Lives to Reflect On
St Augustine
St John
Dominic Guzman
Thomas Aquinas
Martin de Porres
Francis Xavier
Francis Thompson
Charles Foucauld
Theresa of Lisieux
Mary at Fatima
St Paul
Miguel Pro
Maximilian Kolbe
Franz Jagerstatter
Edith Stein
Richard Wurmbrand
Gianna Molla
St Francis
Catherine of Siena
John Newton
William Wilberforce
Elizabeth Fry
Florence Nightingale
Pier Giorgio Frassati
Dorothy Day
John Paul II
John Bradburne
Thomas Merton
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Anthony Montesinos, Las Casas and Luis Barbastro
Inspiring Christian Lives
What follows are examples of people who lived out this search for meaning from a Christian perspective, who gave their lives as a wonderful gift of thanks back to the one who gave them life: Christ. In so doing, in many cases, their characters changed always for the better.
Their lives were animated by this thirst and it pointed them towards what Christians perceive as the true end of man - living in God's presence, seeing Him face to face. They were made restless by this search. Their lives point beyond themselves both in terms of where they were going and in terms of where they drew their strength from to keep them going.
Some of their lives raise very controversial and potentially heated issues - look at Kolbe and Gianna Molla for examples of this. At first glance, others would seem to make more sense to us, even from a non-Christian perspective. But all of them certainly give us pause for reflection.
Studying their lives may not give us all the answers, but it will certainly raise some very interesting questions that challenge us to think more deeply about what it means to be 'fully' human, to have, in the words of a carpenter from Nazareth some 2,000 years ago, 'life and have it more abundantly'.
Tasks based on Inspiring Christian Lives
Click the links on the blue panel to the left to read about the lives described on the website.
Most of the life stories have Tasks attached to them, some written and some not.You will find Task Sheets for the written Tasks by clicking the following link...
Completing your Task Sheets
