Short reads on the saints, and simple, screen-free ways to share them with children. A taste of what arrives, beautifully printed, every month.
Almost everything known about St. Monica comes from one book, written by her son. She spent seventeen years praying for a child who wanted nothing to do with it. She is the patron of mothers waiting on someone who has not come back yet.
Read →In July 1941 a Franciscan priest stepped out of a line at Auschwitz and asked to die in place of a stranger with a wife and children. The guards agreed. Here is the full story, including the argument over whether he counts as a martyr.
Read →The Assumption is the most recently defined dogma in the Catholic Church, proclaimed in 1950 about a belief already fifteen centuries old. The definition deliberately declines to say whether Mary died first. Here is what it holds, what it leaves open, and why August 15.
Read →There is no patron saint of vacation, but there is one for travelers. St. Raphael is named once in Scripture, in the Book of Tobit, where he walks a young man across the ancient world disguised as a fellow traveler. His name means God heals.
Read →In 1802 a tomb in a Roman catacomb gave up a name nobody had heard. By 1837 Philomena had a feast day. In 1961 the Church removed it. She was never de-canonized, and her shrine still fills. The honest story.
Read →Mary's parents are never named in the Bible. So where do Anne and Joachim come from, why does the Church keep their feast on July 26, and why are they the patrons of grandparents? The honest story, tradition labeled as tradition.
Read →When the land is dry and the fires are close, Catholics have long prayed to St. Isidore the Farmer for rain. Meet the patron saint of farmers, his wife Maria de la Cabeza, and the Church's own Mass for rain.
Read →Meet St. John Bosco, the patron saint of students, schoolchildren, and young people. The priest who won street kids with juggling and kindness, founded the Salesians, and whose feast is January 31.
Read →Thoughtful gift ideas for someone joining the Catholic Church through RCIA or OCIA, whether you are their sponsor, godparent, family, or friend. What to give, what it means, and what to keep in mind.
Read →Meet St. Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint: a teenage gamer and self-taught coder who built a website about miracles, was buried in jeans and sneakers, and was canonized in 2025. Often called the patron saint of the internet.
Read →With the World Cup just decided, meet St. Luigi Scrosoppi, the patron saint of footballers and soccer players. An Italian priest who spent his life on orphans, named patron of the sport in 2010, whose feast is April 3.
Read →Yes, there is a patron saint of swimmers. Meet St. Adjutor, the Norman knight who came home from the First Crusade carrying his chains, and calmed a whirlpool in the Seine.
Read →Looking for work? Meet St. Cajetan, the patron saint of job seekers and the unemployed, whose feast is August 7. The priest who ran an early employment service, and the crowds who still pray to him for bread and work.
Read →Anywhere from under a year to more than eight centuries. Why some saints are canonized almost immediately, why most take far longer, and the five-year rule that can be waived.
Read →On the eve of December 6, children across Europe leave a shoe by the door and wake to find it filled. Here is where the St Nicholas Day shoe tradition comes from, and what goes inside.
Read →Not every answered prayer. The Church has a rigorous, skeptical process for recognizing a miracle: what qualifies, why it is almost always a healing, and how a panel of doctors tests it.
Read →How the Catholic Church makes a saint: the steps from Servant of God to Venerable, Blessed, and Saint, how many miracles are really required, and how the process changed over time.
Read →Hard to buy for? Saints by Mail is a reverent, screen-free gift for grandparents and parents who do not want another gadget: one beautifully printed saint in the mailbox each month.
Read →A simple, screen-free way to keep Saint Nicholas Day on December 6 with children: a shoe by the door, coins and an orange in the morning, and the story of the bishop who gave in secret.
Read →Long before the red suit, Saint Nicholas was a real 4th-century bishop of Myra known for giving in secret. Here is the true story, and what is history versus legend.
Read →Want a saint in the mail every month?
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