ROME – The Rite of Canonization Oct. 11 included a brief biography of each of the new saints, read by Archbishop Angelo Amato, S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and a sung litany of saints. Then Pope Benedict XVI pronounced a formal declaration of canonization. Relics of each saint were brought...Read More

St. Lydia Purpuraria was a lay woman who worked in Thyatira. She dealt purple cloth, which was the most expensive type of cloth in the first century. She is the first known convert of St. Paul the Apostle. St. Lydia Purpuraria is patron saint of dyers.Read More

A familiar face is returning to the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien has appointed Sister Maria Luz Ortiz as his new delegate to religious. The Mission Helper of the Sacred Heart, who previously served as director of the Archdiocesan Hispanic Pastoral Center in Baltimore, will begin her new assignment Oct. 15.Read More

St. Clement I, who was born in Rome, became the fourth pope circa 88. He wrote “Epistle to the Corinthians,” and his name is in the canon of the Mass. He worked with St. Paul the Apostle, according to St. Jerome and Origen. The pope was martyred under Trajan’s persecutions in 101. St. Clement I...Read More