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Mary & the Saints

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Mary & the Saints

Catholics honour Mary as Mother of God and ask the saints to pray for them. These questions explain what that means, where it is found in Scripture, and how it always leads to Christ.

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Why do Catholics pray to Mary?

Catholics do not worship Mary; they ask her to pray for them, just as Christians ask one another for prayers. Because she is the Mother of Jesus and is alive in Christ, her intercession is powerful — as at Cana, where Jesus worked his first miracle at her request.

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Questions about Mary & the Saints

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Q&AMary & the Saints

Why do Catholics pray to Mary?

Catholics do not worship Mary; they ask her to pray for them, just as Christians ask one another for prayers. Because she is the Mother of Jesus and is alive in Christ, her intercession is powerful — as at Cana, where Jesus worked his first miracle at her request.

Q&AMary & the Saints

Why do Catholics pray to saints?

Catholics ask the saints to pray for them for the same reason Christians ask friends to pray for them. Those who have died in Christ are alive with God, united to us in one Body, and Scripture shows them offering the prayers of believers before God's throne.

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What is the Immaculate Conception?

The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, from the first moment of her conception, was preserved free from original sin by a unique grace of God, given in view of the merits of Jesus Christ. It is not the same as the virgin birth of Jesus.

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Are guardian angels real?

Yes. The Church teaches that angels are real spiritual beings created by God, and the Church's definitive teaching holds that each person has a guardian angel who watches over them from birth to death. Jesus himself said that children's "angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father."

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What does the Church teach about the devil?

The Church teaches that Satan is real: a fallen angel who, with other demons, freely and irrevocably rejected God. He tempts and deceives, but he is a creature, not God's equal, and his power is limited. Christ has already defeated him, and through prayer and the sacraments believers can resist him.

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How does someone become a saint?

Everyone in heaven is a saint. "Canonized" saints are those the Church formally declares to be in heaven and worthy of public veneration, after a careful investigation of their life and, normally, two miracles attributed to their intercession. The steps are Servant of God, Venerable, Blessed, and Saint.

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Where does our information about Saints Anne and Joachim come from?

Their names come from the Protoevangelium of James, a second-century apocryphal Christian writing about Mary's childhood. It is not Scripture, but as an early Christian history it may preserve accurate information about the family of Mary and Joseph.

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Could the Catholic Church canonize a non-Catholic?

In theory, yes, since canonization is simply an official acknowledgment that someone is in heaven. But so far the Church has canonized only her own members, because one purpose of canonization is to hold up a model of Catholic holiness.

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Is there a patron saint for discernment?

One possibility is St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose Spiritual Exercises were written to help people discern rightly. Ignatius taught that we should be ready to submit our own judgment to the Church's.

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Why isn't Noah called a saint?

Formal canonization developed centuries after the Church began, so Old and New Testament saints — even the Virgin Mary — were never formally canonized. Noah is among the Old Testament righteous generally considered to be in heaven, and Hebrews 11 lists him among the heroes of faith.

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Is there a patron saint of dieters?

No saint has been officially designated, but you may choose one whose life fits and ask for prayers: St. Martha (patron of dietitians), St. Raphael ("God heals"), St. Thomas Aquinas (believed to have been a large man), St. Catherine of Siena (who at times lived on the Eucharist alone), or St. Anthony of Padua (patron of the starving).

Q&AMary & the Saints

Is it required that Catholics be devoted to Mary?

No. Devotion is an emotional attachment and cannot be required. What is required is assent to the Marian doctrines the Church has declared binding. Still, devotion can be developed, and it is a pious thing to cultivate it toward one's spiritual Mother.

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How did the Church determine that September 8 is Mary's birthday?

The Church usually assigns feast dates. September 8 falls nine months after December 8, when the Church celebrates Mary's Immaculate Conception.

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What is the difference between saints and blesseds?

They are stages in the Church's process. Beatification usually requires one attested miracle and permits veneration by the local church. Canonization usually requires two, permits veneration by the universal Church, and is a definitive, infallible statement that the saint is in heaven.

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How do we know St. Anne was Mary's mother, since the Bible doesn't mention her?

From sources outside the Bible. The earliest known record of her name is the Protoevangelium of James, from the second century.

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Who is the woman in Genesis 3:15 — Eve or Mary?

The popes teach that the verse prophetically points to Mary. Pius IX wrote that the Church's writers saw in God's promise of enmity between the serpent and the woman a prophecy of the Virgin Mary and her Son's victory. John Paul II linked Paul's calling Mary "woman" in Galatians 4:4 to the woman of Genesis 3:15.

