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
May 10
St. Damien of Molokai
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Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 11
St Francis di Girolamo
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May 12
Sts Nereus and Achilleus
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May 13
Our Lady of Fatima
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May 14
St Matthias
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May 15
St Isidore the Farmer
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May 16
St Simon Stock
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May 10
St. Damien de Veuster of Moloka’i
“Without the constant presence of Our Divine Master upon the altar in my poor chapels, I never could have persevered casting my lot with the lepers of Molokai”
St. Damien of Molokai
Jozef De Veuster grew up in rural Belgium, the youngest of seven children. Three of his older siblings had taken religious vows and inspired Jozef to do the same. He joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and took the religious name Damien. At the age of 20, while still a seminarian in France, Damien de Veuster volunteered for mission work. His wish was granted and he was assigned to Hawaii, where he was ordained.
Two years later in 1866, the government of Hawaii established a leper colony on Molokai. It was believed at that time that the disease was highly contagious; so, victims of the disease were forced into quarantine, suffering the worst of conditions and living in complete anarchy. Fr. Damien made the tri[ to Molokai where he provided the missing leadership for the colony. He organized services, such as medical care and burial of the dead, as well as building houses, schools, and eventually a church, St. Philomena. Becoming attached to the people of the colony, he asked permission to stay there, which was granted.
In 1885, Fr. Damien contracted leprosy himself. Until he died four years later, he continued his ministry, despite his body being severely crippled by the disease. When Hawaii became a state in 1959, it selected Damien as one of its two representatives in the Statuary Hall at the US Capitol. The day of his passing, April 15, is a statewide holiday in Hawaii.
May 13
Our Lady of Fatima
On May 13th, 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in the small town of Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared six times to three Portuguese shepherd children: Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto, Portuguese shepherds from Aljustrel. At that time, Europe was involved in an extremely bloody war. Portugal itself was in political turmoil, having overthrown its monarchy in 1910; the government disbanded religious organizations soon after.
At the first appearance, Mary asked the children to return to that spot on the thirteenth of each month for the next six months. Mary repeatedly asked the children to offer themselves in prayer and penance “to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war,” the First World War then ravaging Europe. She identified Herself as “Our Lady of the Rosary”, continually asking that they pray the rosary daily for the conversion of sinners and for the conversion of Russia, which had recently overthrown Czar Nicholas II and was soon to fall under communism. She also spoke of observing first Saturdays and devotion to her Immaculate Heart. During the final apparition on October 13, 1917, the dance of the sun took place in front of 70,000 people.
“Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war.”
Our Lady of Fatima
May 14
St. Matthias the Apostle
Of this apostle nothing certain is known beyond what is contained in Acts 1:21-26. Saint Clement of Alexandria assures us, from tradition, that this saint was one of the seventy-two disciples, and this was confirmed by both Eusebius and Saint Jerome. He was one of the disciples during the whole of our Lord’s public life and, like the others was a witness of His resurrection. Because he could bear witness to the resurrection, he was chosen to take the place of Judas among the Twelve, following Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and suicide.
Saint Matthias received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost with the rest soon after his election; and after the dispersion of the disciples, he applied himself with zeal to the functions of his apostleship, in converting nations to the faith. Unreliable legend has him preaching in Judea, Cappadocia, Macedonia, Egypt and Ethiopia, stressing the need for mortification of the flesh with regard to its sensual and irregular desires. He endured great persecutions and hardships in his ministry of more than 30 years. While preaching in Macedonia, he was given a strongly intoxicating liquor known for blinding those who had imbibed it. But he felt no harm, and he restored to sight 250 men whom it had blinded.
He met his end by being beheaded with an axe at Colchis in 80AD. The Church venerates St. Matthias on an equal footing with the other Apostles, whose voices resound throughout the world, from generation to generation, giving testimony to what they saw and heard in their life with our Lord. His alleged relics were removed by Empress Saint Helena and are now venerated at Saint Matthias’s Abbey in Trier and in the basilica of St. Maria Maggiore in Rome.
“It behooves us to combat the flesh, and make use of it, without pampering it by unlawful gratifications. As to the soul, we must develop her power by faith and knowledge.”
(attributed to St. Matthias by St. Clement of Alexandria)