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Saints

- What Catholics Believe About Saints
  
  It's important to remember that saints aren't supernatural beings to be worshiped. In fact, in the New Testament, the term saint often is a synonym for Christian. We are all saints and are called again and again to become saints in our lives. The word "saint" comes from the Latin word sanctus, meaning a holy one.
- Why do Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary, the saints, and the angels?
  
  Praying to Mary, the saints, and the angels can sound like trying to get "friends in high places" to run interference for you. Although people sometimes seek such "friends" in order to get a speeding ticket fixed, buy merchandise at a lower price or have some problem resolved, for Catholics that is not what devotion to the saints represents.
  
  God alone is the source of all grace and blessing. Saints do not "fix" things for us apart from God or convince God to do X rather than Y. At Vatican II, the bishops taught that the holiness of the Church "is shown constantly in the fruits of grace which the Spirit produces in the faithful and so it must be" (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, #39). Those "fruits of grace" are seen in the lives of saintly disciples, whether canonized or not.
  
  Jesus was fully divine and fully human. As a human, Jesus could be only one gender, live at one time in history, grow up in one human culture, etc. Saints help us to see holiness as possible for ourselves because saints include men and women, married and single people who lived at various times in human history and in various cultures. Saints remind us that, no matter what sacrifices we may need to make in order to cooperate with God's grace, we are not the first people to make those sacrifices. If we ask our friends on earth to pray for us, why not ask our friends in heaven to do the same?
  
  -Franciscan Media
- When the Church keeps the memorials of martyrs and other saints during the annual cycle , she proclaims the Paschal Mystery in those "who have suffered and have been glorified with Christ. She proposes them to the faithful as examples who draw all men to the Father through Christ, and through their merists she begs for God's favors."
  -Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1173