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Is St. Christopher still a saint?

Yes. His feast is no longer on the universal calendar, but he is still recognized as a saint. He was an early martyr about whom little is known; like many early saints he was acclaimed, not formally canonized, and his feast may still be kept locally.

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In light of Matthew 11:11, who is greater — Mary or John the Baptist?

Read in context, Matthew 11:11 is not a ranking of John above Mary. Just before it, Jesus calls John a prophet and more than a prophet (Matthew 11:9): he is proclaiming John the greatest of the prophets — the Precursor.

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If Mary was free of sin, why did she go through the purification rite?

Out of obedience to the Mosaic law — for the same reason Jesus was circumcised. Both rites symbolized being freed from sin, but Jesus and Mary underwent them not because they needed it but because they were Jews who kept the Law. Aquinas adds that it was fitting for the Mother to share her Son's humility.

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Does the Church approve of the Bayside apparitions?

No. The Bayside apparition ("Our Lady of the Roses") is completely false, and Catholics should have nothing to do with it. Its seer made false prophecies, including a "Warning" in 1997 that never came, and the local bishop repeatedly condemned it; the condemnation remains in force.

Q&AMary & the Saints

Is it proper to call Mary "our life, our sweetness and our hope"?

Yes. Just as parents call their children "my life" without putting them in God's place, we call Mary our life, sweetness and hope because she is the channel the Father chose to bring us his Son. Honoring her doesn't diminish Christ; it magnifies him.

Q&AMary & the Saints

How can Mary be God's Mother, but not the mother of the Trinity?

"Mother of God" (Theotokos) doesn't mean Mary is the source of Christ's divine nature, or mother of the Father or the Holy Spirit. It means she is mother of the Person of Jesus, who is God — the Father's eternal Son who truly became her son according to the flesh.

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Why is St. Anthony invoked for finding lost items?

Because of a popular story: a brother friar stole a commentary Anthony had written; Anthony prayed, and the thief, frightened by a sudden storm he took as God's wrath, returned it. Whether the story is true or a pious legend, we don't know for certain.

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How can Eastern Orthodoxy have saints if it has no pope?

The pope doesn't make saints; he officially recognizes them through canonization. Everyone who dies in God's friendship becomes a saint, and Orthodox Christians can die in God's friendship. Their recognition of saints resembles the early Church's acclamation, but the Catholic Church does not currently recognize those individuals as saints, though it hopes for their salvation.

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Are any apparitions ever considered dogma?

No. Apparitions are private revelation; even those the Church recognizes are not part of the deposit of faith, and Catholics are not bound to believe them. Their role is to help us live Christ's revelation more fully, never to complete or correct it.

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Has the Church ever condemned a Marian devotion as idolatrous?

Yes. In the fourth and fifth centuries the Collyridians treated Mary as a goddess, offering her a sacrifice of bread in their liturgies. St. Epiphanius of Salamis defended the orthodox position against them in his Panarion.

Q&AMary & the Saints

What is the meaning of the name "Fatima"?

"Fatima" means "the shining one" and was the name of Muhammad's daughter, Fatima Zahra, honored in some Muslim circles as a model of womanhood. The Portuguese town was named for a namesake who converted to Christianity, and Mary's appearances there were confirmed by a miracle of the sun.

Q&AMary & the Saints

Can you help me resolve my difficulties with Marian doctrines?

Jesus alone is our Redeemer in the ultimate sense, but he used human cooperators — prophets, Joseph, and above all Mary. Titles like co-redemptrix and mediatrix can mislead, so the Church has not infallibly proclaimed them. At Cana Jesus worked his first miracle at her request; appreciating Mary means appreciating her Son more.

Q&AMary & the Saints

Was Jesus' birth "painful, bloody and messy"?

That claim presents as fact something the Church hasn't defined. The Church teaches that Mary bore her Son without violation of her virginal integrity, without specifying how. Generally, the Fathers and scholastics taught that she gave birth miraculously and without pain.

Q&AMary & the Saints

What is the difference between talking to a saint and talking to a ghost?

The Church forbids occult methods of summoning the dead — Ouija boards, séances, mediums — and attempts to manipulate the supernatural for forbidden power or knowledge. Praying to a saint conjures nothing; it honors God's friend and asks for prayer.

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Where does the Bible say Mary was assumed into heaven?

It doesn't explicitly. There is no direct scriptural proof of the Assumption. Pope Pius XII formally defined the dogma in *Munificentissimus Deus* in 1950.

