Rita Reviews

living my best possible southern life

Saints for the Month of January

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Saints of the Month
I use to share just one saint for each month. It was just small way of sharing my faith. However I know there are plenty of saints for each month so I thought this year I would share more than one and you can always choose which one is appropriate for you. Before we begin though I will answer the one question I get asked most often:

Why do Catholics pray to saints?

I explain it this way to my children: God is very busy and sometimes it is easier to ask for help for someone “small” and get it than to ask from God and your need get lost in the shuffle. You would never call the owner of a company for everything little thing not when someone else in the company can help you. It doesn’t take away from the need to pray to God or ask for his help. He just have other helpers too. We do NOT worship saints, that is reserved for God alone. We simply pray that saints may intercede on our behalf.

Here are the Saints for January

  • St. Marguerite Bourgeoys: Her feast day is the 12th and she is the Patron Saint of poor people and those rejected by religious orders. She and her sisters went out into the wilderness of Canada to teach poor children and set up a school to teach women how to teach children to survive in the wilderness. 
  • St. Fabian: His feast day is the 20th and he is the Patron Saint of  lead-founders and potters. He was elected pope because during a papal election a dove flew down and settled on his head. 
  • St. Angela Merici: Her feast day is the 27th and she is the Patron Saint of bodily ills, disabled people, handicapped people, illness, loss of parents, physically challenged people, sick people, sickness.  She became a nun at the age of 15 (very progressive for her time) and was struck blind during a trip to the Holy Land. She refused to go home instead completing her journey. She created the Institute of Saint Ursula
  • St. Thomas Aquinas: His feast day is the 28th and he is the Patron Saint of youth and education. He was one of the greatest and most influential theologians of all time

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. This is great! I love being reminded of what the different Saints did and why they became a saint. I love how you explain it to your kids! I don’t remember hearing of St. Marguerite Bourgeoys. Thanks for sharing these saints!

  2. I studied St Thomas Aquinas in college. He had a huge influence on western philosophy and literature. Dante’s “Inferno” is structured according to St Thomas’ world view. Interesting.

  3. There are so many Saints, I didn’t realize how many there were till about 10 years ago, a Saint for everything, my favourite Saint because I ask him always daily for help is Saint Anthony..the Saint of lost items..since my husband’s motor vehicle accident he looses and misplaces so much, Saint Anthony always helps me to find whatever is lost or misplaced.

  4. I have heard of only one of the saints on the list. I tink my favorite saint is Saint Francis (not the pope now but the saint) Interesting list and St. Marguerite Bourgeoys is really interesting. I think it is odd we hear more of the malle saints and less of the female saints?

    • It is odd that we hear more about male saint rather than female and as much as I hate to say it I think has something to do with the church’s view on women. Although that is changing and becoming more modern, I think. There are plenty of female saints and I will do my best always include them each month.

  6. This is very interesting to read about. I would pray to the saints to win at sweepstakes.