Patrick O'Hearn
Patrick O'Hearn is an author and a freelance editor, previously serving as TAN Books' acquisitions editor for two years. He grew up in the Midwest and spent close to three years in a Benedictine Monastery before discerning the call to marriage. His first book "Nursery of Heaven: Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss in the Lives of the Saints and Today's Parents," which he co-authored with Cassie Everts, was released in 2019. His second book, "Parents of the Saints: The Hidden Heroes Behind Our Favorite Saints" was released in 2021. The latter book took him over three years to write. His first children's book, "The Shepherd at the Crib and the Cross" was released in 2022. He graduated with a master's in education from Franciscan University of Steubenville and a bachelor's in marketing from St. Ambrose University.
Courtships That Produced Saints: Bernard and Ellen Casey
Five years after Saints Louis and Zélie Martin entered the covenant of marriage, another couple would do so across the Atlantic Ocean: Bernard and Ellen Casey, who would become the parents of Blessed Solanus Casey. Connections can play a significant role in forming marriages. Besides physical attraction and virtue, which was seen in the Martins,…
Our First Vocation is to Be Holy
It is well documented that many of the parents of the saints desired to dedicate their lives completely to God as priests and religious. But God had other plans that were more glorious than they could have imagined. Plans that may have first baffled these parents. Since God is all-knowing, He can look into the…
The Secrets of the Sacred Heart
On the night before Our Lord suffered and died, He took comfort in the consolation offered by His beloved disciple, St. John the Evangelist, who reclined on His Sacred Heart. In less than twenty-four hours, the Heart that once beat in the womb of Our Lady in Bethlehem, would beat no more. Instead, the Sacred…
Solitude and the Parents of St. Faustina
In February of 1935, a nun, obscure at the time, named Sr. Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Most Blessed Sacrament was being summoned to visit her severely ill mother, Marianna, who was battling acute liver pain. Thirteen years had passed since Faustina had last been home, and it had been seven years since she saw…
The Holy Eucharist and the Parents of St. Thérèse
Zélie was so in love with the Holy Eucharist that, five weeks before her death, weakened by cancer, she still attended Mass. Throughout their lives, Louis and Zélie were ardent devotees of the First Friday Devotions. Only two centuries earlier, Our Lord had communicated to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque His great desire that the First…
A Call for Courageous Priests
Saint John the Baptist was a precursor for the many holy priests who are being persecuted for preaching the unadulterated Gospel. As the son of a priest, St. John the Baptist’s preaching led to his beheading. Yes, preaching the fullness of the truth comes at a great price, sometimes costing one’s priestly ministry or even…
Our Lord’s Hidden Wound
While working for the Little Sisters of the Poor at one of their nursing homes, I encountered many devout Catholics, whose joy, perseverance, and piety inspired me. Their strong Catholic Faith had guided them through the trials of raising many children, two World Wars, the sexual revolution, Vatican II, the sex abuse scandal, and ultimately…