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Sunrise over the Sea of Galilee, with a fishing boat
Sea of Galilee · Photo: Grant Barclay, CC BY 2.0

Teachings

What the saints taught, in their own words and through their lives.

St. John Maximovitch

1896–1966 · Orthodox

St. John Maximovitch knew what it meant to lose a home. As a young man, he fled Russia with his family. As an Orthodox bishop, he helped others start again. He cared for children in Shanghai, visited sick people, and asked American leaders to help stranded refugees. His work later took him to Europe and San Francisco. People remembered his long prayers, his care for those in need, and the way he kept in touch as children grew up.

  1. 1Faith expressed in a life
  2. 2The Cross as the sign of salvation

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

1873–1897 · Catholic

As a small child she rolled on the floor in fury, and at about three she took a whole basket of doll clothes, saying, "I choose everything!" At twenty-four, dying of tuberculosis in a Normandy convent, she overheard a sister wonder what anyone could write about her, since she had never done anything worth speaking about. Thérèse of Lisieux wanted to be a great saint and found she was a grain of sand. In her last eighteen months even Heaven went dark for her, and she went on loving. How did the nun who had done nothing worth speaking about become one of the most loved saints of modern times, and a Doctor of the Church?

  1. 1The little way
  2. 2Confidence and love
  3. 3The Offering to Merciful Love
  4. 4The trial of faith