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St Conrad of Parzham (St Conrad de Parzham) Feast Day– April 22 St Conrad of Parzham, whose baptismal name was John, was the son of the devout and honest couple George Birndorfer and Gertrude Niedermayer. He was born on a farm near the town of Parzham in Bavaria in the year 1818. From his earliest years, St Conrad of Parzham gave indications of his future sanctity by his modesty and love of solitude. The fervor of his devotion was noticeable especially when he prayed in church, the distant location of which was no hindrance to his visiting it frequently even...

For more than 100 years, an order of Capuchin Franciscan priests has prayed and preached in the Kanawha Valley, celebrating baptisms and marriages, comforting the bereaved, ministering to the needs of generation after generation of Catholics, always based in a small church on the West Side of Charleston. As of today, the Capuchin presence on the West Side, in Charleston, in the Kanawha Valley and in the state of West Virginia, is no more. The order’s provincial minister, based in Pittsburgh, made the decision to reassign the two remaining Capuchin priests in the state after concluding the community here could...

When Father Solanus Casey died in Detroit in 1957, all he left after 86 years on this earth were a small crucifix, an old pair of sandals, several religious pictures, a wooden statue of St. Anthony, some dog-eared religious books, a knot of heavily darned socks and a framed, 40-year-old picture of his family. Bl. Solanus Casey (1870-1957) But he left another rich legacy — a long list of curious "favors" to an equally long list of devoted believers. Father Solanus Casey had come to Detroit to be a Capuchin friar. During his years as a priest he spent...

Felice da Nicosia (1715-1787) VATICAN CITY, OCT. 19, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is the biography issued by the Holy See of Felix of Nicosia (1715-1787), who will be canonized with four other blessed this Sunday by Benedict XVI. * * * Felix of Nicosia was born of the marriage between Filippo Amoroso and Carmela Pirro, in Nicosia, Sicily, on Nov. 5, 1715. He was baptized on the same day, and was given the names Philip James. His father, a shoemaker by trade, died Oct. 12, 1715, leaving his widow with three children. The family was poor but very religious. As...

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, US Virgin Islands - She'd been a spiritual wanderer for 20 years, studying century-old teachings of a Russian philosopher, seeking tranquility in Zen and Hinduism. For Charlene Kehoe, Catholicism was a relic of a past she thought she'd left far behind. Her bond with the Catholic Church of her youth had frayed to little more than a seasonal reflex - one token visit at Christmas that was more social than religious. And even that one service could be a sharp reminder of why she'd left. ''I was so disgusted, I think I walked out after Communion,'' Kehoe said...