Feast Days of the Saints

December 2023

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Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
					1 Blessed Charles de Foucauld Month View December 1, 2023 Blessed Charles de Foucauld Friday, December 1 Inspired by the Jews and Muslims whom he met, Charles resumed the practice of his Catholic faith when he returned to France in 1886... Read More	2 Blessed Rafal Chylinski Month View December 2, 2023 Blessed Rafal Chylinski Saturday, December 2 In 1715, against the urgings of his military comrades, Melchior joined the Conventual Franciscans in Krakow. Receiving the name Rafal, he was ordained two years later... Read More
3 Saint Francis Xavier Month View December 3, 2023 Saint Francis Xavier Sunday, December 3 A good friend, Ignatius of Loyola, whose tireless persuasion finally won the young man to Christ. Francis then made the spiritual exercises under the direction of Ignatius, and in 1534, joined his little community, the infant Society of Jesus. Read More	4 Saint John Damascene Month View December 4, 2023 Saint John Damascene Monday, December 4 John was born in Damascus, received a classical and theological education, and followed his father in a government position under the Arabs. After a few years, he resigned and went to the Monastery of Saint Sabas. Read More	5 Saint Sabas Month View December 5, 2023 Saint Sabas Tuesday, December 5 Born in Cappadocia, Sabas is one of the most highly regarded patriarchs among the monks of Palestine, and is considered one of the founders of Eastern monasticism. Read More	6 Saint Nicholas Month View December 6, 2023 Saint Nicholas Wednesday, December 6 As with many of the saints, we are able to capture the relationship which Nicholas had with God through the admiration which Christians have had for him—an admiration expressed in the colorful stories which have been told and retold through the centuries. Read More	7 Saint Ambrose Month View December 7, 2023 Saint Ambrose Thursday, December 7 One of Ambrose’s biographers observed that at the Last Judgment, people would still be divided between those who admired Ambrose and those who heartily disliked him. Read More	8 Month View December 8, 2023	9 Saint Juan Diego Month View December 9, 2023 Saint Juan Diego Saturday, December 9 Thousands of people gathered in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe July 31, 2002, for the canonization of Juan Diego, to whom the Blessed Mother appeared in the 16th century. Pope John Paul II celebrated the ceremony at which the poor Indian peasant became the Church’s first saint indigenous to the Americas. Read More
10 Blessed Adolph Kolping Month View December 10, 2023 Blessed Adolph Kolping Sunday, December 10 The rise of the factory system in 19th-century Germany brought many single men into cities where they faced new challenges to their faith. Father Adolph Kolping began a ministry to them, hoping that they would not be lost to the Catholic faith, as was happening to workers elsewhere in industrialized Europe... Read More	11 Saint Damasus I Month View December 11, 2023 Saint Damasus I Monday, December 11 The son of a Roman priest, possibly of Spanish extraction, Damasus started as a deacon in his father’s church, and served as a priest in what later became the basilica of San Lorenzo in Rome. He served Pope Liberius (352-366) and followed him into exile. Read More	12 Our Lady of Guadalupe Month View December 12, 2023 Our Lady of Guadalupe Tuesday, December 12 The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century. Chronicles of that period tell us the story. Read More	13 Saint Lucy Month View December 13, 2023 Saint Lucy Wednesday, December 13 If you are a little girl named Lucy, you need not bite your tongue in disappointment. Your patron is a genuine authentic heroine, first class, an abiding inspiration for you and for all Christians. The moral courage of the young Sicilian martyr shines forth as a guiding light, just as bright for today’s youth as it was in A.D. 304. Read More	14 Saint John of the Cross Month View December 14, 2023 Saint John of the Cross Thursday, December 14 In his life and writings, John of the Cross has a crucial word for us today. We tend to be rich, soft, comfortable. We shrink even from words like self-denial, mortification, purification, asceticism, discipline. We run from the cross. John’s message—like the gospel—is loud and clear: Don’t—if you really want to live! Read More	15 Blessed Mary Frances Schervier Month View December 15, 2023 Blessed Mary Frances Schervier Friday, December 15 This woman who once wanted to become a Trappistine nun was instead led by God to establish a community of sisters who care for the sick and aged in the United States and throughout the world... Read More	16 Blessed Honoratus Kozminski Month View December 16, 2023 Blessed Honoratus Kozminski Saturday, December 16 He was ordained in 1855 and dedicated his energies to the ministry where he was involved, among other things, with the Secular Franciscan Order... Read More
17 Saint Hildegard of Bingen Month View December 17, 2023 Saint Hildegard of Bingen Sunday, December 17 Abbess, artist, author, composer, mystic, pharmacist, poet, preacher, theologian—where to begin in describing this remarkable woman? Read More	18 Blessed Anthony Grassi Month View December 18, 2023 Blessed Anthony Grassi Monday, December 18 Nothing provides a better reason for reassessing a life than a brush with death. Anthony’s life already seemed to be on track when he was struck by lightning; he was a brilliant priest, blessed at last with serenity. But the experience softened him. Anthony became a loving counselor and a wise mediator. The same might be said of us if we put our hearts to it. We needn’t wait to be struck by lightning. Read More	19 Blessed Pope Urban V Month View December 19, 2023 Blessed Pope Urban V Tuesday, December 19 In 1362, the man elected pope declined the office. When the cardinals could not find another person among them for that important office, they turned to a relative stranger: the holy person we honor today. Read More	20 Saint Dominic of Silos Month View December 20, 2023 Saint Dominic of Silos Wednesday, December 20 Saint Dominic of Silos’ connection with the Saint Dominic who founded the Dominican Order brings to mind the film Six Degrees of Separation: We are all connected it seems. God’s providential care can bring people together in mysterious ways, but it all points to his love for each of us. Read More	21 Saint Peter Canisius Month View December 21, 2023 Saint Peter Canisius Thursday, December 21 The energetic life of Peter Canisius should demolish any stereotypes we may have of the life of a saint as dull or routine. Peter lived his 76 years at a pace which must be considered heroic, even in our time of rapid change... Read More	22 Blessed Jacopone da Todi Month View December 22, 2023 Blessed Jacopone da Todi Friday, December 22 Jacomo or James, was born a noble member of the Benedetti family in the northern Italian city of Todi. He became a successful lawyer and married a pious, generous lady named Vanna... Read More	23 Saint John of Kanty Month View December 23, 2023 Saint John of Kanty Saturday, December 23 John was a country lad who made good in the big city and the big university of Kraków, Poland. After brilliant studies he was ordained a priest and became a professor of theology... Read More
24 Christmas at Greccio Month View December 24, 2023 Christmas at Greccio Sunday, December 24 What better way to prepare for the arrival of the Christ Child than to take a brief journey to Greccio, the spot in central Italy where Saint Francis of Assisi created the first Christmas crib in the year 1223. Read More	25 Month View December 25, 2023	26 Saint Stephen Month View December 26, 2023 Saint Stephen Tuesday, December 26 Stephen died as Jesus did: falsely accused, brought to unjust condemnation because he spoke the truth fearlessly. He died with his eyes trustfully fixed on God, and with a prayer of forgiveness on his lips. A “happy” death is one that finds us in the same spirit, whether our dying is as quiet as Joseph’s or as violent as Stephen’s: dying with courage, total trust and forgiving love. Read More	27 Saint John the Apostle Month View December 27, 2023 Saint John the Apostle Wednesday, December 27 The Apostle John is traditionally considered the author also of three New Testament letters and the Book of Revelation. His Gospel is a very personal account. He sees the glorious and divine Jesus already in the incidents of his mortal life. At the Last Supper, John’s Jesus speaks as if he were already in heaven. John’s is the Gospel of Jesus’ glory. Read More	28 Holy Innocents Month View December 28, 2023 Holy Innocents Thursday, December 28 The Holy Innocents are few in comparison to the genocide and abortion of our day. But even if there had been only one, we recognize the greatest treasure God put on the earth—a human person, destined for eternity, and graced by Jesus’ death and resurrection. Read More	29 Saint Thomas Becket Month View December 29, 2023 Saint Thomas Becket Friday, December 29 A strong man who wavered for a moment, but then learned one cannot come to terms with evil, and so became a strong churchman, a martyr, and a saint—that was Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in his cathedral on December 29, 1170... Read More	30 Saint Egwin Month View December 30, 2023 Saint Egwin Saturday, December 30 Born in the seventh century of royal blood, Egwin entered a monastery, and was enthusiastically received by royalty, clergy, and the people as the bishop of Worcester, England. As a bishop he was known as a protector of orphans and the widowed and a fair judge. Who could argue with that? Read More
31 Saint Sylvester I Month View December 31, 2023 Saint Sylvester I Sunday, December 31 We know for sure that his papacy lasted from 314 until his death in 335. Reading between the lines of history, we are assured that only a very strong and wise man could have preserved the essential independence of the Church in the face of the overpowering figure of the Emperor Constantine... Read More

