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
August 3
Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War
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18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 4
St. John Vianney
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August 5
Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major
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August 6
St. Maria Francesca Rubatto
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August 7
St. Cajetan
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August 8
St. Dominic
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August 9
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
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August 4
St. John Vianney
“We are each of us like a small mirror in which God searches for His reflection.”
St. Jean-Baptiste Vianney
Jean-Baptiste Vianney was born to a farm family, and was the heir to a meager formal schooling, which left him ill-prepared to pursue his desire of becoming a priest. Although he did enter the seminary, he was forced to leave because of his inability to learn Latin. He was drafted into Napoleon’s army, from which he eventually deserted and returned home. A general amnesty for deserters was declared in 1810, and he resumed his studies. He was judged to be too slow to be a priest, but after lengthy struggles with his studies, and with the intervention of Abbe Bailey of Ecully, he was finally ordained in 1815, more for his piety than his learning. He was assigned to Ecully as Bailey’s assistant.
In 1818 he was reassigned to the parish of Ars-sur-Formans, France, a tiny village of 230 souls near Lyons, where he became the pastor or Cure of Ars. The people of Ars were living comfortable lives for the most part, and were very lackadaisical in their faith. He began visiting his parishioners, especially the sick and poor, spent days in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, did penance and fasted for his parishioners, and lead by example.
The main part of his battle for the souls of his villagers was fought in the confessional. He had been gifted with the ability to discern spirits, and was able to easily read souls, which, combined with his gentle nature, gave him the ability to reconcile many penitents with God. As his reputation spread, more and more penitents sought him out. By 1855, more than 20,000 people a year made a pilgrimage to Ars, to confess to him.
He was Cure of Ars for 40 years, often spending 16 to 18 hours a day in the confessional. His meager few hours of sleep each night were frequently interrupted by diabolical attacks. Refusing all honors offered to him, Jean-Baptiste died at Ars in 1859; his funeral was attended by 300 priests and 6,000 mourners. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925, who named him a patron of parish priests and of confessors.
August 8
St. Dominic Guzman
Dominic Guzman was born of wealthy Spanish nobility in 1170 in Caleruega, Spain. He was the son of Felix Guzman, the royal warden of the village; and Blessed Joan of Aza. Joan had difficulty conceiving, and prayed at the shrine of Saint Dominic of Silos who had a tradition of patronage of that problem; when she became pregnant she named the child Dominic in honor of the Saint. While pregnant, Blessed Joan mother had a vision that her unborn child was a dog who would set the world on fire with a torch it carried in its mouth; a dog with a torch in its mouth became a symbol for the Order which he founded, the Dominicans. At Dominic’s baptism, Blessed Joan saw a star shining from his chest, which became another of his symbols in art, and led to his patronage of astronomy.
Dominic was an exemplary student, and studied philosophy and theology for 10 years at the University of Palencia. In 1194 he joined a Benedictine order called the Canons Regular in Osma, and became the superior of the chapter seven years later. In 1203 he and his bishop were sent to the south of France, to an apostolate among the Albigensian heretics. The Albigensians believed that all material things were intrinsically evil, and Dominic’s austerity – practiced for completely different reasons – appealed to them. His debates with Albigensians converted many of them back to the faith.
In July 1215, Dominic was granted permission to form his own religious order tp promote morality and convert heresy. He founded the Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans) a group who followed a Rule of Life which included a strict routine of discipline, including prayer and penance. In 1217, Pope Honorius III dubbed Dominic and his followers “The Order of Preachers.” His order was charged with the reform of the religious orders of women in Rome, who had become lax in their practice. To recognize his success, the Pope rewarded Dominic with a new church, the basilica of Santa Sabina. The basilica remains the headquarters of the Dominican order to this day.
Dominic as credited with many miracles during his life, including bringing four people back from the dead. Legend says that Dominic received a vision of a beggar who, like Dominic, would do great things for the Faith. Dominic met the beggar the next day. He embraced him and said, “You are my companion and must walk with me. If we hold together, no earthly power can withstand us.” The beggar was Saint Francis of Assisi.
“I could not bear to prize dead skins, when living skins were starving and in need.”
St. Dominic, after selling books inscribed on parchment (sheepskin) and giving the money to the poor.
August 9
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
(Edith Stein)
Born into an Orthodox Jewish family, Edith Stein renounced her faith as a young teenager in 1904 and became an atheist. At University she took a degree in philosophy at the age of 25 and became a prominent professor of philosophy at Freiburg.
It was through an encounter with a young widow that Edith first “came face to face with the cross and the divine strength it gives to those who bear it.” Shortly after, she read the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila – in a single night. She was profoundly affected; The next day, she bought a Catholic catechism. She converted to Catholicism on January 1, 1922.
She became a leading speaker and writer in the Catholic Womans Movement in Germany. Because of her Jewish ethnicity, she was forced to leave her teaching post after the Nazi rise to power. In 1935, she entered the Carmel of Cologne, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. As the Jewish pogroms began under Hitler, Teresa consciously identified herself with the destiny of her people and offered herself for their salvation.
In 1938, she moved to a convent in Echt, Holland. Four years later, the Nazis responded to vocal criticisms by the Dutch bishops conference by arresting all Catholic converts of Jewish descent. Teresa and her sister, who had been with her in the convent, were arrested on August 2, 1942. transported to Auschwitz, where they died in the gas chamber a week later.
A Carmelite notice of Teresa’s death declared, “She has been called to God who accepted her sacrifice, which will bear much fruit in the people for whom she prayed, suffered, and died.”
“The world doesn’t need what women have, it needs what women are.”
St. Teresa Benedicta