Catholic Saints & Feasts

October 16: Saint Hedwig, Religious c.1174–1243 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of brides, widows, and Silesia A wife and mother spreads the faith like a bishop On every limb of the tangled branches of Saint Hedwig’s family tree sits a duke, landgrave, prince, king, queen, and count. The roots of Hedwig’s aristocratic tree likewise spread up and down the hills and valleys o...

October 16: Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin 1647–1690 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of those with polio, devotees of the Sacred Heart, loss of parents A cloistered nun’s visions of the Sacred Heart impact the Church like a meteor Today’s saint, in the eyes of the world, was nothing special. She grew up in a medium-sized town, never traveled, received a standard educa...

October 15: Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor 1515–1582 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of headache sufferers and lacemakers A rich, fiery personality purifies herself and the Carmelites The call for reform of the Church has rung out through the centuries down to today. However, it is largely misplaced. Reform of Church structures is required periodically for her internal wel...

October 14: Saint Callistus I, Pope and Martyr c. Late Second Century–222 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saint of cemetery workers A slave takes charge of a catacomb and rises to the papacy Popes owned slaves for centuries to row their boats, cook their meals, and care for their horses and carriages. Kings, nobles, and middle-class families owned slaves. Slavery was a ubiquitous i...

October 11: Saint John XXIII, Pope 1881–1963 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of papal delegates A smart, fatherly priest becomes a warm-hearted pope The first Pope John XXIII was an amoral antipope. He was one of three competing popes between 1409–1417, the confusing, final chapter of the Western Schism whose power struggles and political intrigues tore at the fabric of the...

October 9: Saint Denis, Bishop, and Companions Third Century Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saint of Paris A missionary bishop is beheaded and the Church’s eldest daughter thrives Therapod, Spinosaurus, Ornithopod, Ceratopsid, Triceratops. Creatures with strange names from long ago with three toes, sharp protruding vertebrae, duck heads, three horns and jaws that crushed like the...

October 9: Saint John Leonardi, Priest 1541–1609 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of pharmacists “Either Christ or nothing!” was his cure for every ill Today’s saint was among that first wave of post-Council of Trent priests and founders whose purification of the Church started with themselves. Saint John Leonardi was a man ardently in love with Christ and Mary and the sacre...

October 9: Saint John Henry Newman (England and Wales) 1801–1890 Memorial; Liturgical color: White As mellow as a breeze, as elegant as a swan, he walked alone the path to Rome Pope Benedict XVI, a professional theologian, did not typically perform beatification ceremonies, instead entrusting them to his Cardinals. But such was Benedict’s immense respect for Cardinal John Henry Newman’s life and t...

October 7: Our Lady of the Rosary Memorial; Liturgical color: White Patroness of Malaga, Spain, and the Archdiocese of Vancouver Mary comes to the rescue, and the Catholic West avoids the fate of the Orthodox East In 1204 Venetian Crusaders traveling to the Holy Land sacked Constantinople. Debts were not being paid, so something had to be done. Relics were packed up and shipped back to Italy, as w...

October 6: Saint Bruno, Priest c. 1030–1101 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of Calabria, Italy, and of Germany Solitary confinement is not a punishment when it is voluntary and shared with God Today’s saint was born in an unknown year. He left his native Cologne to study in Rheims, France, as a young man and was ordained a priest around 1055. Aware of Bruno’s obvious talent...

October 6: Blessed Rose Marie Durocher, Virgin (U.S.A.) 1811–1849 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Invoked against the loss of parents When the call came, she was prepared to say “Yes” The story of today’s Blessed is largely one of waiting for the hammer to strike. Years of quiet, humble, and faithful generosity to family, the Church, and students prepared Eulalie (her baptismal name) fo...

October 5: Saint Faustina Kowalska, Virgin 1905-1938 Optional Memorial: Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of Mercy Her humble sail caught a powerful theological wind The martyr Saint Faustino was killed in the second decade of the second century in northern Italy under the emperor Hadrian. Nothing else is known of him. Today’s saint was baptized Helen and, for unknown reasons, was given the mar...

