St. Paula (Paula of St. Joseph Calasanz)

Ø  Foundress of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary, Sisters of the Pious Schools
Born	On 11 October 1799 at Arenys de Mar, near Barcelona, Spain
Died	On 26 February 1889 at Olesa de Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain of natural causes
Venerated	On 28 November 1988 by Pope John Paul II (decree of heroic virtues)
Beatified	On 18 April 1993 by Pope John Paul II at Rome
Canonized	On 25 November 2001 by Pope John Paul II
Feast	26th February

Daughter of Ramon and Vicenta Fornes Montal. Raised in a large and pious family in a small seaside village. Her father died when Paula was 10 years old. She worked as a seamstress and lace-maker, and helped raise her siblings, then helped in her parish to care for other children. At age thirty, still single and devoting herself privately to God, she and her friend Inez Busquets opened a school in Gerona to provide a good education mixed with spiritual guidance. The school was such a success that she was able to found a college in May 1842, and another school in 1846. To staff and manage the schools, she founded the Daughters of Mary (Pious School Sisters) on 2 February 1847, and took the name Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz. Paula served as the leader of the congregation, and they received approval from Pope Blessed Pius IX in 1860. These schools have now spread to four continents. Her feast is on  Feb. 26.

St. Leonie Aviat (Leonie Françoise de Sales Aviat)

Ø  Co-founded the congregation of the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales along with Blessed Father Louis Brisson Ø  Motto : “Let us work for the happiness of others”
Born	16 September 1844 , Sezanne, France
Died	10 January 1914 , Perugia, Italy
Beatified	27 September 1992, Rome by Pope John Paul II
Canonized	25 November 2001, Rome by Pope John Paul II
Feast	10th Jan

Religious, Co- founder of the Oblates of St. Francis of Sales, she was born in Sézanne, France. The textile factories at the time contracted very young girls who came from the rural areas. Because of this, in 1858 Father Louis Brisson began the St. Francis de Sales Work, to offer them a Christian and human education. In Leonie (this was the future saint´s baptismal name) he found the collaborator he needed. He founded the Sisters Oblates of St. Francis of Sales in 1866. The congregation placed  under the patronage of St. Francis de Sales .Pius X approved its constitutions in 1911. Leonie, who took the name Françoise de Sales when she entered the convent, became the first superior general. In addition to initiatives for labor, she founded schools for general basic education in parishes, and a residence for young girls in Paris. On January 10, 1914 she died in Perugia after entrusting herself totally to God. To her last breath, she remained faithful to the resolution she had taken at the time of her profession: “To forget myself entirely.” Later, her evangelizing work extended to Europe, South Africa and Ecuador, with the motto: “Let us work for the happiness of others.” She was beatified in 1992 and canonized on November 25, 2001. Her feast is on Jan 10th .

St.Maria Crescentia Hoss

Ø  Virgin, Nun of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis
Born	20 October 1682 at Kaufbeuren, Bavaria, Germany
Died	5 April, an Easter Sunday, 1744 at Kaufbeuren, Bavaria, Germany of natural causes
Venerated	2 August 1801 by Pope Pius VII (decree of heroic virtues)
Beatified	7 October 1900 by Pope Leo XIII
Canonized	25 November 2001 by Pope John Paul II
Feast	April 5

Maria Crescentia Hoss , T.O.R., (1682–1744) is a Roman Catholic saint. She was a contemplative nun of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis.   She was born Anna Höss on 20 October 1682 in Kaufbeuren, in Bavaria, Germany,to Matthias Hoss and his wife, Lucia Hoermann, the sixth of their eight children. Only three of the children would survive into adulthood.   Anna was raised devoutly, and knew at an early age that she wanted to become a nun at the local monastery of the Franciscan Tertiary nuns, which occupied the old Meierhof of the town, in whose chapel she often prayed. As a poor weaver, however, her father did not have enough money to pay the customary dowry expected of a candidate, so she was not admitted. In 1703, the Mayor of Kaufbeuren (a Protestant) ,  insist to admit  Anna, the mother of the monastery felt obligated to receive her, and Anna was admitted in June of that year.  The superior, however, resented this and referred to Anna as a "parasite", since she was felt not to be contributing to the community. Nevertheless, Anna received the religious habit and took the name Maria Crescentia.   Though by then she had begun to suffer from poor health--even paralysis, in 1741 she was elected as the monastery's mother superior, serving in that office until her death on 5 April, Easter Sunday, 1744.   In  1900, Mother Crescentia was beatified by Pope Leo XIII. She was canonized on 25 November 2001 by Pope John Paul II . Her monastery was then renamed St. Crescentia Monastery  in her honor. Her feast is April 5.

