What is a Saint?
In the Catholic Church, the saints are ordinary people like you and me who made it to heaven. They’ve done nothing that you and I cannot do, if we persevere in following Jesus Christ and living our lives according to His teaching.
Catholic devotion to the saints is nothing more than respect and admiration for the memory of the deceased heroes of the Church. We honor them as men and women of heroic virtue who can serve as our role models. They were no more perfect than are we; but, at the end of their lives – and hopefully, ours – they received from Our Lord his words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
We also ask the saints to intercede for us. Have you ever asked anyone to pray for you when you were having a hard time? That is how Catholics “pray to” the saints – we pray with saints, not to them. As the Letter of James says, “The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.”
Well-known saints like those below often are remembered in a special way on particular days during the year.
January – February – March – April – May – June
July – August – September – October – November – December
This Weeks Saints
March 8
St. John of God
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Third Sunday of Lent
Daylight Saving Time Begins
March 9
St. Dominic Savio
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March 10
St. John Ogilvie
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March 11
St Eulogius of Cordoba
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March 12
Bl Rutilio Grande-Garcia
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March 13
St. Roderick of Cordoba
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March 14
St. Matilda of Saxony
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Pi Day
March 9
St. Dominic Savio
The son of a blacksmith and seamstress, Dominic was born in San Govanni di Riva in Piedmont, Italy. From the age of seven, Dominic desired to become a priest. Although he was young, Dominic was clearly different than his peers. When two boys stuffed a school heating stove with snow and rubbish. The boys were known troublemakers and were likely to face expulsion if caught, so they blamed Dominic for the misdeed. Dominic did not deny the accusation and he was scolded before the class. However, a day later the teacher learned the truth. He asked Dominic why he did not defend himself while being scolded for something he did not do. Dominic mentioned he was imitating Jesus who remained silent when unjustly accused.
At twelve he met Saint John Bosco, who accepted him into his Oratory, an educational center for boys in Turin. Dominic’s goal was to work with neglected and disadvantaged children when he became a priest. John guided Dominic’s youthful enthusiasm, teaching him to turn away from extreme penances and toward prayer and joyful play.
Dominic’s approach was simple. “I can’t do big things,” he said, “but I want all I do, even the smallest thing, to be for the greater glory of God.” He was well-liked, known to all as a peacemaker and an organizer. When once two classmates were on the verge of a violent fight, he rushed into their midst holding a crucifix aloft: “Before you fight, look at this, both of you.” In the face of the earnest Dominic and their suffering Savior, the boys backed down. Dominic was accustomed to what he called “fits,” moments of ecstatic prayer.
He helped to found a group he called the Company of the Immaculate Conception. All of its members except one would join John Bosco in that saint’s Salesian order. The exception was Dominic. When he fell ill at the age of fifteen with a lung disease that continually grew worse, he was sent home to his parents. Just before he died, he received a final vision. “I am seeing the most wonderful things,” he told his father.
His birthplace is now a retreat house for teenagers; he is buried in the basilica of Mary, Help of Christians in Turin, not far from the tomb of his mentor, teacher and biographer, Saint John Bosco.
“Nothing seems tiresome or painful when you are working for a Master who pays well; who rewards even a cup of cold water given for love of Him.”
St. Dominic Savio
March 12
Bl. Rutilio Grande
Rutilio Grande (1928–1977) was born in the small town of El Paisnal on July 5, 1928. He was the youngest of seven children of Salvador Grande and Cristina García. When his parents separated, his father went to look for work on a banana plantation in Honduras, leaving him to be raised by his mother and, later, his grandmother Francesca. Francisca was a very religious woman, a “prayer leader” (rezadora), in common parlance. Rutilio gave her credit for setting the foundations of his priestly vocation.
When he was 12 years old, Rutilio wrote to Archbishop Luis Chávez about his desire to be a priest. The archbishop prioritized encouraging vocations among the poor, and subsequently invited Rutilio to enter the minor seminary of San Salvador in 1941. He discerned a vocation with the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and pronounced his vows as a religious in 1947. He celebrated his first Mass on the feast of Saint Ignatius in 1964.
Rutilio’s preference for the poor was reflected in his development of several generations of seminarians, into whom he instilled a strong sense of service. When sisters and priests like Rutilio Grande took the side of the poor, the backlash from the military and oligarchy was intense. Death squads commissioned by the military and wealthy Salvadorans tortured and executed campesinos who took an active role in organizing. Their bodies would be buried in shallow graves or dumped in public places in order to terrify others into silence. The unspoken ban against killing priests was broken on March 12, 1977 when he and two companions were gunned down near his home village of El Paisnal.
Pope Francis told a friend of Rutilio Grande that the great miracle of his life was that of his old friend Oscar Romero. The Archbishop, prior to this, had been murdered avoided politics, but rushed to the countryside where Rutilio had been murdered when he learned of the assassination. The next day, Romero removed himself from all government events, and began preaching against the government’s involvement in the oppression of the campesinos. Three years later, Archbishop Romero was murdered while celebrating Mass. The twelve-year conflict eventually left 75,000 civilians dead, and 8,000 more were “disappeared”.
“If Jesus were to come to our country today, entering through Chalatenango and heading to San Salvador, he would not even get to Guazapa before being arrested for subversion and submitted to harsh treatment.”
Bl. Rutilio Grande