October 5: Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, Priest (U.S.A.) 1819–1867 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Invoked against cancer A good man becomes a great priest serving immigrants in the young United States Ship after ship, riding low in the water with the weight of thousands of European immigrants, docked in the harbors of the great coastal cities of the United States in the nineteenth cen...

October 4: Saint Francis of Assisi c. 1182–1226 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of animals, ecology, and merchants. Co-patron of Italy A merchant’s son of eccentric sensibilities goes radical Though originally baptized by his mother as Giovanni (John) in honor of Saint John the Baptist, today’s saint was renamed Francesco, or “Frenchy,” by his father Pietro de Bernardone after Pietr...

October 2: The Holy Guardian Angels Memorial; Liturgical Color: White A personal spiritual bodyguard watches your back Intuition is a fully formed way of thinking. It is more than just the occasional hunch or subtle perception. Native instinct, or “gut,” is used to calculate, discern, and decide on matters big and small throughout daily life. We think we are dryly logical about a decision to trust...

October 1: Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor 1873–1897 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of florists, missions, and aviators A sensitive country girl wades into the deep Thérèse Martin was a weepy child, as emotionally brittle as porcelain. She was easily offended and easily pleased. A furled brow or a sideways glance from her father would dissolve her into tears. A...

September 30: Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor c. 345–420 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of archeologists, Biblical scholars, and librarians A prickly scholar translates the Bible into Latin forever and always Today’s saint was living in Antioch in the 370s when he had a vision. Jerome was standing in the presence of the seated Christ, who asked him who he was. “I am a Christian,” J...

September 29: Saints Michael, Gabriel, & Raphael, Archangels Feast; Liturgical Color: White Patrons of soldiers (Michael); mailmen (Gabriel); travelers and the blind (Raphael) The air between God and man is thick with mystical beings It is a principle of Catholic theology that salvation is mediated, that individual man does not go to God alone, and that God does not come to man alone. This mea...

September 28: Saint Wenceslaus, Martyr c. 907–929 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saint of the Czech Republic and Slovakia A young duke is killed by a jealous brother and becomes a Czech icon When the famous die young, their unwrinkled faces, dark hair, and youthful vigor are frozen in time, forever vital, forever attractive, forever fresh. Time is not given its chance to run over...

September 28: Saint Lawrence Ruiz & Companions, Martyrs c. 1600–1637 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saints of the Philippines A married father remains unbroken under the cruelest torture Many lesser-known faces in the deep audience of saints bask in the soft glow of sanctity emanating from the more prominent “marquee” saints standing on stage. In the Church’s calendar of saint...

September 27: Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest 1581–1660 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of all charitable societies, hospitals, and leprosy victims A powerhouse priest organizes multitudes for charity and renews priestly formation Today’s saint was one of the brightest stars in the galaxy of saintly men and women whose light rejuvenated Catholicism in seventeenth-century France. Saint...

September 26: Saints Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs c. Late third–early fourth century Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saints of doctors, barbers, and pharmacists Holy twins are honored for their healing, their poverty, and their deaths The ancient walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem enclose the sacred ground where the life of Jesus Christ culminated in His death, bu...

September 23: Saint Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), Priest 1887–1968 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of civil defense volunteers and adolescents A humble friar’s love for Christ burns holes in his hands Long-married spouses often develop similar patterns of speech. A boy might learn to walk just like his father, and a girl might favor the same hairstyle as her mom. Teenagers in the...

September 21: Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist First Century Feast; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saint of bankers, accountants, and money changers A lover of money becomes greedy for God People leave their jobs for all sorts of reasons: more pay, better opportunity, a shorter commute. Today’s saint left his job for a better boss. Matthew was at work in the city of Capernaum, a bustling town w...

September 20: Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Priest, and Paul Chŏng Ha-sang, and Companions, Martyrs Nineteenth century Memorial; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saints of Korea Their martyrdom for a new faith caused the Christian sun to rise in Korea Catholicism was not originally brought to the isolated Korean Peninsula by celibate missionaries who trekked over its remote borders or who landed on its far shor...