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Saints

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What Catholics believe about Saints

It's important to remember that saints aren't supernatural beings to be worshiped. In fact, in the New Testament, the term saint often is a synonym for Christian. We are all saints and are called again and again to become saints in our lives. The word "saint" comes from the Latin word sanctus, meaning a holy one.

Why do Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary, the saints, and the angels?

Praying to Mary, the saints, and the angels can sound like trying to get "friends in high places" to run interference for you. Although people sometimes seek such "friends" in order to get a speeding ticket fixed, buy merchandise at a lower price or have some problem resolved, for Catholics that is not what devotion to the saints represents.

God alone is the source of all grace and blessing. Saints do not "fix" things for us apart from God or convince God to do X rather than Y. At Vatican II, the bishops taught that the holiness of the Church "is shown constantly in the fruits of grace which the Spirit produces in the faithful and so it must be" (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, #39). Those "fruits of grace" are seen in the lives of saintly disciples, whether canonized or not.

Jesus was fully divine and fully human. As a human, Jesus could be only one gender, live at one time in history, grow up in one human culture, etc. Saints help us to see holiness as possible for ourselves because saints include men and women, married and single people who lived at various times in human history and in various cultures. Saints remind us that, no matter what sacrifices we may need to make in order to cooperate with God's grace, we are not the first people to make those sacrifices. If we ask our friends on earth to pray for us, why not ask our friends in heaven to do the same?

-Franciscan Media
Many popular devotional practices involve veneration of the saints. The saints have a special place in the Body of Christ, which includes both the living and the dead. Through Christ we on earth remain in communion both with the saints in heaven and with the dead who are still in Purgatory. We can pray for those in Purgatory and ask the saints to pray for us. Through their prayers of intercession, the saints in heaven play an integral role in the life of the Church on earth. "For after they have been received into their heavenly home and are present to the Lord, through Him and with Him and in Him they do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, showing forth the merits which they won on earth through the one Mediator between God and man." The saints, the members of the Church who have arrived at perfect union with Christ, join their wills to the will of God in praying for those in the Church who are still on their pilgrimage of faith.

Besides what the saints can do for us by their prayers, the very practice of venerating the saints does great good for those who are devoted to the saints. By practicing love of the saints we strengthen the unity of the entire Body of Christ in the Spirit.
This in turn brings us all closer to Christ. "For just as Christian communion among wayfarers brings us closer to Christ, so our companionship with the saints joins us to Christ, from Whom as from its Fountain and Head issues every grace and the very life of the people of God."
Love of the saints necessarily includes and leads to love of Christ and to love of the Holy Trinity. "For every genuine testimony of love shown by us to those in heaven, by its very nature tends toward and terminates in Christ who is the 'crown of all saints,' and through Him, in God Who is wonderful in his saints and is magnified in them."

