Feast of Saint Athanasius:

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Athanasius, the 20th Bishop of Alexandria who lived during the period AD 296 to 373 and is the earliest Doctor of the Church. Because of his championship of the fundamental truth and teaching of the Catholic Church that Jesus is God made man, he is called “The Father of Orthodoxy”, orthodoxy meaning ‘the right teaching’. St Athanasius defended the divine Sonship at the cost of immense personal discomfort, suffering and danger. His whole life was shaped around his defense of the divinity of Christ at a time when powerful imperial forces and majority of the church had fallen into the Arian Heresy. This earned him the saying ‘Athanasius contra mundum – Athanasius against the world.” Cardinal Newman compares him to St. Paul as a defender of the Christ’s divine Sonship.Read more...

Blessed Bartolo Longo:

The story of Blessed Bartolo Longo is one of the most hope rendering stories of conversion of a hardened sinner to a state of holiness. He was a practising Satanist priest who gave up his wayward life and became the ‘Apostle of the Rosary’. After his conversion, he spent the rest of his life propagating devotion to the Holy Rosary. His writings on the Rosary have inspired thousands including Pope John Paul II who drew several insights from his writings whilst writing the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. Bartolo was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980. ........Read more here...

The Holy Infant of Cebu (Santo Nino de Cebu), Philippines:

The island of Cebu was the first island in Philippines to adopt Christianity. It is in this island that the miraculous statue of the Holy Infant Jesus, also called the 'Santo Nino de Cebu' is enshrined in the Minor Basilica. The statue is believed to have been given as a gift by Magellan to the wife of the then Chief of the island, Rajah Humabon. Magellan who headed the first Spanish expedition to the island converted hundreds of natives to Christianity within a week of his arrival on the island. Though he was killed a few weeks later, the statue of the Holy Infant remained on the island. Over a period of time, the natives came to realise the miraculous powers of the Holy Infant. In 1730 a Church was built by the Augustinian missionaries and the Holy Infant was placed in the Church on January 16, 1740 among great festivities which are observed every year since then. Read more here...

Month of May: Dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary:

The month of May is dedicated to honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. The most commonly followed traditions of honouring the Blessed Virgin include praying the rosary, making a small altar in our home, adorning Mother Mary’s picture or statue with flowers, meditating on her virtues and seeking her intercession in our needs. Among the other important feasts celebrated this month, we begin with the celebration of the Feast of Saint Joseph, the Worker on May 1, Feast of Ascension of the Lord on May 9, Feast of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13, Feast of Pentecosy on May 19 and Feast of Mary Help of Christians on May 24 Read more here...

First Saturday Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

The First Saturday devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a tradition that has been followed by Catholics world over since the early 1900s. The First Five Saturday devotion has its origin in the request made by Our Lady of Fatima to one of the visionaries Lucia Santos long after the Fatima apparitions. Our Lady appeared again to Lucia Santos in December 1925 and requested that a devotion of the first five Saturdays be observed in reparation to her Immaculate Heart. Our Lady said "Look, my daughter, at my Heart encircled by these thorns with which men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, strive to console me, and so I announce: I promise to assist at the hour of death with the grace necessary for salvation all those who, with the intention of making reparation to me, will, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the beads, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary. Read more here...

Eucharist miracle of Cascia in AD 1330:

In the year AD 1330, a priest in Siena was asked to administer the Holy Eucharist to a dying sick man in his town. He agreed to this request but irreverently placed the Consecrated Host between the pages of his breviary instead of placing it in a Pyx and carrying it close to his heart. When he arrived at the sick man’s house and opened the breviary to give him the Communion, he found that the Host was bleeding and there were round stains of blood on the two pages of the breviary where it was placed. He immediately repented for what he had done and rushed to the nearby Augustinian monastery in Siena to confess and narrate what had happened to Blessed Fr. Simon Fidati who was a well known holy man. He granted absolution to the truly repentant priest and took the two pages and placed one in a tabernacle in Perugia and the other he bought to the Augustinian monastery of Cascia in Italy and placed it in a reliquary. Read more here...

The apparition at Savona, Italy:

“Mercy my son, not justice.” Our Lady of Mercy, Savona, Italy

On 18th March 1536, Our Lady appeared to a peasant Antonio Botta as he was going to work in his vineyard. He described the Blessed Virgin Mary as being dressed in white and surrounded by a dazzling light. The vision stood on a large rock overlooking a stream near the river Letimbro. As he knelt before the vision, Our Lady asked him to go to his confessor and exhort the people to prayer and penance. She asked that three Saturdays of fasting be observed and that three processions be organised in honor of God and the Mother of Jesus. Read more here...

Mystical Gift of Saint Catherine de Ricci:

Saint Catherine dei Ricci was an Italian Dominican Tertiary Sister who lived during the period 1522-1590. She joined the Dominican convent of San Vincenzio, at Prato, Italy at the age of 13 and lived a life of severe penances and prayer since then. She was appointed the novice mistress at a young age and then the sub-prioress. Later at the age of 38, she was appointed the Prioress in perpetuity. Her holiness and wisdom brought several people to her, seeking her counsel in their matters. She was blessed with extraordinary mystical gifts which included the stigmata and the gift of bilocation. After a prolonged illness, Saint Catherine died at the age of 68. Her incorrupt remains are held in an ornate reliquary under the main altar of the Basilica of Prato. Read more here...