While Martin Luther's interior troubles plunged Europe into a maelstrom of controversy, confusion, and war, the Basque soldier Ignacio de Loyola set out on an extraordinary interior pilgrimage of grace. Taught directly by God, Ignatius offered the Church a new spirituality of devoted service to Christ and founded a religious order dedicated to evangelization, the Jesuits.
To a Rome ravaged by war and wearied by the decadence of the Renaissance popes, Saint Philip Neri came as an unlikely reformer. Mystic, hermit, prankster, and effortless leader of men, Neri had a great sense of humor and an even greater heart. His creative response to the challenge of the reforma...
As the Cardinal-nephew of Pope Pius IV, Saint Charles Borromeo was one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in all of Rome. Yet he chose the extraordinary challenge of reforming the enormous Archdiocese of Milan to the pampered life of a Renaissance prince, and willingly spent himself in the s...
Nobely-born, wealthy, captivating, and headstrong, Teresa de Ahumada was an unlikely timber for a great work of renovation. After many years of complacent living in a fashionable convent, Teresa was drawn into a mystical embrace and learned directly from Divine Inspiration what a life more pleasi...
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