What is a Saint?
In the Catholic Church, the saints are ordinary people like you and I 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
June 14
Elisha the Prophet
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Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 15
Sts. Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia
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June 16
St. John Francis Regis
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June 17
St. Albert Adam Chmielowski
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June 18
Sts. Mark & Marcellianus
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June 19
St. Romuald
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June 20
St. Margareta Ebner
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June 17
St Albert Chmielowski
Albert Chmielowski was born in Igolomia near Kraków as the eldest of four children in a wealthy family. He initially studied agriculture in order to manage the family estate, but was deeply Involved in politics from his youth. He fought for Polish independence in the 1864 revolt against Czar Alexander III; a Russian grenade killed his horse and wounded his leg so badly that it had to be amputated – without any anesthesia.
Albert had been studying engineering, but when he was exiled because of his rebellion, he discovered a talent for painting, and while in exile, studied art in Warsaw, Munich, and Paris. Returning to Krakow in 1874, he became a well known and well liked artist. But he was a gentle and compassionate soul, and felt called to help those in need. After years of reflection, he understood that this desire was how God was calling him to service and Himself.
In 1880, he began exploring religious life, and in 1887 became a Secular Franciscan, and founding the Brothers of the Third Order of Saint Francis, Servants to the Poor, known as the Albertines or the Gray Brothers (after their rough gray habits). They worked primarily with the homeless, depending completely on alms while serving the needy regardless of age, religion, or politics. He established a community of Albertine sisters, also dedicated to serving the poor and homeless.
Albert died in 1916 on Christmas day, due to stomach cancer. He died in one of the shelters that he had established, maintaining his involvement with the poor even to his death.
Albert preached that the great calamity of our time was that so many refused to see and voluntarily relieve the suffering of their miserable brothers and sisters. The “haves” lived away from the “have-nots” in order to ignore them and leave their care to others. In 1949, Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, wrote a well-received play about Albert; the work was filmed in 1997, released as Brother of Our God. John Paul II later said that he found great spiritual support for his own vocation in the life of the Polish saint whom he saw as an example of leaving behind the world of the arts to make a radical choice in favor of the religious life.
and the Albertine Sisters
“I look at Jesus in His Eucharist. Could His love have provided anything more beautiful? If He is bread, let us too become bread… let us give ourselves.”
St Albert Chmielowski