Delivering the homily at the 158th annual feast of St. Sebastian’s National Shrine in Kandana, a suburb north of Colombo, on January 20, Auxiliary Bishop J.D. Anthony of Colombo emphasized that devotion to the saint carries a profound social responsibility.
St Agnes of Rome was barely a teenager when she was killed for her faith. Born around AD 291 and martyred during the Diocletian persecution in AD 304, she was only about 12 or 13 years old.
On August 22, thousands of pilgrims gathered in the village of Starun, western Ukraine, for the blessing of a new basilica dedicated to Blessed Bishop Simeon Lukach, one of the most revered martyrs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
