Saints and Biographies

Father Hardon’s writings on saints and biographies explore the lives and spiritual witness of holy men and women throughout Church history. These articles examine virtue, conversion, sacrifice, sanctity, and the example the saints provide for faithful Christian living.

Saint Ignatius Loyola – Jesuit Saint

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The plan, then, is that we will reflect on some of the outstanding saints of the Society of Jesus, see some of their spirituality and see what we can learn from both their sanctity and their zeal for souls. The logical one to begin with is St. Ignatius. We […]

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen – Author, Orator and Missionary

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. During the Tre Ore sermon which he preached on Good Friday some years ago, Fulton J. Sheen asked his audience: “If Jesus Christ thirsted for souls, must not a Christian also thirst? If He came to cast fire on the earth, must not a Christian be enkindled? Has he […]

Saint John Berchmans – Jesuit Saint

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. John Berchmans, I thought I would cover all the young Jesuit saints to make sure that I didn’t slight any of them. St. John Berchmans was born in 1599 in Berbont, Belgium and died in Rome in 1621 at the ripe age of twenty-two. Unlike Saints Stanislaus and Aloysius […]

Saint John Francis Regis – Jesuit Saint

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. After some lapse of time, our conference this evening will be on St. John Francis Regis. In many ways he is the Cure de Ars of the Society of Jesus. He was born in 1597 in France at a town called, Fontcuvarte. His family was not wealthy, but also […]

Saint John Ogilvie – Jesuit Saint

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Our conference today is on, for a change, a saint from the British Isles, John Ogilvie. He was born in Scotland of the nobility in 1589 and by that time Scotland had pretty well been lost to the Catholic Church so his up-bringing was Presbyterian. His father, to give […]

Saint Joseph Pignatelli – Jesuit Saint

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. I would like to speak to you in the present conference on the saint that I suppose many of you have never heard of, but after St. Ignatius, is the most important Jesuit in our history. His name is St. Joseph Pignatelli. The reason he’s so important is because […]

Saint Peter Canisius – Jesuit Saint

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. I thought for the feast of Our Lady’s Assumption, we could speak about St. Peter Canisius. Among the Jesuit saints, it is Peter Canisius that brought me into the Society of Jesus. Our pastor in Cleveland, when I was in grammar school, would come in every week, instruct us […]

Saint Peter Claver – Jesuit Saint

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. I thought we would address ourselves in todays’ conference to the priest whom brother Alphonsus Rodriguez had sent to the missions, St. Peter Claver who the Church has declared patron of all missionaries to the Negroes. He was born in Catalonia, Spain in 1581 and died on Our Lady’s […]

Saint Robert Southwell – Jesuit Saint

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. My apologies for breaking up your regular order. As you probably gathered, my life is not that regular, it is very unpredictable. Our saint for this evening is St. Robert Southwell, the English Jesuit, poet and martyr. He was born in 1561, died in 1595 at the ripe old […]

Saint Stanislaus – Jesuit Saint

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. You’re probably wondering what saint are we having this time. I chose St. Stanislaus. He is the youngest of the Jesuit saints, born in Poland in 1550 and died in Rome on August the 15, 1568 at the age of eighteen. His father was a Polish senator by the […]

The Spirituality of Mother Teresa

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. It is a privilege to say a few words about Mother Teresa at this first anniversary Mass, commemorating her death on September the fifth, 1997. I thought I would concentrate on some of the features of her spiritual life that I had come to know in my twenty-five years […]

St. John the Baptist

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The one person whom the Liturgy most features during the season of Advent is John the Baptist. He was described by the Savior as the greatest person ever born of woman. We may be sure the Savior excluded himself, who is a Divine Person, and His Mother Mary. But […]

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