St. Junipero Serra is the Father of California. He founded the missions that brought the Catholic faith and modern agriculture techniques to California.
Episodes about "religious men"
The Josephites
The Josephites separated from the Mill Hill priests to serve freed slaves and all other black Catholics in the US. They faced faced terrible racism, segregation
St. John Neumann
Born in Prachatice, Bohemia, St. John Neumann was the fourth bishop of Philadelphia and a Redemptorist. He was known for humility, and deep concern for souls.
Dom Virgil Michel, OSB
Virgil Michel was a Benedictine monk who spearheaded the liturgical movement in the U.S. and believed that liturgy should be at the center of catechesis and social justice.
Fr. Juan de Padilla, Proto-Martyr of the USA
Fr. Juan de Padilla accompanied Coronado into what is today Kansas and became the first martyr on American soil for his efforts to evangelize.
Father Stephen Badin
Fr. Stephen Badin was the first priest ordained in the United States, he ministered to the Catholics in Kentucky, and is connected to Notre Dame.
St. Damien of Molokai
Fr. Damien de Veuster arrived in Hawaii in 1864 as a missionary. He ministered to the leper colony at Kalaupapa, Molokai, where he died of leprosy.
St. Rose Priory and the Coming of the Dominicans
St. Rose Priory in Kentucky is the original home of the Dominicans in America. Dominic Edward Fenwick brought the Order of Preachers to the US and established them on the Kentucky frontier.
Fr. Pierre-Jean de Smet, SJ
The Jesuit missionary Fr. de Smet met, befriended, and evangelized nearly every native tribe west of the Mississippi in the mid-19th century and, as Tom and Noëlle Crowe tell us, was prized among nearly everyone for his joy, his wisdom, his holiness, and his tirelessness in bringing Christ to all he could meet.