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Did St. Joseph have a first wife named Melcha?

The story that Joseph married a Melcha and had six children comes from apocryphal writings, which have no authority, as the *Catholic Encyclopedia* notes.

Q&AMary & the Saints

Why is St. Thérèse of Lisieux a patron of aviators?

During World War I, soldiers on both sides reported visions of a young nun comforting the wounded and began carrying her picture into battle. She became a special favorite of French pilots, which began her patronage of aviators.

Q&AMary & the Saints

How can I explain that praying before a statue of Mary isn't idolatry?

Use a little logic. No one would say a Protestant praying with a Bible pressed to her heart is praying to the Bible, or that a photo of a deceased relative on the mantel means ancestor worship. The same reasoning applies to Catholics praying before a statue.

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What is a Seven Dolors rosary?

The Seven Dolors are the Seven Sorrows of Mary, prayed in the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows, also called the Servite Rosary after the Order of the Servants of Mary who promote it.

Q&AMary & the Saints

Is there a patron saint of good deeds?

All saints do good deeds; it is one measure of holiness. One who stressed their necessity is St. James the Less, commonly held to be the author of the Letter of James, who wrote that faith without works is dead.

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Peter told Cornelius not to kneel before him. Should Catholics kneel before a statue of Mary?

Kneeling is not always worship. Catholics kneel before a statue of Mary to show her respect and honor and to ask her intercession, not to worship her.

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Should Catholics venerate saints canonized by Eastern Orthodox churches?

Catholics may admire their witness and learn from apparently holy people of other traditions, but should not give them the public honor reserved to saints canonized by the Catholic Church. Papal canonization infallibly declares a person in heaven; we have no such certainty about those "canonized" elsewhere.

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Why pray to angels?

Angels are spiritual beings with free will and intellects far beyond ours. The holy angels dwell in heaven and so are saints. God uses them as messengers, guardians and helpers to us, as Raphael's words in Tobit show.

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What difference does it make whether our Lady was always a virgin?

The Church has taught it from its earliest days because of what it says about Jesus. From the cross he shared his Mother with us all, but her womb was a tabernacle for him alone, as our tabernacles hold only the Eucharist. Mary is special because he is so much more special.

Q&AMary & the Saints

Why hasn't the pope consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart?

He has. On March 25, 1984, John Paul II, united with the world's bishops, consecrated the world, and especially those peoples most in need of it, to the Immaculate Heart. Russia was named indirectly, and Sr. Lucia said Our Lady's request had been fulfilled.

Q&AMary & the Saints

Was John the Baptist born without original sin?

There is a pious speculation that John was freed from sin when he was filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb (cf. Luke 1:15, 41-44), but the Church has not declared it doctrine, and has not taught that he was baptized in the womb in the sense of ordinary baptism.

Q&AMary & the Saints

Are there any rules governing relics?

Keep them for veneration or give them away, but never sell them: canon law absolutely forbids selling sacred relics. Relics of great significance, or greatly honored by the people, may not be alienated or permanently transferred without the Holy See's permission.

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Should I pray to learn my guardian angel's name?

No. The Church discourages giving names to the holy angels, except Gabriel, Raphael and Michael, whose names are in Scripture.

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Is Dorothy Day considered saintly because of her support for Fidel Castro?

Of course not. Holy people are admired for their holiness, not their politics. Dorothy Day, a convert who founded the Catholic Worker movement, cared above all for the poor and marginalized, rejected the "free love" revolution, and stayed loyal to the Church. She is a Servant of God.

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Are there so many relics of the Virgin Mary that they would make more than one body?

No. The Church has solemnly defined that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven, so there are no bones of hers to distribute as relics. The Church does value relics, for reasons grounded in Scripture.

Q&AMary & the Saints

How did John the Baptist escape Herod's massacre of the infants?

Scripture does not say. But Herod apparently limited the killings to the area around Bethlehem, where the Messiah was to be born, and John's family seems to have lived elsewhere, in a town in the hill country of Judah, perhaps far enough away to protect him.

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The Four Marian Dogmas

Dogmas are not opinions but truths revealed by God and definitively taught as binding. The Church has four Marian dogmas: Mother of God, Perpetual Virginity, Immaculate Conception and Assumption. They protect the truth about Christ, and honoring Mary safeguards the Gospel rather than distracting from it.

