The Pearl of Great Price

The Second ecumenical council of the Vatican was attended by between 2,100 and 2,300 bishops from all over the world,  at its different sessions that lasted 4 years. It was the biggest ever council and set the direction of the church in the modern world 

15 year old computer geek Carlo Acutis died of Luekemia in 2005 - he was beatified in 2020. Thousands of people visit his shrine in Assisi every day. Could he become the first millenial saint? 

The man who ushered anatomy into the renaissance age after stagnating with 1300 years of Galen was Fr Gabrielle Fallopio.  He gave his name to the Fallopian tube, Fallopian Canal, and Fallopian ligament.

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat stationed in Lithuania during the war, He had converted to Christianity for his first marriage - joining the Orthodox Church. He saved thousands of Jews by issuing them visas and this was only discovered in Japan when many turned up at his funeral 

Gilles de Rai was one of the earliest serial killers on record, today he was arrested in 1440 after an investigation by the Bishop of Nantes

Dominic de Guzman founded the Order of Preachers who were hugely responsible with spreading devotion to the Rosary. He has two countries named after him. This is the story of the miraculous painting attributed to him 

Now the most famous champagne is named in his honour, Pierre Perignon was a Benedictine Monk who perfected the method of making sparkling wine 

The final novel of Dostoevsky is possibly his most famous - the Brothers Karamazov.  Wrought out of terrible grief and struggles with faith after the death of his three year old son Aloysha.  One of Russia's greatest novelists has produced on of the greatest novels of all time. Charting the tumultuous transition of Russia from feudalism, the devoutly Orthodox Christian has produced one of the most powerful chapters on faith and reason with the Grand Inquisitor.  

Bishop Richard Challoner has been called the most influential English Catholic of the 18th Century.  It was an uneasy time before Catholic Emancipation laws and least safe in London. The Catholic Church was still illegal after Queen Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity and there were sporadic riots against Catholics. Challoners' life is a case study of successful leadership in a hostile environment 

Bishop Bartholomew De La Casas chronicled the terrible atrocities that Spanish colonists carried out on the indigenous people of Central and South America.  He was appointed protector of the Indians by the Spanish Legal Establishment, His writing and thinking was influenced the School of Salamanca  and lead to both international law and the first concepts of universal human rights.