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Bernadette was 14 years old. In one of the apparitions, the Virgin told Bernadette to drink of the water in the spring and wash in it. However, there was no spring of water at the grotto. Later that day, a spring appeared in the spot where Bernadette had conversed with the Virgin Mary. Many who drank of the water received remarkable physical healings. When Bernadette was twenty-two years old, she entered the Sisters of Charity Religious Order in Nevers, France. She passed her remaining years in prayer and seclusion despite almost constant sickness and pain. Pope Pius XI authenticated her visions and the veneration of the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Lourdes. To this day, Lourdes remains one of the greatest healing centers in the world.

Father John Marie Vianney had not been a parish priest long when the tiny parish of Ars became vacant and needed a pastor. It was the poorest and most remote parish in the diocese of Lyons, France. The bishop assigned Father John Marie to the parish of Ars and said to him, ‘There is hardly any love in that parish. It will be up to you to bring love there.’

Paradoxically, the parish of Ars, so small and so poor, through the efforts of Father John Marie Vianney, became the focal center of spirituality for all of France. The mayor of Ars described it correctly when he said, ‘We have a poor church but a holy priest’ and a visitor to Ars was so impressed by Father John Marie that he said of him, ‘I have seen God in a man.’ During the last year of his life,100,000 people traveled to the tiny village to make their confession to Father John Marie Vianney and to receive his blessing. Pope Benedict XVI stated, “St. John Marie Vianney’s greatest work was his life. His existence was a living sermon.”

Father Damien de Veuster was born in Tremelo, Belgium on January 3, 1840. After his ordination to the priesthood, Father Damien served as a missionary in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaiian government had a leper colony on the island of Molokai, where people suffering from Hansen’s disease lived in isolation. The bishop of Honolulu did not feel he could ask any priest in his diocese to serve at Molokai as exposure to the disease would be a potential death sentence. Father Damien volunteered to serve at the leper settlement and received the permission.

At Molokai, Father Damien bandaged the sores of the lepers, built shelters for them, constructed an orphanage, set up a school, built a reservoir to supply clean water, and grew crops to insure an adequate food supply. To the lepers, Father Damien became their doctor, their nurse, their advocate, their counselor, their father and their friend. He brought order and peace to an Island where there had been no law and no hope. Like the Good Samaritan, Father Damien is an example for all who wish to be involved in the struggle for a more just, a more humane world. Father Damien died of leprosy at the age of 49 after serving 16 years among the lepers of Molokai and a total of 25 years in all, in the Hawaiian missions.

St. André Bessette, who was born in Quebec, Canada, served as a lay brother in the Congregation of the Holy Cross. During his lifetime he was known as a wonderworker and thousands of miraculous healings were attributed to his prayerful intercession. He became commonly known as the ‘miracle man of Montreal.’ He had the gift of prophecy, reading of hearts and more. Through his great love for St. Joseph, he founded St. Joseph’s Oratory in 1904. For the rest of his life, he daily received long lines of sick people who flocked to the Oratory to ask him for his prayers. Later in his life, he needed four secretaries to handle the 80,000 letters he received each year. When he passed away on January 6, 1937, over a million people attended his funeral.

Father Solanus Casey (1870-1957) a Capuchin Franciscan priest, possessed extraordinary faith, hope, and love which overflowed into every aspect of his life. At the Capuchin monastery in Detroit, Michigan, where he served for many years, he was given the job of doorkeeper and it was as doorkeeper that his amazing spiritual gifts came to be known and recognized. People of all ages, creeds, and economic backgrounds found themselves drawn to him and they sought him out. He was known for his remarkable abilities as a spiritual counselor, as well as for his great attention to the sick, to whom he directed his attention and his prayers. He manifested great love and compassion which extended to the animal kingdom as well. Countless people were healed by his touch.

“We should foster a social consciousness which will help us to meet the needs of our neighbors, and to discern and seek to remove the sources of injustice in society. . .No human anxiety or sorrow should leave the disciples of Jesus Christ indifferent. But the world needs more than just social reformers. It needs saints. Holiness is not the privilege of a few but a gift offered to all.” – St..John Paul II

About the author: Diane Allen’s writings have appeared in the North American Voice of Fatima magazine, the Voice of Padre Pio magazine, Canticle magazine, Padre Pio Foundation of America publication, and Station of the Cross publication. She began writing the quarterly Padre Pio newsletter in 1999. She has been a guest on EWTN’s Global Catholic Radio program as well as on Radio Veritas worldwide Catholic Radio and Radio Maria U.S. and has been featured in the National Catholic Register. Be sure to visither Facebook page and her Instagram page