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What the Early Church Believed: Mary Is the Mother of God

Mary is the Mother of God because she is the mother of Jesus, and Jesus is God. This does not mean she is older than God or the source of his divinity, but that the person she carried and bore was God incarnate. Denying it repeats the Nestorian heresy, and the Fathers and the Reformers alike affirmed it.

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What the Early Church Believed: The Perpetual Virginity of Mary

Most Protestants claim Mary had other children, citing the "brethren of the Lord." But Scripture and the early Christians knew Jesus was Mary's only child and that she remained a virgin all her life. The early *Protoevangelium of James* records her vow of virginity, and the Fathers, and even the Reformers, affirmed it.

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Did Jesus Have Brothers?

About ten New Testament passages mention the "brothers" and "sisters" of the Lord. But in the Bible "brother" has a wide meaning that includes cousins and other relatives, and the context shows these were not children of Mary. She remained a virgin all her life.

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What the Early Church Believed: Mary's Immaculate Nature

The Fathers taught that God gave Mary special graces to make her a fitting mother for Christ and the model Christian: her role as the New Eve, her Immaculate Conception, her spiritual motherhood of Christians, and her Assumption. The key is the New Eve: like the first Adam and Eve, the New Adam and Eve were immaculate.

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Immaculate Conception and Assumption

The Immaculate Conception means Mary, conceived in the normal way, was preserved from original sin and its stain from the first instant of her existence. The Assumption means that at the end of her earthly life she was taken up body and soul into heaven. Both are holy days of obligation, on December 8 and August 15.

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The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary honors what her heart symbolizes: her love for God and for her Son, her holiness, and her motherly love for us. It does not end in Mary but leads us closer to Jesus.

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Praying to the Saints

Asking the saints in heaven to pray for us is an ancient Christian practice, shared by Catholics, the Orthodox and other Eastern Christians. Scripture shows the saints in heaven are aware of our prayers and offer them to God, and their intercession no more violates Christ's unique mediation than asking a fellow Christian on earth to pray for us.

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Saint Worship?

Catholics do not worship the saints. "Worship" once meant giving honor, and Scripture uses it of honoring people. Theology distinguishes *latria*, the adoration due to God alone, from *dulia*, the honor due to the saints, and *hyperdulia*, the higher honor due to Mary. Scripture commands honoring others, and the chief way we honor the saints is by imitating them.

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Relics

Relics are the bones, clothing or possessions of the saints, honored by the Church and sometimes associated with miracles. The Church does not claim they have magical power; God may choose to work through them, as Scripture shows with Elisha's bones, Jesus' cloak, Peter's shadow and Paul's handkerchiefs.

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Our Lady of Fatima

In 1917, at Fatima in Portugal, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared six times to three shepherd children, identifying herself as the Lady of the Rosary. Her message calls the world to repentance, prayer, especially the daily Rosary, and trust in God's mercy, and always leads to her Son. Her feast is May 13.

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Our Lady of Guadalupe

In December 1531, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac hill near Mexico City and asked for a church to be built there. As a sign, her image was miraculously imprinted on his cloak, which is still displayed in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Her feast is December 12.

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Guardian Angels

Guardian angels are spiritual beings God assigns to guard and guide us. The Church definitively teaches that every baptized person has one, and commonly teaches that every person does. We do not worship them but ask their intercession. Their feast is October 2.

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St. Michael the Archangel

St. Michael is an archangel, a pure spirit created by God, whose name means "Who is like God?" Scripture presents him as the protector of God's people and leader of the angelic army that cast Satan out of heaven. He is invoked especially for protection against evil.

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St. Paul the Apostle

Paul, also called Saul of Tarsus, was a Jew trained as a Pharisee and a Roman citizen who persecuted Christians until he met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Christ made him an apostle, the "Apostle to the Gentiles." He wrote thirteen New Testament letters and was martyred in Rome. The Church honors him with St. Peter on June 29.

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Saint Joseph

St. Joseph, husband of Mary and foster father of Jesus, guarded the Holy Family and is the Patron of the Universal Church. Though Scripture records none of his words, he is a model of faith, courage, chastity and work. His principal feast is March 19, and the Church also honors St. Joseph the Worker on May 1.

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St. John the Baptist

St. John the Baptist was the prophet God chose to prepare the way for Christ. He preached repentance, baptized in the Jordan, baptized Jesus, and always pointed away from himself to the Lamb of God. He was martyred for condemning Herod's unlawful marriage. His feast is June 24.

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The Woman at the Well

In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well and offers her "living water," the gift of God that leads to eternal life and that disciples first receive in baptism. Tradition names her St. Photina. The encounter shows that no one is beyond God's mercy.

