Catholic Saints & Feasts

September 19: Saint Januarius, Bishop and Martyr c. 300 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saint of Naples An early bishop martyr is honored due to an enduring miracle of blood In every lost corner and hidden valley of the Catholic world is a painting of the Virgin Mary that cries watery tears, a crucifix whose growing hair must be cut with scissors, a white host oozing drops of red b...

September 17: Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin and Doctor 1098-1179 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patroness of philologists A one-woman magisterium orchestrates a life in tune with the Creator In the high Middle-Ages, she was New-Age. Before farm-to-table was a term, she lived organically. Before alternative medicine was de rigueur, she catalogued the medicinal benefits of herbs, pla...

September 17: Saint Robert Bellarmine, Bishop and Doctor 1542–1621 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of catechists and catechumens A learned scholar with a warm personality drives the Counter-Reformation forward A massive, multi-volume work of Christian theology was published in the 1580s refuting Protestant errors. The volumes were of such encyclopedic and commanding eruditi...

September 16: Saint Cyprian, Bishop, Martyr c.200–258 Memorial; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saint of Algeria and North Africa The faithful soak up the blood of their beheaded bishop The elegantly named Thaschus Caecilius Cyprianus was born in an uncertain year in that buzzing beehive of early Christianity known as Roman North Africa. His biography epitomizes that of many greats of his era: a clas...

September 16: Saint Cornelius, Pope, Martyr c. Late Second, or Early Third, Century–253 Memorial; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saint of cattle, domestic animals, and earache sufferers A Pope reigns for two years, excommunicates a schismatic, and dies in exile The twenty-first pope of the Church, Saint Cornelius, succeeded no one. After the death of Pope Saint Fabian, martyred in January 250, perse...

September 15: Our Lady of Sorrows Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patroness of Slovakia A mother is only as happy as her saddest child Every life climbs its Calvary. Every soul has its quiet sorrow which cannot be shared in full with any other soul. This concealed pain is the very real drama that plays out behind the curtain of the duties and distractions of everyday life. Jesus Christ, fully Go...

September 14: Exaltation of the Holy Cross Feast; Liturgical Color: Red Patronal Feast of Cortona, Italy A torture device is transformed into a universal symbol of hope and peace If the Romans had hung criminals from a gibbet, then Catholic churches would display a noose in their sanctuaries instead of a cross. Or a statue of Jesus’ lifeless body would be hanging in the sanctuary from a sturdy bra...

September 13: Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor c. 347–407 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of preachers and speakers A great preacher, writer, and intellectual suffers for the faith In the tug and pull of the theological disputes of the fourth and fifth centuries, today’s saint was a seminal figure. Along with other luminaries such as Saints Ambrose, Athanasius, Hilary, Basil...

September 12: The Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Every name begins a relationship A name doesn’t imply that you know everything about someone, but it does make a person “invocable.” To know that there is a “someone” standing before you is not to know too much. When that “someone” has a name, however, he or she is placed in relationship with you, and...

September 9: Saint Peter Claver, Priest (U.S.A.) 1580–1654 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of slaves, Colombia, seafarers, and missionaries to Africa A builder of the Spanish Bridge, he personified respect for human rights It is commonly taught that human rights were born in the Anglo-Saxon Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This thesis holds that non-Catholi...

September 8: Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary Late First Century B.C. Feast; Liturgical Color: White Patroness of silversmiths, potters, and chefs The last and greatest figure of the B.C. era causes its end The birthdates of great men and women are remembered for posterity. The presidents of the United States are commemorated near the February birthday of George Washington. Many nations celebrate...

September 5: Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Religious 1910–1997 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White (Mother Teresa is not on the Church’s universal calendar but is included here due to her renown) Patron Saint of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, India She equals in generosity the great ‘Teresas’ she emulated Anjezë (Agnes) Gonxha Bojaxhiu was a tiny Albanian woman whose strong-as-iron faith served a...

