Today we are discussing St. Thérèse of Lisieux, chronologically the last of the thirty-seven men and women who have been named Doctors of the Church. She was born on January 2, 1873, the last daughter of Louis and Zélie Martin, exemplary parents who were canonized together by Pope Francis on October 18, 2015. Louis and Zélie had nine children, four of whom died as babies or small children. The five daughters who remained all became religious. Four of them became Discalced Carmelites and one became a Visitandine.

In July of 1723, Alphonsus Ligouri, a rising star on the legal scene at Naples, was arguing a case on behalf of Neapolitan nobleman, Filippo Orsini. Orsini was suing the Grand Duke of Tuscany (Cosimo III) over the rights to a rich estate of land. Even though Alphonsus had prepared meticulously and was sure that he would win the court case, he overlooked a technicality. To complicate matters Alphonsus was fighting against powerful political forces. The argument presented by Alphonsus was brusquely dismissed. Momentarily stunned and speechless, Alphonsus eventually exclaimed, “O world, I recognize you now! Goodbye to courtrooms” and stormed out of the chambers. Three months later, over the strenuous objections of his father, he received tonsure and began studies for the priesthood. As scholars have studied the life of Alphonsus, they have determined that he had been pondering a religious vocation for some time. But the courtroom incident gave the dramatic push that Alphonsus needed to begin a long and distinguished career of priestly service.

St. Francis de Sales was born in 1567 in a French border region. He was the son of the Lord of Boisy, an ancient and noble family of Savoy. His life straddled the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He received a very careful education studying theology in Paris and jurisprudence in Padua (as per his father’s wishes) and received degrees in both civil and canon law. His father wanted him to be a soldier or a lawyer. Francis, however, had his heart set on being a priest. In time he was to get his father’s assent to be ordained a priest, which occurred on December 18, 1593. Soon after his ordination to the priesthood, he volunteered for the dangerous mission of serving in the region around Lake Geneva, a bastion of Calvinism. For years he walked from town to town on foot, enduring poverty and harsh winters, and many times barely escaping attempts on his life. In his missionary outreach Francis chose an approach that was unusual for the times. Rather than simply denouncing Calvinism Francis proclaimed the positive message of the Gospel. This helped to overcome many of the negative stereotypes people in that region held about Catholicism. Hundreds of families were reconciled with the Catholic faith as a result of his mission.

St. Lawrence of Brindisi is perhaps the only Doctor of the Church to have led an army to battle. The army of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II under the command of archduke Matthias confronted a much larger Turkish force in the city of Szekesfehervar located in central Hungary on October 9, 1601. The Capuchin friar Lawrence of Brindisi was serving as a chaplain for archduke Matthias and his army. Friar Lawrence had been sent by Pope Clement VIII to spread the Capuchin reform of the Franciscan order and to encourage the faithful in Austria and Bohemia to hold true to their Catholic faith. Before the battle began, Friar Lawrence addressed the troops. He encouraged them to fight boldly and promised them victory as he shouted: “Forward! Victory is ours.” Then riding his horse and waving his crucifix he led them against the Turks. Even though he was exposed to every danger he was unharmed by it all. The Christian army triumphed, and Friar Lawrence was hailed as a hero. His crucifix was later treated as a relic.

On March 3, 1599, Pope Clement VIII advanced Robert Bellarmine, a Jesuit priest and theologian, to the College of Cardinals. Jesuits usually shun opportunities for advancement in the Church. Robert even tried to protest during the ceremonies. But Pope Clement VIII ordered him to be silent and to accept his new responsibilities. In honoring Robert Bellarmine in this manner, Pope Clement VIII stated that “We elect this man because the Church of God has not his equal in learning.” Pope Clement was not only exercising good judgement with his decision, but he was also offering criticism of his predecessor, Pope Sixtus V (1585-90). The death of Pope Sixtus V prevented him from putting Robert Bellarmine’s greatest work, the Disputations about the Controversies of the Christian Faith against the Heretics of the Age on the “Index of Forbidden Books.” In this work Robert had argued that the papacy had only indirect power in temporal affairs. This was a position that made Pope Sixtus V quite angry.

Juan de Yepes was born in 1542 in a small village near Ávila in what is now Spain to Gonzalo de Yepes, an impoverished noblewoman and Catalina Alvarez, a humble silk worker. Gonzalo was disinherited by his family for marrying (at least in the mind of his family) beneath his station in life. Gonzalo also died when John was young. That made life increasingly difficult for Catalina and her two sons Juan and Francisco. When John was nine, the family moved to Medina del Campo, near Valladolid. A few years later John studied at a recently founded Jesuit College at Medina del Campo. When he finished the course of studies, he felt a call to religious life and entered the Carmelites in 1563 where he received as a religious name Juan de Santo Matía.

Peter Kanis—Canisius is the Latin form of his surname—was born on May 8, 1521, in Nijmegen, Holland. His father was the burgomeister, or chief magistrate or executive of the town. While he was a student at the University of Cologne, he would regularly visit the Carthusian monks in that city, and he would associate with other devout men who cultivated the spirituality of the so-called devotio moderna (modern devotion). This was a movement of religious reform calling for apostolic renewal through the rediscovery of pious practices such as humility, obedience, simplicity of life that had begun in the late fourteenth century and came to an end during the Protestant Reformation.

Helena Kowalska was born on August 25, 1905 and died on October 5, 1938. She was born in what is now west-central Poland. After working as a housekeeper in three cities, she joined the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in 1925 where she received the name Sister Maria Faustina.

Happy Easter to all who are at Mass on this most glorious Easter day. I want to give a special word of welcome to our visitors who are joining us for Mass today. I hope that you feel very welcome, for indeed you are! I am going to pause this week from my current series of writing about the Doctors of the Church. I will continue the series next week. I want to focus on this very great day in our liturgical calendar. Often on Easter when I greet people after the Masses, people stop and ask me questions. Let me mention some questions that I have been asked over the years on Easter Sunday and then answer the questions.

In about 1524 Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada and her older brother secretly left their home in Avila, Spain to travel, “begging bread for the love of God,” to travel to Muslim lands in North Africa to offer themselves for martyrdom. At a bridge leading out of the city their uncle met them and marched them back home.

Today we encounter the first Doctor of the Church to live in the modern era: St. John of Ávila (1499 or 1500-1569), who lived during the first half of the sixteenth century. He was born on January 6, 1499 [or 1500] in Almodóvar del Campo (Ciudad Real, in the Archdiocese of Toledo). He was the only son of devout Catholic parents: Alonso Ávila and Catalina Gijón. When John was fourteen, he went to the University of Salamanca to study law. John had a profound conversion during his fourth term of studies at the university. At the end of that term he returned home to devote himself to prayer and meditation.

Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) lived in a very troubled time in the history of the Church as well as in Italy and the whole of Europe. When I consider her impact on the times in which she lived, I am reminded that even in turbulent times the Lord brings forth saints who give a jolt to minds and hearts that often provoke conversion and renewal. This gives me hope for our contemporary situation.