—From Popular Devotional Practices

Feast Days of the Saints

September 2020

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Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
		1 Saint Giles Month View September 1, 2020 Saint Giles Tuesday, September 1 Despite the fact that much about Saint Giles is shrouded in mystery, we can say that he was one of the most popular saints in the Middle Ages... Read More	2 Blessed John Francis Burté and Companions Month View September 2, 2020 Blessed John Francis Burté and Companions Wednesday, September 2 These priests were victims of the French Revolution. Though their martyrdom spans a period of several years, they stand together in the Church’s memory because they all gave their lives for the same principle... Read More	3 Saint Gregory the Great Month View September 3, 2020 Saint Gregory the Great Thursday, September 3 Gregory was the prefect of Rome before he was 30. After five years in office he resigned, founded six monasteries on his Sicilian estate, and became a Benedictine monk in his own home at Rome. Read More	4 Saint Rose of Viterbo Month View September 4, 2020 Saint Rose of Viterbo Friday, September 4 Even as a child, Rose had a great desire to pray and to aid the poor. While still very young, she began a life of penance in her parents’ house. She was as generous to the poor as she was strict with herself... Read More	5 Saint Teresa of Calcutta Month View September 5, 2020 Saint Teresa of Calcutta Saturday, September 5 Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the tiny woman recognized throughout the world for her work among the poorest of the poor, was beatified October 19, 2003... Read More
6 Blessed Claudio Granzotto Month View September 6, 2020 Blessed Claudio Granzotto Sunday, September 6 His artistic abilities, especially in sculpture, led to studies at Venice’s Academy of Fine Arts, which awarded him a diploma with the highest marks in 1929. Even then he was especially interested in religious art. When Claudio entered the Friars Minor four years later, his parish priest wrote, “The Order is receiving not only an artist but a saint.”... Read More	7 Blessed Frédéric Ozanam Month View September 7, 2020 Blessed Frédéric Ozanam Monday, September 7 A man convinced of the inestimable worth of each human being, Frédéric served the poor of Paris well, and drew others into serving the poor of the world. Through the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, which he founded, his work continues to the present day... Read More	8 Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Month View September 8, 2020 Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Tuesday, September 8 The Church has celebrated Mary’s birth since at least the sixth century. A September birth was chosen because the Eastern Church begins its Church year with September. Read More	9 Saint Peter Claver Month View September 9, 2020 Saint Peter Claver Wednesday, September 9 A native of Spain, young Jesuit Peter Claver left his homeland forever in 1610 to be a missionary in the colonies of the New World. He sailed into Cartagena, a rich port city washed by the Caribbean. He was ordained there in 1615. Read More	10 Saint Thomas of Villanova Month View September 10, 2020 Saint Thomas of Villanova Thursday, September 10 Saint Thomas was from Castile in Spain and received his surname from the town where he was raised. He received a superior education at the University of Alcala and became a popular professor of philosophy there. Read More	11 Saint Cyprian Month View September 11, 2020 Saint Cyprian Friday, September 11 Cyprian is important in the development of Christian thought and practice in the third century, especially in northern Africa. Read More	12 Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary Month View September 12, 2020 Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary Saturday, September 12 This feast is a counterpart to the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus; both have the possibility of uniting people easily divided on other matters. Read More
13 Saint John Chrysostom Month View September 13, 2020 Saint John Chrysostom Sunday, September 13 The ambiguity and intrigue surrounding John, the great preacher (his name means “golden-mouthed”) from Antioch, are characteristic of the life of any great man in a capital city... Read More	14 Exaltation of the Holy Cross Month View September 14, 2020 Exaltation of the Holy Cross Monday, September 14 Early in the fourth century, Saint Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. She razed the second-century Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher on that spot. