“Everything—every person, every contradiction—should find us in a state of joy and interior peace.” Louis Brisson was born in France in the summer of 1817.

Katharine Drexel was born in Philadelphia in 1858.

John Baptist de La Salle had education, wealth, and a comfortable position as a canon of the Cathedral of Rheims when a chance encounter changed the course of his life.

“Act from patience, gentle firmness, and prayer.

Angela Merici came from a family of Italian famers.

Born in Spain in 1840, Henry de Osso was a devout child, who would forego playtime to accompany the parish priest on sick visits.

Louis-Stanislas-Henri Cormier was born on the feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1832.

Eager to revivify the faith in France, Moreau was an effective local missionary.

“Become saints by doing good to the girls entrusted to you.” Annunziata Cochetti’s parents died by the time she was seven, and Annunziata was raised by her grandmother.

“In the face of anti-social and anti-Catholic schools, alternative schools must be opened whose mission is to direct, to define and distinguish good and evil; schools that may disarm the enemies by giving the true definition.” Francisco Palau y Quer came from a devout Catholic farming family in Spain.