September 3: Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor c. 540–604 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers A gifted nobleman serves Rome, becomes a monk, and then a consequential pope When your salad is awesome, your car amazing, and your internet connection is great, there’s a problem. Overused superlatives diminish their own meaning and crowd th...

August 29: The Passion of Saint John the Baptist, Martyr c. 29 A.D. Memorial; Liturgical Color: Red A desert-dwelling, locust-eating, weed-wearing, celibate ascetic dies for marriage Saint John Vianney was so opposed to the dances held routinely in his small town of Ars that he dedicated a small chapel in his parish church to Saint John the Baptist. At its entrance was painted, perhaps somewhat to...

August 28: Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor 354–430 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of theologians and printers A psychologist, theologian, and working bishop is the greatest convert after Saint Paul The mighty African Saint Augustine climbed the heights of thought, stood upright on their peaks, and turned toward Rome, and thus spread his long, deep shadow over the entire globe. A...

August 27: Saint Monica c. 331–387 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of difficult marriages, homemakers, and mothers Without her example of persevering prayer, her gifted son would not have converted Most of the female saints of the first few centuries of the Church are virgins, martyrs, or both. Most of the medieval and modern female saints are nuns, especially foundresses of religio...

August 25: Saint Louis 1214–1270 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of barbers, grooms, and Saint Louis, Missouri A king leads in piety, mortification, and faith, and dies crusading for the King of all Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24). Today’s saint fulfilled Christ’s commandment in two...

August 25: Saint Joseph Calasanz, Priest 1556–1648 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of Catholic schools and school children A visionary implements his plan, is defamed, and forgives The star of today’s saint burns less brightly than others in the great constellation of counter-reformation saints. But the educational vision of Saint Joseph Calasanz and the ultimate spread and...

August 24: Saint Bartholomew, Apostle First Century Feast; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saint of bookbinders, butchers, and leather workers The Church conquered an imperfect world due to the heroic witness of the Apostles Little is known with certainty about today’s Apostle, and perhaps Saint Bartholomew is just fine with that. If he were like Saint John the Baptist, he would want Christ to increa...

August 23: Saint Rose of Lima, Virgin 1586–1617 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of Peru, florists, and gardeners America’s first saint, she conquered herself by direct attack Today’s saint was born Isabel Flores de Oliva in colonial Spain, today’s Peru, to a middle-class Catholic family. She took the name “Rose” when she was confirmed by Lima’s bishop, the future Saint Turi...

August 22: Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary Memorial; Liturgical Color: White The mother of a king is a queen who receives honor in her son’s realm Mary is both a queen and a mother, but she is more mother than queen. Mary’s Queenship and “mothership,” or motherhood, spark to life simultaneously. In the very moment Mary becomes a mother at the Annunciation, she also becomes a queen. The Archan...

August 21: Saint Pius X, Pope 1835–1914 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of First Communicants and pilgrims Born humble and poor, he never forgot his origins while in the Chair of St. Peter In the long span of three hundred and forty years between the death of Pope Saint Pius V in 1572 and today’s pope-saint, who died in 1914, not one pope is a canonized saint. It is a sign of the Ch...

August 20: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor 1090–1153 Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of the Cistercian Order, beekeepers, and candlemakers A reformer par excellence, he saved the Benedictine Order and rejuvenated monasticism Today’s saint was like a medieval rock star who never stopped touring Europe. He traveled with an entourage, drew enormous crowds, was wildly popul...

August 19: Saint John Eudes, Priest 1601–1680 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of the Diocese of Baie-Comeau, Québec His fine education led to a life of deep prayer and identity with Jesus Many educated Catholics are familiar with the great Spanish saints of the 1500s: Saints Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, John of the Cross, Teresa of Ávila, and many more. They are saints...

August 16: Saint Stephen of Hungary c. 975–1038 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: White Patron Saint of Hungary and of kings Baptized by his pagan father, made King by the Pope, his heirs demolished his legacy Saint Stephen of Hungary was a warrior king whose silhouette stands proud on a far distant horizon as the sun rises behind him at the dawn of the medieval age. His year of birth can only...