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Saint Patrick

St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, was born in Roman Britain in the late fourth century, enslaved in Ireland as a youth, and returned as a Catholic bishop to evangelize the Irish. His feast is March 17.

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Saint Valentine

St. Valentine was an early martyr whose life is known more from legend than history, though there is good evidence he was venerated in the early Church. His feast, February 14, remains an optional memorial. The Church does not celebrate the day for romance but for his witness as a saint and martyr.

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St. Anthony of Padua

St. Anthony of Padua, born in Lisbon in 1195, was a Franciscan friar renowned for his preaching, his love of the poor, and his miracles. He is a Doctor of the Church and the patron saint of lost items. His feast is June 13, and his relics are in the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua.

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St. Christopher

St. Christopher was an early martyr, honored as patron of travelers. Tradition says he carried travelers across a dangerous river and once carried a child who proved to be Christ. His name means "Christ-bearer," and his story calls us to carry Christ to everyone. He is still a saint; his feast is July 25.

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St. Faustina

St. Faustina Kowalska, the "Apostle of Divine Mercy," was a Polish nun who received private revelations from Jesus and recorded them in her *Diary*. Through her, Jesus gave the Divine Mercy image, the Chaplet and the call for Divine Mercy Sunday. Her feast is October 5.

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St. Ignatius of Loyola

St. Ignatius of Loyola was a Spanish soldier whose conversion led him to become a priest, founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), and author of the *Spiritual Exercises*, a classic guide to discernment. His feast is July 31, the day he died in 1556.

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St. John Henry Newman

St. John Henry Newman was an Anglican leader whose study of the Church Fathers led him into the Catholic Church in 1845. A priest, cardinal and educator, he is known for his teaching on the development of doctrine and on conscience. Pope Leo XIV announced in 2025 that Newman would be named the thirty-eighth Doctor of the Church. His feast is October 9.

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St. Josephine Bakhita

St. Josephine Bakhita was kidnapped as a child in Sudan and sold into slavery, then brought to Italy, where she became a Catholic and a Canossian sister. She is the patron saint of victims of human trafficking. Her feast is February 8.

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St. Maria Goretti

St. Maria Goretti, an Italian girl who died in 1902 resisting an attempted rape, forgave her murderer before she died. One of the youngest canonized saints, she is patron of youth, chastity and forgiveness. Her feast is July 6.

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St. Maximilian Kolbe

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Conventual Franciscan, totally consecrated to Mary, who spread devotion through his Militia of the Immaculate and his publications. At Auschwitz he gave his life in place of another prisoner. He was canonized in 1982 as a "martyr of charity." His feast is August 14.

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St. Philomena

Devotion to St. Philomena began when her tomb was found in the Catacomb of Priscilla in 1802. Many miracles were attributed to her, and Gregory XVI authorized a feast in her honor, though she was never formally canonized and her life story rests on unapproved private revelations. Devotion to her remains permitted and popular. Her feast is August 11.

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St. Vincent de Paul

St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) was a French priest devoted to serving the poor, sick, orphans, convicts and slaves in body and soul. He founded the Congregation of the Mission and co-founded the Daughters of Charity, and inspired a worldwide family of charitable works. He is patron of charitable societies; his feast is September 27.

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St. Carlo Acutis

St. Carlo Acutis (1991-2006), an Italian teenager who loved the Eucharist and used his computer skills to catalog Eucharistic miracles, died of leukemia at fifteen. Beatified in 2020 and canonized on September 7, 2025, he is the first millennial saint and is often called the patron of the internet. His feast is October 12.

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Blessed Fulton Sheen

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) was one of the twentieth century's most effective Catholic communicators, reaching millions through radio and television with a clear, joyful presentation of the faith centered on Christ. He was declared Venerable and beatified in September 2026.

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Saint Dymphna

St. Dymphna was a seventh-century Irish princess, baptized secretly by her Christian mother, who fled her father's incestuous intentions and was martyred by him at about fifteen in Geel, in modern Belgium. She is patron of those who suffer from mental illness and emotional distress. Her feast is May 15.

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St. Padre Pio

St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), a Capuchin friar and priest, was a renowned confessor and spiritual guide who bore the stigmata for fifty years and endured demonic attacks and unjust restrictions with humble obedience. He was canonized in 2002; his feast is September 23.

In Scripture

Key terms

Assumption of Mary
The dogma that Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory.
Immaculate Conception
The dogma that Mary was preserved free from original sin from the first moment of her conception, by the merits of Christ.

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