St. Ignatius Delgado, whose feast we celebrate on July 12, was a Spanish missionary and is now one of the martyrs of Vietnam.He was born in Villafeliche, Spain, in 1761, and was raised in a pious family. He became a Dominican priest and served as a missionary in Vietnam for almost 50 years.He was named coadjutor vicar-apostolic at East Tonkin, Vietnam. However, government-sanctioned persecution of Christians began soon after. Ignatius was arrested and locked in a cage, then put on public display for ridicule and abuse, and left to die. He died of hunger and exposure in 1838.The martyr was canonized by Pope John Paul II [...]

On July 11, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Saint Benedict of Nursia, the sixth-century abbot who gave Christian monasticism its lasting foundation in Western Europe. For his historic role as the “Father of Western Monasticism,� St. Benedict was declared a co-patron of Europe (along with Saints Cyril and Methodius). St. Benedict is also the patron saint of Pope Benedict XVI's pontificate.In a 2005 general audience, Pope Benedict XVI said St. Benedict was a “powerful reminder of the indispensable Christian roots� of Europe. He cited the monk's instruction to “prefer nothing to the love of Christ,� and asked his [...]

Beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1926, these eight Franciscan friars and three Maronite laymen were offered the choice of converting to Islam or suffering death in Damascus on July 9, 1860.Thousands of Maronite Christians had already been killed by the Druz in Southern Lebanon in that year and the Druz, an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam, had turned their attention to Damascus where they killed nearly two thousand more.When they had reached the Franciscan convent there, the superior, a spaniard named Fr. Emmanuel Ruiz, who had sheltered the Christians that lived around the convent inside the chapel, was threatened [...]

On July 9 the Church celebrates the feast of the 120 Martyrs of China. Religious persecution has a long history in China, especially persecution of Christians, thousands of whom have died for their faith in the last millennium.On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonised 120 men, women, and children who gave their lives for the faith in China between the years 1648 and 1930. The martyrs include 87 native Chinese and 33 foreign missionaries. The majority were killed during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.“Chinese men and women of every age and state, priests, religious and lay people, showed [...]

Saints Aquila and Priscilla were a Jewish couple from Rome who had been exiled to Corinth, and were friends of St. Paul in the first century. They hosted St. Paul on his visit to that city and were probably converted by him. They are mentioned a few times in the New Testament in glowing terms by their friend Paul, who calls them "my helpers in Christ, who have for my life laid down their own necks" (Romans 16:3-4).They were tentmakers, thus sharing the same profession as Paul, and because of this it is thought that Paul may have worked with them. [...]