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman... Read More	15 Our Lady of Sorrows Month View September 15, 2020 Our Lady of Sorrows Tuesday, September 15 For a while there were two feasts in honor of the Sorrowful Mother: one going back to the 15th century, the other to the 17th century. For a while both were celebrated by the universal Church: one on the Friday before Palm Sunday, the other in September... Read More	16 Saint Cornelius Month View September 16, 2020 Saint Cornelius Wednesday, September 16 There was no pope for 14 months after the martyrdom of Saint Fabian because of the intensity of the persecution of the Church. During the interval, the Church was governed by a college of priests. Saint Cyprian, a friend of Cornelius, writes that Cornelius was elected pope “by the judgment of God and of Christ, by the testimony of most of the clergy, by the vote of the people, with the consent of aged priests and of good men.” Read More	17 Saint Robert Bellarmine Month View September 17, 2020 Saint Robert Bellarmine Thursday, September 17 When Robert Bellarmine was ordained in 1570, the study of Church history and the fathers of the Church was in a sad state of neglect. A promising scholar from his youth in Tuscany, he devoted his energy to these two subjects, as well as to Scripture, in order to systematize Church doctrine against the attacks of the Protestant Reformers... Read More	18 Saint Joseph of Cupertino Month View September 18, 2020 Saint Joseph of Cupertino Friday, September 18 oseph of Cupertino is most famous for levitating at prayer. Already as a child, Joseph showed a fondness for prayer. After a short career with the Capuchins, he joined the Conventual Franciscans... Read More	19 Saint Januarius Month View September 19, 2020 Saint Januarius Saturday, September 19 Little is known about the life of Januarius. He is believed to have been martyred in the Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of 305... Read More
20 Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions Month View September 20, 2020 Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions Sunday, September 20 The first native Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon was the son of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years, he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest... Read More	21 Saint Matthew Month View September 21, 2020 Saint Matthew Monday, September 21 Matthew was a Jew who worked for the occupying Roman forces, collecting taxes from other Jews... Read More	22 Saint Lorenzo Ruiz and Companions Month View September 22, 2020 Saint Lorenzo Ruiz and Companions Tuesday, September 22 Lorenzo was born in Manila of a Chinese father and a Filipino mother, both Christians. Thus he learned Chinese and Tagalog from them, and Spanish from the Dominicans whom he served as altar boy and sacristan. Read More	23 Saint Pio of Pietrelcina Month View September 23, 2020 Saint Pio of Pietrelcina Wednesday, September 23 In one of the largest such ceremonies in history, Pope John Paul II canonized Padre Pio of Pietrelcina on June 16, 2002. It was the 45th canonization ceremony in Pope John Paul’s pontificate. More than 300,000 people braved blistering heat as they filled St. Peter’s Square and nearby streets... Read More	24 Saint John Henry Newman Month View September 24, 2020 Saint John Henry Newman Thursday, September 24 John Henry Newman, the 19th-century’s most important English-speaking Roman Catholic theologian, spent the first half of his life as an Anglican and the second half as a Roman Catholic. He was a priest, popular preacher, writer, and eminent theologian in both churches... Read More	25 Saints Louis Martin and Zélie Guerin Month View September 25, 2020 Saints Louis Martin and Zélie Guerin Friday, September 25 The home that Louis and Zélie created nurtured the sanctity of all their children, but especially their youngest, who is known to us as Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Louis and Zélie were beatified in 2008, and canonized by Pope Francis on October 18, 2015. Read More	26 Saint Paul VI Month View September 26, 2020 Saint Paul VI Saturday, September 26 Saint Pope Paul’s greatest accomplishment was the completion and implementation of Vatican II. Its decisions about liturgy were the first ones noticed by most Catholics, but its other documents—especially the ones about ecumenism, interfaith relations, divine revelation, religious liberty, the Church’s self-understanding and the Church’s work with the entire human family—have become the Catholic Church’s road map since 1965... Read More
27 Saint Vincent de Paul Month View September 27, 2020 Saint Vincent de Paul Sunday, September 27 The deathbed confession of a dying servant opened Vincent de Paul’s eyes to the crying spiritual needs of the peasantry of France. This seems to have been a crucial moment in the life of the man from a small farm in Gascony, France, who had become a priest with little more ambition than to have a comfortable life... Read More	28 Saint Wenceslaus Month View September 28, 2020 Saint Wenceslaus Monday, September 28 If saints have been falsely characterized as “other worldly,” the life of Wenceslaus stands as an example to the contrary: He stood for Christian values in the midst of the political intrigues which characterized 10th-century Bohemia... Read More	29 Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael Month View September 29, 2020 Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael Tuesday, September 29 Angels—messengers from God—appear frequently in Scripture, but only Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are named. Read More	30 Saint Jerome Month View September 30, 2020 Saint Jerome Wednesday, September 30 Most of the saints are remembered for some outstanding virtue or devotion which they practiced, but Jerome is frequently remembered for his bad temper! It is true that he had a very bad temper and could use a vitriolic pen, but his love for God and his son Jesus Christ was extraordinarily intense; anyone who taught error was an enemy of God and truth, and Saint Jerome went after him or her with his mighty and sometimes sarcastic pen. Read More

Saints

Why do Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary, the saints, and the angels?