The Rev. Father Joseph Sicardo, O.S.A., was a Spanish priest and author of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His biography of St. Rita of Cascia: Saint of the Impossible was originally published in 1916 by D. B. Hansen and Sons, Chicago. Additionally, the work was translated by Fr. Dan J. Murphy, and is firmly based on the historical facts of the saint's life, as intended by the author. Father Sicardo's work was retypeset and reprinted by TAN Books in 1990, and also received the Cum Permissu Superiorum, Nihil Obstat, and Imprimatur upon publication.
Born Joseph David Flanagan in 1903, he grew up in Massachusetts. He joined the Jesuits in 1920, teaching at Holy Cross College from 1927 to 1930 and later serving as retreat master. In 1936, he joined the Order of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists) at the cloister of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane in Kentucky where he received the name he is most know by today, Fr. Mary Raymond. He wrote twenty-two books as a Trappist, many dealing with the subject of how the laity could achieve sanctity.
Luis María Martínez y Rodríguez was the Catholic archbishop of Mexico and a member of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua ("Mexican Language Academy").
He was born in Molinos de Caballeros, Epitacio Huerta, Michoacán. A philosopher of the scholastic tradition, his focus on the ultimate nature of things led him to theology. He was also a writer of spiritual poetry.
While his traditional values provoked his criticisms of some aspects of Mexico's modernization, he always retained a special relationship with the people. He presided over the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the coronation of Our Lady of Guadalupe, declaring, "I am Zumárraga" in order to draw Mexicans who has "wandered" back to the church. He joined the Academy in 1953,
