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
September 27
St. Vincent de Paul
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Twenty-fifthSunday in Ordinary Time
September 28
Our Lady Undoer of Knots
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September 29
Feast of Archangels
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September 30
St. Jerome
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October 1
St. Therese of Lisieux
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October 2
Guardian Angels
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Bl. Columba Marmion
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September 27
St. Vincent de Paul
“Behold, now, how little is needed to become a Saint? Nothing more than to acquire the habit of willing, on every occasion, what God wills.”
St. Vincent de Paul
Vincent de Paul was born into a French peasant family in Pouy on April 24, 1581. He was an excellent student and was hired as a tutor to the children of a nearby wealthy family. He was ordained a priest at 19, and completed his theological studies 4 years later. In 1605, while on a ship traveling from Marseilles to Narbone, he was captured, brought to Tunis and sold as a slave. Two years later he and his master managed to escape and both returned to France.
After a brief stay in Rome, Vincent became chaplain to the Count of Goigny and was placed in charge of distributing money to the deserving poor. The deathbed confession of a dying servant opened Vincent de Paul’s eyes to the crying spiritual needs of the peasantry of France. This seems to have been a crucial moment in the life of the man from a small farm in Gascony, France, who had become a priest with little more ambition than to have a comfortable life.
After working for some time in Paris among imprisoned galley-slaves, he influenced a number of young men, some of them priests, to join him in forming a religious group to be called the Congregation of the Mission, sponsored by the Countess of Goigny. Vincent and his friends worked with the poor people of the countryside near Paris, helping them obtain food and clothing and teaching them about Christ. The Congregation evolved into the Vincentian order.
The Vincentians remain with us today with nearly 4,000 members in 86 countries. In addition to his order of Vincentian priests, St. Vincent cofounded the Daughters of Charity along with St. Louise de Marillac. There are more than 18,000 Daughters today serving the needs of the poor in 94 countries. Pope Leo XIII made him the patron of all charitable societies. Outstanding among these, of course, is the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, founded in 1833 by his admirer Blessed Frédéric Ozanam.
He was eighty years old when he died in Paris on September 27, 1660. His incorrupt heart can be found in the Convent of the Sisters of Charity and his bones have been embedded in a wax effigy of the Saint located at the Church of the Lazarist Mission. Both sites are located in Paris, France.
September 29
Feast of the Archangels
The Archangels St. Gabriel, St. Michael, and St. Raphael share a feast day on September 29th. These are the only three angels mentioned by name in Sacred Scripture.
Angels are pure, created spirits. The name “angel” means servant or messenger of God. Angels are celestial or heavenly beings, on a higher order than human beings. Angels have no bodies and do not depend on matter for their existence or activity. They stand before the throne of God, but are distinct from saints, which men aspire to become. Angels have intellect and will and are immortal. They are a vast multitude but each is an individual.
St. Gabriel means “Power of God.” Biblically he appears three times as a messenger. He was sent to Daniel to explain a vision concerning the Messiah. He appeared to Zachary when he was offering incense in the Temple, to foretell the birth of his son, St John the Baptist. And he is the messenger or herald angel most famous for appearing to the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Annunciation (Luke 1:11-38).
St. Michael means “Who is like God?” He is the warrior angel, the famous “prince of the heavenly hosts” and foe of Satan. He appears four times in Scripture, twice in the Book of Daniel and once each in the Epistle of St Jude and the Book of Revelation. In the book of Revelation, he is spoken of when he and his hostthrow down Satan and the other fallen angels in a great battle. He is the champion of God’s people and guardian and protector of the Church (Rev. 12:7-9).
St. Raphael means “God has healed.” He is a companion and healing angel, most famous for curing Tobit’s blindness and for traveling with Tobiah in the book of Tobit (Tob. 12). His mission as wonderful healer and fellow traveler with the youthful Tobias has caused him to be invoked for journeys and at critical moments in life. Tradition also holds that Raphael is the angel that stirred the waters at the healing sheep pool in Bethesda.
October 1
St. Therese of Lisieux
Francoise-Marie Therese Martin was born to pious middle class French parents, Louis and Zelie Martin in 1873, one of nine children, only five of whom lived through childhood. She was pampered as a small child, and was devastated when, at the age of four, she lost her mother to breast cancer. Therese and her four sisters moved to Lisieux with their father, where she ws largely raised by her 16 year old sister, Pauline.
Shortly after Pauline entered the Carmelite order, Therese became gravely ill, in danger of death. When she joined her older sisters in prayer on her sick bed, where she seemed to see a statue of Mary smile at her. She was immediately cured. From then, she became deeply engaged in a life of mental prayer.
The “Little Flower” had a will of steel. When the Superior of the Carmel of Lisieux and the local bishop refused her request to join the Carmelites at the age of fourteen. she traveled to Rome with her father, and sought a papal dispensation. Although she had been forbidden to address him, she fell to her knees before Pope Leo XIII begging for his dispensation to such a degree that se had to be physically carried out by two of the Papal Guards. But she was allowed to join a year later and took her vows at age 17, assuming the name Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. She is better known to us as “The Little Flower.”
Her prioress, recognizing her deep spirituality, instructed her to write her memoirs, which were later collected into one of the classic works of Catholic spirituality, The Story of a Soul. Challenged by the austerities of life as a Carmelite and by her own devotion, she succumbed to tuberculosis in 1897, at age 24. She defined her path to God and holiness as The Little Way, which consisted of child-like love and trust in God. For her writings that provide a “luminous expression of her knowledge of the mystery of the kingdom and of her personal experience of grace,”(Pope John Paul II – Divini Amoris Scientia), she deservedly was named as a Doctor of the Church.
“I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul.”
St. Therese of Lisieux