Religious Saints

Three men go to sleep and have a similar dream. In it, a young woman appears to them. While they know nothing of her, she knows quite a lot about them. One is a judge; one is an ambitious businessman and the third is a man struggling to find meaning in his life's work. None of them suspect that the strange woman they meet in their dreams will affect their lives in ways that prove to be fatefully consequential. Her name is Perpetua, a young woman and mother arrested, condemned and executed in North Africa in the first decade of the third century, a time when Roman law sanctioned the public ...

The past is seldom hushed. All that needs to be heard will find a way to reach those willing to listen. After years of roaming, Leta Purviance finds herself on the receiving end of what she feels will satisfy her longing heart. Settling into the slower rhythms of life in Quay, South Carolina, she hopes to find peace for her soul in the fields of a flower farm. A handsome and headstrong neighbor, a wise old woman from up the creek, and a grandmother with a load of regrets, all entangle their lives with each other in the wild beauty of the low country.

As two of the most Catholic countries, religious holidays are bountiful in both Spain and Portugal, where many of the same feast days and ferias are celebrated. Of Portugal’s 13 annual legal holidays, seven – more than half – are religious. Spain has ten national holidays of which seven – 70% -- are also based on religious observances.

A teenage girl named Thecla is sitting at her bedroom window listening to a man share stories nearby. Her mother and fiancé order her to stop. But Thecla, trapped in a world that expects her to marry and have children, refuses. This man, Paul, is talking about a world she wants to believe in: an inner world of freedom to define her own life. And he’s talking about a kind of love she hasn’t known before—a love that asks her to be true to who she is within.

Ex-priest Stephen H. Donnelly’s memoir, A Saint and a Sinner, is an immersive experience into the world of a Catholic priest and a brutally honest account of Stephen’s journey of sinfulness. At age 42, Stephen was ordained a Roman Catholic priest. As he stood before God, the bishop, and the congregation, he made promises he struggled to keep. Three years into his priesthood, he descended into a world of cocaine and alcohol abuse.

Meet young José and his friend Trino as the war breaks out in their hometown of Sahuayo. Follow José through his own struggles as the violence escalates, up to his joining the Cristero army in 1927 to fight for freedom of religion. Captured by government forces, José refused to deny his faith in exchange for his freedom.

Love like poets, live like saints. This unique exploration of people such as Saint Thérèse, George MacDonald, and C.S. Lewis offers insight into 11 of the world's most thoughtful and authentic Christ followers. Weaving biography and spiritual formation together, Poets and Saints reminds us of the convictions that set us apart as Christians - and the truth that has set us free in every generation.

While a young man, Devi Mukherjee worked with Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian resistance movement and was imprisoned for five months. After release, Devi began a spiritual quest throughout India, traveling some 45 years at various times.

La presente obra fue escrita por el Conde de Saint Germain, para servir de enseñanza a su amigo Filocasto, y redactada dentro de uno de los calabozos de la Santa Inquisición, en Roma, donde el autor había sido encerrado. El manuscrito original se encuentra en la Biblioteca de Troyes, en Francia y posee un valor esotérico incalculable. Los estudiantes de Metafísica se nutrirán con el mensaje que comparte el Maestro Saint Germain en este libro. En él se encuentran sintetizadas tres grandes manifestaciones del hermetismo: La gnóstica, la rosacruz y la masonería hermética.

While St. Francis of Assisi is one of the most beloved saints in history, the relevancy of St. Francis for our times in light of the election of Pope Francis has yet to be explored. This book is written with the intention of filling that gap. While it is biographical in nature, it also freely explores themes that relate to St. Francis but are not a part of his life.

One part biography, one part prayer book, The Life and Prayers of Saint Francis of Assisi is an essential book for any Christian. Saint Francis of Assisi is quite possibly the most popular of all Christian saints. Perhaps it is his adoration for all living things or his unrelenting generosity that has made so many people open their hearts to him.

The world needs saints to show it the way to true humanity. The church needs saints to show it how to live out its calling. The witness of the lives of the saints is a powerful testimony to the reality of God’s plan and the possibility for truly following it in one’s life. So often, we do not see this witness. We see hypocrisy and mediocrity among Christians. That is why we must look to the saints - the ones who really followed the words of Christ and let them be carried out fully in their lives. The saints also give us a reason to hope.

Among all the various figures in 19th century America who left controversial legacies, it is hard to find one as influential as Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Mormonism, and the Latter-Day Saint movement. Revered as a prophet on the level of Moses by some, reviled as a perpetrator of large-scale fraud by others, what everyone can agree on is that Joseph Smith founded a religious movement that played a crucial role in the settlement of the West, especially in Utah.

In Saint Augustine's Confessions, he writes about how much he regrets having led a sinful and immoral life. He discusses his regrets for following the Manichaean religion and believing in astrology. He writes about Nebridius's role in helping to persuade him that astrology was not only incorrect but evil, and Saint Ambrose's role in his conversion to Christianity.

Saint Matthew is an example of God’s love and mercy not just for those who are saints, but also for those who are struggling with sin and feeling disconnected from God. The many layers of Matthew’s story teach us about true love and the powerful and sustaining force God’s love offers to us.

More and more people - especially millennials - are turning to religion as a source of comfort and solace in our increasingly chaotic world. But rather than live a cloistered life of seclusion, the Daughters of Saint Paul actively embrace social media, using platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to evangelize, collectively calling themselves the #MediaNuns. In this collective memoir, eight of these Sisters share their own discernment journeys, struggles and crises of faith that they’ve overcome, and episodes from their daily lives.

As “Mormon royalty” within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Martha Beck was raised in a home frequented by the Church’s high elders—known as the apostles—and her existence was framed by their strict code of conduct. Wearing her sacred garments, she married in a secret temple ceremony—but only after two Mormon leaders ascertained that her “past contained no flirtation with serious sins, such as committing murder or drinking coffee.” She went to church faithfully with the other brothers and sisters of her ward.

Pope St. John Paul II was known for many things. In his youth, he had a passion for the theater. He eventually became one of the most charismatic and influential bishops in the Roman Catholic College of Cardinals. During his long pontificate, he was one of the most beloved, but also most controversial, people in the world. Still, in order to understand what motivated his life, it is crucial to understand that he was - above all else - a thoroughly devoted and convicted disciple of Jesus Christ.

In 1384, a poor and illiterate peasant woman named Ermine moved to the city of Reims with her elderly husband. Her era was troubled by war, plague, and schism within the Catholic Church, and Ermine could easily have slipped unobserved through the cracks of history. After the loss of her husband, however, things took a remarkable but frightening turn. For the last 10 months of her life, Ermine was tormented by nightly visions of angels and demons.

In 1979, 24-year-old Maura O'Halloran moved to Japan and became the first woman ever admitted to Toshoji Temple. Soshin-san (O'Halloran's monastic name) labored through three intense years of work and study in preparation for becoming a dharma teacher. Her life ended abruptly during a trip to Thailand, and today Soshin-san is revered as a Buddhist saint. The material in this program is from her private and heartfelt journals and letters.