Patrons
This saint was born in Britain and was taken as a slave to a nearby island in his teens. He escaped back to Britain and became a priest. He felt called to return to evangelize to the people. He is one of the patron saints of Ireland. (Bonus +200 if you can name the other patron saint of Ireland)
Saint Patrick
This young girl saw Mary eighteen times in Lourdes, France where Mary called herself the Immaculate Conception. Mary directed her to dig and a miraculous spring came up out of the ground which is still flowing today. This saint entered a convent and lived a quiet life as a religious sister and died at the age of 35.
Saint Bernadette
This newly blessed who will be ordained this year was born in Italy and died at the age of 15. He created websites and was skilled with computers winning website design competitions. His crowning work was to create a website and presentation display of Eucharistic Miracles and Marian apparitions.
Blessed Carlo Acutis
This Portuguese Franciscan saint was a great preacher and teacher. He traveled all around southern Europe and many were converted by his preaching. He is often depicted holding the infant Jesus who appeared to him in a vision to give him a kiss. He is also usually known as the patron of lost things due to the many conversions as well as the poor.
Saint Anthony of Padua
This saint was a Polish priest during the Communist occupation. He was named a bishop and opposed the Communist government openly. He was eventually elected Pope, the first non-Italian pope in centuries. He became one of the youngest and longest reigning popes.
Pope Saint John Paul II
This saint was born to a rich family before having a dramatic conversion. He renounced his title publically and was considered mad by everyone. He heard the voice of Jesus to “rebuild my church” and he founded an order to preach the Gospel. He is the patron of animals since he is said to have preached to birds and fish on different occasions when the towns would not listen to him.
Saint Francis
This peasant man saw Mary on the hill of Tepeyac. An image appeared on his cloak/tilma and is known under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Saint Juan Diego
This French saint was called by St. Michael, St. Catherine, and Saint Margaret to defend France from English invaders. She helped the French drive out the English and restore the French king. She was captured and accused of being a witch and was burned at the stake.
Saint Joan of Arc
This saint persecuted Christians before he had a vision. Jesus appeared to him and asked "why are you persecuting me?" This saint converted and went on to be a great preacher and writer. He was shipwreck, was stoned near to death (but lived), was beaten several times, and imprisoned several times. He was martyred by beheading.
Saint Paul
This saint originally from Albania traveled to India to serve as a missionary. From there, she felt called further from her order to serve the "poorest of the poor." She won the Nobel Peace Prize, addressed the UN and was world renown for her work. However, she did not do any of her work for world recognition. She felt called to serve the poor.
Saint (Mother) Theresa of Calcutta
This saint was a Roman soldier and a secret Christian. He visited fellow Christians in prison and baptized many. He was arrested and ordered to be executed by being shot with arrows. He survived and was nursed back to health before being captured again and beheaded. Patron of athletes and soldiers
Saint Sebastian
These three children in Portugal saw Mary at Fatima in 1917. The miracle that was witness by thousands was the Miracle of the Dancing Sun where the sun spun and moved about in the sky. Two of the visionaries died young while their cousin entered a convent and died later in life.
Saints Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia
This French saint wanted to enter the convent with her older sisters at a young age. She petitioned the pope and was finally allowed to enter. She is known as the Little Flower and her path of holiness is known as the “Little Way.”
St. Therese of Lesieux
This saint was the best friend and chancellor to King Henry VIII. When the king demanded a change so that he would be head of the Church in England, while many agreed, this saint refused. Despite friendship with the king, he declared "I am the King's good servant, but God first." He was imprisoned in the tower of London and beheaded. At his execution he quipped to the guard to not harm his beard since it had done nothing wrong.
Saint Thomas More
This Capuchin friar received the stigmata (the wounds of Christ) for forty years of his life. Many accused him of making it up causing much suffering for him. He was an excellent confessor who was able to read souls and on some occasions bi-located. The devil often physically attacked him. However, all he wanted was to be a humble friar and not a public figure. He had a fire-y temper at times as well.
Saint (Padre) Pio
This Dominican priest was one of the most brilliant theologians in Church history. However, because he was quiet and slow, people called him the "Dumb Ox". He wrote a book called the Summa Theologiae (Summary of Theology) which is considered one of the heights of Catholic thought from the Middle Ages. He is the patron of Catholic Schools and is in one of the windows of St. Mary's.
Saint Thomas Aquinus
This Polish saint had a series of visions of Jesus which she wrote in a diary. She suffered a lot from her community and others who accused her of imagining or making up the visions. Jesus asked her to have a picture painted of his appearance known as the Divine Mercy Image.
Saint Faustina
This virgin and martyr was killed for defending her virginity from a neighbor farm hand. She forgave him before she died. When he was in prison, she appeared to him in a vision with a lily which caused a dramatic conversion and he was present at her canonization.
Saint Maria Goretti
Known as the Lily of the Mowhawks, she is the first Native American saint. She survived smallpox and was scared for life. When she converted, her tribe rejected her so she left for a mission in Sault Saint Marie. When she died, the scars of her small pox miraculously vanished.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
This saint was a Franciscan who founded the Missionaries of the Immaculata in honor of Mary. He founded houses in Europe and Japan. His congregation published a magazine and even got into radio. He was arrested by the Nazis for his work. In Auschwitz, he volunteer himself in place of another prisoner condemned to death and died by lethal injection.
Saint Maximillian Kolbe
This youth resolved at a young age to become a saint. He was part of a school formed by Saint John Bosco for boys. His motto was "death by not sin." Because of ill health, he died at the age of 15 and was the youngest non-martyr saint until recently. He is the patron of youth.
Saint Dominic Savio
This saint was a religious sister who was woken up by a child who she later described as her guardian angel who led her to the convent chapel. She saw a vision of Mary standing on the globe with rings on her fingers. Rays of light came down from the rings onto the world, but not all the rings. Mary explained the light are graces for people who ask for them. She had this saint have a medal made with this image with the inscription of “Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee” known as the Miraculous Medal.
Saint Catherine Labore
This young man was born the son of a banking family. He enjoyed hiking, spending time with friends, and his Catholic faith more than business. He secretly gave money to poor families, helped get sick people to the hospital, provided food for poor families, and advocated for better living conditions. He lived an "ordinary life of holiness" and "a life of the Beatitudes" according to Pope Saint John Paull II and made him patron of World Youth Days. He will be canonized a saint this year.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.
This priest was confessor to the king of Prague. The king suspected his wife of a serious sin and so he demanded this saint reveal what she said in confession. The king promised him riches and honors if he told, but this saint refused. The king had him bound and thrown into the river to drown. People saw a golden light around the river where his body was found.
Saint John Nepomucene
This Belgian saint joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. As a missionary, he traveled to a leper colony on an island in Hawai'i where he served the rest of his life ministering to the lepers. He eventually died of the disease in 1889. His feast day is celebrated as a state holiday and he is a patron of the Hawaiian islands.
Saint Damien of Molokai