against the Picts. Constantine became emperor when his father died unexpectedly at York. As the new emperor, his first action was to recall his mother Helena.

Shortly after her son’s accession, Helena converted to Christianity. Her faith moved her to care for the poor by providing for their needs through generous almsgiving. She also worked to liberate prisoners and those sent to the mines or into exile.

Constantine’s reign took a downward turn when he ordered the death of his son and that of his second wife. The family tragedy pushed Helena to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 326. There she ordered the construction of the Basilicas of the Nativity in Bethlehem and of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. The work was overseen by Helena whose faith was rewarded when the True Cross was discovered. The identity of the Cross was confirmed when a dead man was laid on the wood and was miraculously restored to life. The three nails from the Crucifixion were given by Helena to Constantine.

Helena died in an unknown location in 329. Constantine had her body brought back to Rome.