St. Columban, the most famous of the Irish missionary-monks was born at West Leinster in Ireland. His family was wealthy and he received a good education.

As a handsome teenager, he had a great wish to serve God but he was also tempted by all the pleasures the world had to offer him. He finally decided to become a monk.

His mother could not bear the thought of him leaving her and she even blocked the door to stop him from leaving. However, Columban felt the call to serve God in a quiet monastery.

After many years as a monk in Ireland, Columban and twelve other monks sailed to France. There was a shortage of priests there at that time. The French people were inspired by the lives of the monks and came to them for prayer and healing.

These holy men did penance, prayed a lot and lived in charity. Many young men were attracted to this holy way of life. They came and asked to join the monks. Soon the monks were building other monasteries to house all the disciples of St. Columban.

There were some people, however, who thought the rules of these monks were too strict. St. Columban also faced danger when he spoke to the king about his sins. The king immediately put him in prison. Later, he and his Irish monks had to leave France.

St. Columban, though quite old, still tried to preach to unbelievers in Switzerland. When he was seventy, he went into Italy and defended the faith against the Arians who were against the Catholic teachings.

In his letters to Pope St. Boniface IV, St. Columban showed his great devotion to the Holy Father. He said, “All we Irish, living in the most distant parts of the earth, are bound to the Chair of St. Peter.”

In his last years, St. Columban built the great monastery of Bobbio in Italy. Columbanus always enjoyed being in the forests and caves and as he walked through the woods, birds and squirrels would ride on his shoulders.

When he knew his time was near, he went into a cave alone and stayed there until he died on November 23, 615. After his death, both the Irish and the Italians were very devoted to this wonderful missionary.

Catherine lived in early Christian times and was the daughter of a wealthy pagan couple of Alexandria, Egypt. She was a very beautiful girl whose great interest was in learning. Catherine was very good at science and public speaking.

She loved to study deep questions of philosophy and religion. She began to read about Christianity. Then one day she received a vision and decided to become a Christian.

St. Catherine was only eighteen when Emperor Maxentius began making the Christians suffer. Without fear, lovely young Catherine told him that he was being very cruel and would be punished by God.

When he spoke of the pagan gods, she very plainly showed him that they were false. Maxentius could not answer her arguments, so he sent for fifty of his best pagan philosophers.

Once again, Catherine proved the truth of her religion. All fifty philosophers were convinced that she was right and decided to become Christians. In great anger, Maxentius had every one of them killed.

Then, he tried to win her by offering her a queen’s crown. When Catherine refused the crown, he had her beaten and thrown into prison.

While Maxentius was away at camp, his wife and an officer were very curious to hear this amazing Christian girl speak and went to her prison cell. All who heard her knew she spoke the truth and as a result they and two hundred soldiers of the guard were converted and became Christians.

When Maxentius found out, they were all put to death. Then he ordered Catherine to be placed on a wheel full of spikes to be tortured to death. When the wheel began to spin, it suddenly snapped in two and broke.

Finally, St. Catherine was beheaded. She has always been the patroness of Christian philosophers.