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Mary, from Magdala in Galilee, was a disciple of Jesus who used her resources, or wealth, to help support Him and His followers.

Not mentioned in the Bible, Joachim and Anne are first named as the parents of Mary in the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, which may date from the second century.

Born in his family’s ancestral Basque castle, Inigo Lopez de Loyola was a page in Castile and a soldier wounded in battle before he experienced a personal conversion that has had profound consequences for the Church ever since.

Born near Lyon, France, this farmer’s son studied for the priesthood for many years, and eventually was ordained more for his devoutness and good will than for other qualities.

Though 10 years younger than her townsman, Francis of Assisi, Clare was drawn to his radical message of serving God in abject poverty.

Raimund Kolbe, born in Russian Poland, was ordained a Franciscan, Maximilian Mary, in Rome.

(CNA) — Catholics and many other Christians celebrate the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on this Holy Day of Obligation, recalling the spiritual and physical departure of the mother of Jesus Christ from the earth, when both her soul and her body were taken into the presence of God.

For Fr. John Nahrgang, the call to the priesthood came not from a Catholic upbringing, but from the consistent whisper of Mary to his heart.

What one East Valley boy once filled in the blank with for what he wanted to be when he grew up is now a reality. That’s not to say his path to priesthood was direct.

The Phoenix Suns may have gotten the first pick in the NBA Draft, but the Phoenix Sons are currently building their all-star team to win the fourth annual JP2 Classic, a basketball tournament between the priests and the seminarians of the Diocese of Phoenix.