St. Junípero Serra: Always Forward, Never Back

A cloistered nun with $200, a garage, and money from fishing lures built a global Catholic TV network — then handed it over. Dom Bettinelli on Mother Angelica, her fights with bishops, and the surrenders that defined her. The post Mother Angelica: The Nun Who Let Go appeared first on StarQuest Media.

He ranked the schoolmasters below his own valet — then spent the rest of his life proving himself wrong. The canon who gave away a fortune, moved in with the men he despised, and accidentally invented the modern classroom. The post St. John Baptist de La Salle: The Canon Who Sat Down appeared first on StarQuest Media.

She nearly drowned at 7 and feared the sea all her life, then crossed it more than 20 times. Dom Bettinelli tells how Mother Cabrini turned 2 convents' rejections and an archbishop's "go home" into 67 institutions for immigrants. The post Mother Cabrini: The Woman Who Was Afraid Of The Water And Crossed It Anyway appeared first on StarQuest Media.

He walked 250 miles rather than ride a horse, and begged mercy for his friend's killers. He also signed off on whippings. Dom Bettinelli doesn't let either half of Junípero Serra's record disappear. The post St. Junípero Serra: Always Forward, Never Back appeared first on StarQuest Media.

Stranded on a becalmed orange boat off Sicily, a sick Anglican clergyman wrote six lines that would outlive his career. Dom traces John Henry Newman's path from Oxford star to disgraced convert to Doctor of the Church. The post St. John Henry Newman: One Step Enough for Me appeared first on StarQuest Media.

Locked in a freezing Italian quarantine house with a dying husband, a young widow named Elizabeth started asking questions about the Eucharist. Dom Bettinelli traces her path from teenage despair to America's first native-born saint. The post St. Elizabeth Ann Seton appeared first on StarQuest Media.

A cannonball ended his career at 30. Stuck in bed with a ruined leg, Iñigo López de Loyola noticed which daydreams left him empty and which left him happy. Dom Bettinelli traces how that one habit of attention built the Jesuits. The post St. Ignatius of Loyola: The Cannonball Saint appeared first on StarQuest Media.

He couldn't stand the sight of a leper. The smell made him physically sick. Then one afternoon he got down off his horse and kissed one, and that was the day Francis of Assisi became a saint. Dom Bettinelli tells the story without the birdbath. The post St. Francis Of Assisi: The Man Who Kissed The Leper appeared first on StarQuest Media.

He walked out of Rome at 17 and hid in a cave for three years. Dom Bettinelli traces Benedict of Nursia from Subiaco to Monte Cassino, where he wrote 73 chapters that have outlived the empire, the Lombards, the Saracens, and Allied bombs. The post St. Benedict of Nursia: The Man Who Built the West appeared first on StarQuest Media.

A married fisherman walks off his boat, denies his Lord three times, and dies upside-down in Rome. Dom Bettinelli traces Simon Peter from the Sea of Galilee to the bones beneath St. Peter's high altar. The saint who broke and was put back together. The post St. Peter: The Rock Who Cracked and Held appeared first on StarQuest Media.