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 30
St. Marie Nicolas Antoine Daveluy
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March 31
Bl. Natalia Tulasiewicz
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April 1
Bl. Karl of Austria
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April 2
St. Francis of Paola
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April 3
St. Richard of Chichester
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April 4
St. Isidore of Seville
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April 5
St. Vincent Ferrer
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April 1
Bl. Karl of Austria
“Thy Holy Will be done. Jesus, Jesus, come! Yes—yes. My Jesus as Thou willst it—Jesus.”
Bl. Karl of Austria
(The last words of Bl Karl – 1 April 1922)
Karl of Austria was raised in a faithful home. From a young age and throughout his life, Karl of Austria demonstrated an awareness of God’s presence and Christian duty. He developed deep devotions to the Blessed Sacrament and the Sacred Heart. As a child, he submitted all his decisions to God in prayer, and throughout his life he loved to pray. As a youth and later as an adult, he enjoyed making pilgrimages to Marian shrines. There are records from when he was 18 years old recording his almsgiving, and even as Emperor he continued his private charitable giving.
Karl proposed to Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma in front of the Blessed Sacrament at the Marian Shrine of Mariazell. They married in 1922 and the day after their marriage, Karl told his bride: “Now we must help each other get to heaven.” Karl and Zita had a loving relationship, and were each other’s soul mate. They were devoted to each other, supported each other, and had the same Christian values. Their children were brought into this loving environment, and each child was cherished as a gift from God. In eleven years, eight children were born to them. Husband and wife were both concerned to educate them in the faith.
The event that ignited World War 1, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, also put Karl in line for the thrones of Austria and Hungary. In 1916, in the midst of the war, Karl became Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. From the first, he focused his efforts on reducing conflict. He was the only world leader at the time to integrate Pope Benedict XV’s recommendations for peace. He established a Ministry of Social Welfare-the first of its sort in the world. He organized soup kitchens, used the palace’s horses and wagons to deliver coal to the Viennese, fought against usury and corruption, and gave away most of his private wealth by distributing alms beyond his means.
After the war, Karl was unable to reclaim the throne of Hungary, due, in part, to his efforts to avoid civil war. His countrymen reacted by arresting him. In 1921, he and his family were exiled to the island of Madeira. The stress of the move and the dramatic change in circumstances took its toll, and Karl died of pneumonia less than five months later. He explicitly accepted his death for the sake of peace among his people. Karl offered his illness and suffering as a sacrifice for the peace and unity of his lands: “I must suffer like this so my people will come together again.”
April 4
St. Isidore of Seville
“If a man wants to be always in God’s company, he must pray regularly and read regularly. When we pray, we talk to God; when we read, God talks to us.”
St. Isidore of Seville
Isidore was born in 6th century Cartagena, Spain during complex political times; with the country split between Catholic Spaniards and Arian Visigoths. He came from a pious family (three of his siblings were also saints) and assisted his brother St. Leander in converting the Arian Goths to Catholicism, reuniting the country.
Isidore was originally a poor student, but at an early age he gave his issue over to God. He subsequently developed into an amazing scholar, and is still known as “The Schoolmaster of the Middle Ages”. His exceptional classical education formed him into a prolific author. He wrote a Rule for religious orders, a dictionary, a history of the Goths, a history of the world, and an encyclopedia of knowledge, the Etymologiae. That work was an encyclopedia of universal knowledge, which gathered in one place many Roman and other classical documents, which would otherwise have been lost. It served as a reference for 900 years.
He was ordained Bishop in 599, replacing his brother Leander upon the latter’s death. His main goal as bishop was to continue the work of both his parents and his older brother to counteract Gothic barbarism by melding it with the remaining Roman culture. His continued efforts met with great success. He struggled between the life of solitude to meditate on the Word of God and the demands of ecclesiastical duties. He organized synods to discuss representational government that became the model for European nations. He founded numerous schools and seminaries, and was responsible for introducing Aristotelian philosophy to Spain; St. Isidore promoted education by encouraging seminaries and schools built in every diocese.
His liturgical and theological writings caused him to be named a Doctor of the Church; he is sometimes referred to as the patron saint of computer users and the Internet. His last dying act was to give away all his possessions.