Our Patrons
Saint John Paul II
Pope John Paul II, also known as Karol Wojtyła, was born in 1920 in Poland. He had a passion for both Catholicism and the intellectual life at a young age. At 22, he entered seminary and began his priestly studies in which he excelled. He was ordained a priest in 1946 and shortly after in 1953, he became a seminarian professor, teaching on moral theology and ethics. In 1958, Karol Wojtyla was ordained a bishop, and in 1964, ordained the archbishop of Krakow. He then participated in the Second Vatican Council. He made a lasting impression there and was elected Pope only 13 years after. He went on to write about the Catechism, the theology of Scripture, the theology of the body, the lay faithful, and the beauty of marriage and the family. Some of his finest works include Veritatis Splendor, Fides et Ratio, Evangelium Vitae, Love and Responsibility, Redemptoris Mater, Letter to Women, and Letter to Artists. He died in 2005 and was canonized a saint shortly after in 2014. John Paul II remains one of the greatest Saints of our time. With teachings directly for young people, he remains an inspiration for holiness, the imaging of God and Mary as man and woman, the intellectual tradition, and how to reverence the gift bestowed upon us all: the gift of life.
Saint Edith Stein
Edith Stein, also known as Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was born in 1891. She was a German Jewish philosopher who had a passion for the intellectual life, despite the obstacles for women in this pursuit. After reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, she converted to Catholicism in 1922 and went on to work at the University of Munster where she translated much of Cardinal Newman and Thomas Aquinas, and wrote Potency and Act, Finite and Eternal Being, as well as her esteemed work Essays on Woman. She departed professorship to join a Carmelite convent, a dream she had carried since her conversion. After the outbreak of World War II, Saint Edith Stein was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942, and died in a concentration camp that same year. She remains an inspiration for her faith, intellect, courage, and teachings on the beauty of womanhood.
Saint Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen, born in Germany in 1098, was a botanist, chemist, poet, mystic, and abbess. But before being acclaimed with such titles, she become a Benedictine nun at the age of 18. She was deeply attuned to God and after receiving continual visions of Christ, she confessed them to her confessor. He encouraged her to write about what Christ was revealing, which she did in Know the Ways. Written with such vigor, her work captured the attention of Pope Eugene II who encouraged her to write more. And write she did! Saint Hildegard had a passion for the dignity of the human person and wrote much on man’s intrinsic value as “living sparks” of God’s love, and the harmony between men and women. Although met with some controversy during her time, hundreds of years later, Pope Benedict XVI declared her a Doctor of the Church in 2012. Thus she remains an inspiration for all young people, pursuing the intellectual life, but especially women, to pray and to write, and to write with passion!
Saint Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo was born in 354 AD in Thagaste, a Roman city in present-day Alegeria. The early life of Saint Augustine, as he wrote, was one effaced by sin but marked by his pivotal conversion at the age of 31 (much of which is credited to the prayers of his mother, Saint Monica). With a newly found but radical faith, he began to harness his robust intellect for the Good, and wrote some of the most treasured books in all of Church history, the Confessions and The City of God. He would go on to become a Church Doctor in 1298 and a Saint soon after in 1303. He remains an inspiration for young people as he serves as both a testimony to God’s abundant mercy, and a witness to the beauty of a life steeped in wonder.