St.Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello

Ø  Foundress of  Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Providence, who are dedicated to teaching
Born	On 2 October 1791 at Langasco, Campomorone, Italy
Died	On 21 March 1858 at Ronco Scrivia, Italy,  of natural causes
Venerated	On 6 July 1985 by Pope John Paul II (decree of heroic virtues)
Beatified	On 10 May 1987 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized	On 19 May 2002 by Pope John Paul II at Rome, Italy
Feast	21st March

Born on October 2, 1791 as Benedetta Cambiagio in Campomorone , Italy was Saint Benedicta Cambiagio Frassinello. At age 20 she had a profound mystical experience which left her devoted to prayer and desiring a religious life. But she went with her family's wishes and married Giovanni Battista Frassinella in 1816. The lived a normal married life for two years, but Giovanni was impressed with his wife's holiness and desire for religious life. The couple took care of her little sister until she died from cancer in 1825. Giovanni joined the Somaschan Fathers and Benedetta became an Ursuline nun.   Benedicta's started to grow ill in 1826 and she returned home and she began to work with other young women in the area. The work was going so well that her husband was assigned to help. The schools continued to grow and prosper and Sister Benedicta was appointed Promoter of Public Instruction. Even though they lived a chaste life, the unusual relationship developed into gossip from civil and Church authorities. To make sure she did not get in the way of the work, in 1838 Benedicta turned the work over to the bishop and went to live as a nun in Ronco Scrivia.   She did not want to withdraw from the world and start over again, she and five companions founded the Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Providence who are dedicated to teaching and they opened another school. She lived alone and the authorities did not have cause for gossip, and Benedicta spend the rest of her life in prayer and service. She died on March 21, 1858 in Ronco Scrivia of natural causes. She was canonized on May 19, 2002 by Pope John Paul II in Rome.

St.Genoveva Torres Morales

Ø  Foundress of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Angels
Born	On 3 January 1870 in Almenara, Castile, Spain
Died	5 January 1956 in Zaragoza, Spain of natural causes
Beatified	29 January 1995 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized	4 May 2003 by Pope John Paul II at Plaza de Colón, Madrid, Spain
Feast	5th January

Youngest of six children. By the age of eight, both her parents and four of her siblings had died. A child homemaker for her older brother, Genovena grew up a quiet child, accustomed to solitude. She took an interest in spiritual reading around age ten, and early understood that the purpose of all life is to follow God. When she was 13 her left leg became gangrenous and had to be removed; there was no anathesia for the operation, it never properly healed, and she was on crutches the rest of her life.   From 1885 to 1894 she lived at the Mercy Home run by the Carmelites of Charity, healing, learning to sew, and deepening her spiritual life. She wanted to join these sisters, but her health was not good enough. In 1894 she moved in with two other lay women who supported themselves and each other, living a poor but prayerful life. The desire to help poor women grew in Genoveva's, and in 1911 Canon Barbarrós suggested she start a religious community for just such a mission. At the age of 41 ,She established the first community of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Angels  in Valencia, Spain; they would receive papal approval in 1953. It immediately attracted many women, both those needing help, and those wanting to help, and other communities were formed around Spain. Saint Genoveva’s order received papal approval in 1953, three years before her death.  Genoveva spent the rest of her life working for these communities, overcoming her physical and health problems, and even tougher, her own desire for quiet solitude.   The constant establishment of new foundations and communities was difficult for Mother Genoveva, who wished nothing more than to return to her interior solitude, alone with the Lord.  However, she never let her own personal discomfort or physical suffering interfere with the acceptance of God’s call.  She is remembered for saying, "Even if I must suffer greatly, thanks be to God's mercy, I will not lack courage".  Saint Genoveva further inspires us today with her reputed kindness and acceptance of all people as God’s creations, as well as for her sense of humor despite her pain and suffering.

St. Ángela de la Cruz (Angela of the Cross)

Ø  Foundress of the Sisters of the Company of the Cross Ø  Known as  Mother of the Poor
Born	On 30 January 1846 at Seville, Spain
Died	2 March 1932 in Seville, Spain of natural causes
Beatified	5 November 1982 by Pope John Paul II at Seville, Spain
Canonized	4 May 2003 by Pope John Paul II at Plaza de Colón, Madrid, Spain
Feast	2nd March

One of fourteen children born to a poor but pious family, only five of her siblings survived to adulthood. Her father worked as a cook and her mother a laundress in a Trinitarian Fathers convent, and Angela had to quit school at age twelve to work in a shoe factory to help support her family.   She made her First Communion at age eight, Confirmation at nine; she prayed the rosary daily, and had a great devotion as a youth to Christ Crucified. Her piety was so obvious that her employer, Antonia Maldonado, brought her to the attention of Father José Torres Padilla. He became her spiritual director when she was 16, and helped discern if Angela had a call to religious life.   She first tried to join the Carmelites, was refused, and when she was finally accepted at age 19, became so sick that she was forced to return to her family. When she recovered, she began caring for cholera victims, and those even poorer than herself. In 1868 she entered the convent of the Daughters of Charity of Seville, Spain, but again her health failed, and she was forced to return to her parents and the shoeshop. In 1871, with Father Padilla’s blessing, she started a plan whereby she lived at home under a particular Rule, yearly renewing her vows.   On November 1, 1871, Angela made a private pledge to live the evangelical counsels, and in 1873 she received the call from God that would mark the beginning of her "new mission". During prayer, Angela saw an empty cross standing directly in front of the one upon which Jesus was hanging. She understood immediately that God was asking her to hang from the empty cross, to be "poor with the poor in order to bring them to Christ".   Others were attracted to her life, and on 2 August 1875 the Congregation of the Cross was born. The Congregation works with the sick, the poor, orphans, the homeless, finding them food, medicine, housing, and other needs, living solely on alms, and keeping only enough for themselves to continue their work. Though they started with only Mother Angela and three sisters, they had grown to 23 convents during her life, and continue their good works today.