This Tuesday, Sept. 23, is the feast of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, or more commonly known as Padre Pio.  Padre was a Capuchin priest, a mystic and a stigmatist.  He had very strange mystical gifts, including the ability to “read souls” and to bi-locate. He had the stigmata, bearing the wounds of Christ on his own body. But most importantly, he was a mystic whose heart was deeply united with that of Christ and was a person of deep holiness.

Most of us know St. Vincent de Paul through the St. Vincent de Paul Society that is dedicated to serving the neediest of the brothers and sisters of Christ. The society is named after St. Vincent, but he was not the founder of that organization. Blessed Frederick Ozanam founded the St. Vincent de Paul in Paris as a student in the middle of the 1800s. St. Vincent, himself, lived from 1581-1660.
   
Vincent founded several women’s congregations, including the Sisters of Charity. He was also instrumental in the training of priests and was deeply committed to serving the poor, which is why Ozanam took his name for the society that he founded.