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
August 16
St. Stephen of Hungary
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Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 17
St. Hyacinth
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August 18
St Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga
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August 19
St. John Eudes
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August 20
St Bernard of Clairvaux
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August 21
Pope St. Pius X
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Queenship of Mary
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August 18
St Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga
A Chilean native, Alberto lost his father at age four. His impoverished mother sent him to live with a series of relations. He received a scholarship to study with the Jesuits, and then, in 1923, he entered the order. After ten years of study in Spain and Belgium, Alberto was ordained and returned to Chile. He taught theology at the college and catechism to children. He gave retreats and led the youth of Catholic Action.
In 1944, Alberto had an encounter with a sick homeless man that prompted a passionate homily at his next retreat. “Christ is without a home!” he told the women present. “Shouldn’t we want to give him one, those of us who have the joy of a comfortable home, plenty of good food, the means to educate and assure the future of our children?” The women acted at once, pooling their funds to help Alberto found the first of the homes he called El Hogar de Cristo, “the hearth of Christ.” These were not mere shelters, but true hospices, where the poor and homeless were welcomed, warmed, fed, and taught. The homes spread through Chile. From 1945 to 1951, a stunning 850,000 children were helped.
In 1952, Alberto was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. He died only a few months later, after intense suffering. “I am content, O Lord, I am content,” was his constant prayer.
I hold that every poor man, every vagrant, every beggar is Christ carrying his cross. And as Christ, we must love and help him. We must treat him as a brother, a human being like ourselves.
St Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga
August 20
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard was born into the nobility in Burgundy, France. His pious parents instilled in him their own piety, which was noticeable at an early age. Following the death of his mother when he was 22, he fled the material world with four of his brothers and 25 friends to join a Cistercian abbey, He surrendered himself to the austerity of that order and after a year, professed his vows in that order.
After several years, he was sent to establish a new abbey in the Valley of Wormwood. As its abbot, he renamed the locale “Claire Vallée” – Valley of Light – which name evolved into the now-famous Clairvaux. It eventually grew from the original 12 monks to a community of 700. This b egan his active religious life which made him perhaps the most influential person of the 12th century.
He founded numerous other monasteries, and revised and reformed his own Cistercian order. Although he refused several bishoprics that were offered to him, his skill as a mediator led to his being ordered on several diplomatic missions on behalf of the popes. He famously intervened in a full-blown schism and settled it in favor of the Roman pontiff Innocent II against the antipope Anacletus II. When he was asked to do so by Pope Eugene III, one of his former monks, he traveled throughout France and Germany raising support for the disastrous Second Crusade.
Blamed personally for that Crusade, Bernard’s last few years were melancholy ones. He felt it his duty to write the Pope an apology for the Crusade, blaming its failure on the lack of sanctity and the sins of the Crusaders and their leaders. He died after 40 years as a monk, in the year 1153. He is best remembered for his revival of lectio divina in the 163 monasteries he founded, as well as his theology of worship spaces and music, and his eloquent devotion to the Virgin Mary. He was so famous for the latter that Dante chose him as his guide in the last book of the Divine Comedy.
“There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is Curiosity.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
“There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is Vanity.
“There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love.”