- Veneration of the Saints
  
  Many popular devotional practices involve veneration of the saints. The saints have a special place in the Body of Christ, which includes both the living and the dead. Through Christ we on earth remain in communion both with the saints in heaven and with the dead who are still in Purgatory. We can pray for those in Purgatory and ask the saints to pray for us. Through their prayers of intercession, the saints in heaven play an integral role in the life of the Church on earth. "For after they have been received into their heavenly home and are present to the Lord, through Him and with Him and in Him they do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, showing forth the merits which they won on earth through the one Mediator between God and man." The saints, the members of the Church who have arrived at perfect union with Christ, join their wills to the will of God in praying for those in the Church who are still on their pilgrimage of faith.
  
  Besides, what the saints can do for us by their prayers, the very practice of venerating the saints does great good for those who are devoted to the saints. By practicing love of the saints we strengthen the unity of the entire Body of Christ in the Spirit.
  This in turn brings us all closer to Christ. "For just as Christian communion among wayfarers brings us closer to Christ, so our companionship with the saints joins us to Christ, from Whom as from its Fountain and Head issues every grace and the very life of the people of God."
  Love of the saints necessarily includes and leads to love of Christ and to love of the Holy Trinity. "For every genuine testimony of love shown by us to those in heaven, by its very nature tends toward and terminates in Christ who is the 'crown of all saints,' and through Him, in God Who is wonderful in his saints and is magnified in them."
  
  —From Popular Devotional Practices
- Through him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles, among whom you are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ; to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy.
  Romans 1: 5-7
- Communion of Saints
  
  In the above scripture passage, Paul often referred to the Christian faithful as "saints", with the use of Holy. In common usage, we usually reserve this word for those who have died and have been canonized by a formal process. However, the Church recognizes the "Communion of Saints", which includes the pilgrim Church on earth (those faithful still living), the Church Suffering (those who are in Purgatory), and the rest of the Church who enjoy the direct vision of God (those who are in Heaven). This use of the word "saints" emphasizes the universal call to holiness, which was understood by the early Church.
  -Catechism of the Catholic Church 946-948, 954-962, 2813
  
  Paul refers to Christians as "the holy ones" or "the saints". The Christian community regarded its members as sanctified by baptism (Romans 6:22;15:16, 1 Corinthians6:11; Ephesians 5:26-27). Christians are called to holiness (1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:7), that is, they are called to make their lives conform to the gift they have already received.

Our Lady of Hope Parish

The Catholic Community of Grafton, MA

Saints

What Catholics Believe About Saints

Why do Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary, the saints, and the angels?

Feast Days of the Saints

Veneration of the Saints

Through him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles, among whom you are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ; to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy.
Romans 1: 5-7

Communion of Saints

Saints

What Catholics Believe About Saints

Why do Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary, the saints, and the angels?

Veneration of the Saints

Through him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles, among whom you are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ; to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy. Romans 1: 5-7

Communion of Saints

Through him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles, among whom you are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ; to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy.
Romans 1: 5-7