Saint Columbanus was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries after 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in present-day Italy.
Jerome, also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian priest, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome.
The Venerable often shortened to Venerable is a style, title, or epithet used in some Christian churches. The holy person that is titled "the venerable" is often accorded by their spiritual perfection and wisdom.
Dorotheus of Gaza or Abba Dorotheus, was a Christian monk and abbot.
The Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about the year 400, is a brief document divided into eight chapters and serves as an outline for religious life lived in community. It is the oldest monastic rule in the Western Church.
March 21 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - March 23
Marcella (325–410) is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church. She was a Christian ascetic in the Byzantine Era.
Melania the Elder, Latin Melania Maior was a Desert Mother who was an influential figure in the Christian ascetic movement that sprang up in the generation after the Emperor Constantine made Christianity a legal religion of the Roman Empire. She was a contemporary of, and well known to, Abba Macarius and other Desert Fathers in Egypt, Jerome, Augustine of Hippo, Paulinus of Nola, and Evagrius of Pontus, and she founded two religious communities on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. She stands out for the convent she founded for herself and the monastery she established in honour of Rufinus of Aquileia, which belongs to the earliest Christian communities, and because she promoted the asceticism which she, as a follower of Origen, considered indispensable for salvation.
Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara, CMI was an Indian Syro-Malabar Catholic priest, religious, philosopher and social reformer. He is the first canonised Catholic male saint of Indian origin and was a member of the Syro-Malabar Church, an Eastern Catholic church.
The Order of the Immaculate Conception, abbreviated OIC and also known as the Conceptionists, is a Catholic religious order of Pontifical Right for nuns founded by Saint Beatrice of Silva. For some years, they followed the Poor Clares Rule, but in 1511 they were recognized as a separate religious order, taking a new rule with the name Order of the Immaculate Conception.
Fabiola was a physician and Roman matron of rank of the company of noble Roman women who, under the influence of the Church Father Jerome, gave up all earthly pleasures and devoted herself to the practice of Christian asceticism and charitable work. She is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic church, being commemorated on 27 December.
Paula of Rome was an ancient Roman Christian saint and early Desert Mother. A member of one of the richest senatorial families which claimed descent from Agamemnon, Paula was the daughter of Blesilla and Rogatus, from the great clan of the Furii Camilli. At the age of 16, Paula was married to the nobleman Toxotius, with whom she had four daughters, Blaesilla, Paulina, Eustochium, and Rufina. She also had a boy, also named Toxotius. As a disciple of Jerome, she is considered the first nun in the history of Christianity.
Eustochium, born Eustochium Julia at Rome, was a high-ranking member of the community, specifically the Julian clan. Eustochium was a fourth-century noblewoman and consecrated virgin, venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Guided by the teachings of Jerome, Eustochium practiced asceticism and committed her life to perpetual celibacy.
Osanna of Cattaro was a Catholic visionary and anchoress from Cattaro. She was a convert from Orthodoxy of Serbian descent from Montenegro. She became a Dominican tertiary and was first venerated in Kotor. She was later beatified in 1934.
The Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries, but continuing in popularity until the 18th century and beyond. Christ, sometimes accompanied by God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, places a crown on the head of Mary as Queen of Heaven. In early versions the setting is a Heaven imagined as an earthly court, staffed by saints and angels; in later versions Heaven is more often seen as in the sky, with the figures seated on clouds. The subject is also notable as one where the whole Christian Trinity is often shown together, sometimes in unusual ways. Crowned Virgins are also seen in Eastern Orthodox Christian icons, specifically in the Russian Orthodox church after the 18th century. Mary is sometimes shown, in both Eastern and Western Christian art, being crowned by one or two angels, but this is considered a different subject.
Veronica of Milan was an Italian nun in the Augustinian Order. She was reputed to have received frequent visions of the Virgin Mary, and her local cultus was confirmed by Pope Leo X in 1517.
Maria Sagheddu - in religious Maria Gabriella - was an Italian Catholic professed religious and a professed member from the Trappists. Sagheddu had an intense spiritual devotion to ecumenism - something for which she had offered her life - since she desired that all would become one in Jesus Christ. Her childhood saw her noted as stubborn and obstinate though her increased activeness in teaching catechism and joining Azione Cattolica saw those qualities melt and become gentleness and careful attentiveness.
Mary of the Divine Heart, born Maria Droste zu Vischering, was a German noblewoman and religious sister of the Catholic Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd. She is best known for having influenced Pope Leo XIII to consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope Leo XIII called the solemn consecration "the greatest act of my pontificate".
Women in Church history have played a variety of roles in the life of Christianity—notably as contemplatives, health care givers, educationalists and missionaries. Until recent times, women were generally excluded from episcopal and clerical positions within the certain Christian churches; however, great numbers of women have been influential in the life of the church, from contemporaries of Jesus to subsequent saints, theologians, doctors of the church, missionaries, abbesses, nuns, mystics, founders of religious institutes, military leaders, monarchs and martyrs.
December 12 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - December 14
