God’s Little One: St. Margaret of Castello.       One of the most amazing demonstrations of God’s mercy was with “Little Margaret” – St. Margaret of Castello (1287-1320). She was born unusually small – a midget – and hunched-backed, facially deformed and ugly, her right leg shorter than the left causing a dramatic limp, and she was also blind. Unfortunately, her parents treated her very badly, shunned her, and kept her hidden. When she was six, she was locked in a small cell next to a chapel in the forest on her father’s estate. She could never leave, but she could attend Mass and receive the Sacraments. Fortunately, the chaplain on the estate was a kindly priest and regularly visited Margaret.       God gave Margaret many graces of virtue. When she was locked in her cell, she told the priest how unworthy yet blessed she felt to be sharing in the Lord’s Cross in this way. Margaret had extraordinary faith in God and felt all was a gift and a blessing. Needless to say, prayer and recepti

St. Anthony of Padua: the Dead Testify in Court.       St. Anthony of Padua, Italy (1195-1231), originally from Lisbon, Portugal, is one of the most well-known and loved friars of St. Francis of Assisi. God gave Anthony many spiritual gifts such as reading hearts, miracles, healings, raising the dead, bilocation, and more. He was a famous preacher (once preaching to fish who gave him their full attention – when the people would not). He had memorized the entire Bible, and was a beautiful example of the virtue of humility.       Upon St. Anthony’s death, at only 36, there were so many miracles both at his tomb and elsewhere that his cause for sainthood was introduced in the year of his death. He was canonized less than a year later with the Pope stating that he was “unwilling to withhold the honor due on earth from one whom Heaven itself has surrounded with glory.”       In fact, there were so many miracles attributed to St. Anthony that his life was examined in detail by the Bollan

St. Benedict and the Wall of Faith.       In the Book of Job in the Bible, Job says, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh, I shall see my God.” We still await that great day of the General Resurrection that Job spoke of so long ago.       But meanwhile, God gives us signs.       One day St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-c. 547), the great founder of Western monasticism, was walking back to the monastery after working in the fields. A local farmer ran up to him in great distress crying, “Give me back my son! Give me back my son!”       “But I have not taken your son from you, have I?” St. Benedict replied.       “He is dead! Come! Bring him back to life!”       “Oh! Such a miracle is beyond our power. The holy Apostles are the only ones who can raise the dead.” Well, Benedict was mistaken here, but his humility didn’t allow him to imagine he could pray for such a grace. He said, “Wh

  St. Stephen Intercedes from Heaven.       To those who say miracles do not happen, and did not happen beyond Apostolic (New Testament) times, St. Augustine  (354-430)  of Hippo in North Africa (today's  Annaba, Algeria) , would reply, “It is sometimes objected that the miracles which Christians claim, no longer happen.... However, the malice of the objection is in the insinuation that not even the earlier miracles ought to be believed.” Isn’t that certainly true with the Modernist scholars and atheists! Basilica of St. Augustine at Annaba (Hippo)       St. Augustine gives us accounts of many miracles in his time, including four dead being raised through contact with a relic of St. Stephen, the Deacon, whose martyrdom is related at the end of chapter 7 of the book of Acts in the Bible. St. Stephen's tomb was re-discovered in 415 about 20 miles outside of Jerusalem, and relics of his then disbursed to churches all over the Catholic world. St. Augustine had built a shrine to St.