Melanie Rigney

After losing his family, St. Alphonsus Rodriguez could have become bitter and angry with God. Instead he became a Jesuit lay brother and served the community as a doorkeeper.

The Dominican Thomas Aquinas was one of the Catholic Church’s greatest theologians and philosophers. But the road to all that wisdom began when he was a youngster and asked the same question so many children do: “What is God?”

Spanish De La Salle Brother Jaime Barbal was forced to give up teaching Latin because of his hearing deterioration. When he was arrested during the Spanish Civil War his attorneys encouraged him not to mention being a religious brother. But Jaime refused and was executed by a firing squad.

Dutch-born saint Charles of Mount Argus spent 35 years in Ireland and England, never really mastering the language. But as a priest his friendliness and healing gifts made him beloved by all.

María Natividad Venegas de la Torre (1868-1959) had a choice. She could treat the soldiers entering her hospital with the same disrespect that their government showed Catholics. Or she could meet them with courtesy and hospitality.

An Auschwitz prisoner had escaped, and the Nazi authorities decided that 10 other men would be starved to death in exchange. When one of the 10 selected cried out for his wife and children, Father Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to take his place.