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Read a Catholic Christian history of Halloween (All Hallows Eve), learn the legend of the jack o'lantern and discover what Catholics believe about witches, ghosts and magic. Also, send an All Hallows Eve e-greeting and post an online prayer request.

Seasonal Features
Halloween
Send a Halloween e-Greeting!


Celebrating Halloween, All Saints
Days observed and celebrated by secular society can connect to important faith-related concepts for children and families. In excerpts from the St. Anthony Messenger Press Holy Bells and Wonderful Smells: Year-Round Activities for Classrooms and Families, author Jeanne Hunt suggests ways parents and teachers can make Halloween and All Saints Day come alive for children in faith-filled and fun experiences.

Halloween’s Christian Roots
When you think of Halloween, what comes to mind? For a lot of people, Halloween has become synonymous with candy, costumes, scary stuff, witches, ghosts and pumpkins. But do you know the Christian connection to the holiday?
Catholics and Halloween
How can Catholics celebrate Halloween in the context of their Christian faith? Listen to American Catholic Radio to find out.
The Tale of Jack O’ Lantern
Why do we carve pumpkins for Halloween? Read a story from Catholic Update that explains the origin of this yearly tradition.
Witches, Ghosts and Magic: What Catholics Believe
What are Catholics to think about the devil, exorcism, psychic hotlines, fortune tellers, ESP, ghosts and magic in the light of current Church teaching? Curiosity about the supernatural is normal especially for teenagers during Halloween but is it “of the devil” as some Christians claim?
How Halloween Can Be Redeemed
How can Catholics keep All Hallows Eve from becoming “hollow”? Celebrate Halloween and All Saints Day while remembering both the Christian connection to Halloween and the positive messages that stem from the holiday.
Why Pray for the Dead?
What is the basis for the Catholic Church’s teaching about purgatory and praying for the dead? Why do Catholics pray for the dead?
Post Prayer Requests
Post an online prayer request. All prayer requests are displayed at StAnthony.org and on a large, scrolling screen next to St. Anthony’s relic at the National Shrine of St. Anthony of Padua in Cincinnati, Ohio. View current prayers.
Visit Our Saints Section!
Who are the saints? Who decides who is and is not a saint? How many are there? Are saints’ names required for Baptism? Find the answers to these questions on Catholic saints and more.
Send a Saint e-Greeting
Celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day with a Catholic e-card. Also, choose and send an e-greeting with your favorite Catholic saint.



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Mother Teresa of Calcutta: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the tiny woman recognized throughout the world for her work among the poorest of the poor, was beatified October 19, 2003. Among those present were hundreds of Missionaries of Charity, the Order she founded in 1950 as a diocesan religious community. Today the congregation also includes contemplative sisters and brothers and an order of priests. <p>Born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia (then part of the Ottoman Empire), Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of the three children who survived. For a time, the family lived comfortably, and her father's construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following his unexpected death. </p><p>During her years in public school Agnes participated in a Catholic sodality and showed a strong interest in the foreign missions. At age 18 she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was 1928 when she said goodbye to her mother for the final time and made her way to a new land and a new life. The following year she was sent to the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling, India. There she chose the name Teresa and prepared for a life of service. She was assigned to a high school for girls in Calcutta, where she taught history and geography to the daughters of the wealthy. But she could not escape the realities around her—the poverty, the suffering, the overwhelming numbers of destitute people. </p><p>In 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear. I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a call to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and, instead, to “follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.” </p><p>After receiving permission to leave Loreto, establish a new religious community and undertake her new work, she took a nursing course for several months. She returned to Calcutta, where she lived in the slums and opened a school for poor children. Dressed in a white sari and sandals (the ordinary dress of an Indian woman) she soon began getting to know her neighbors—especially the poor and sick—and getting to know their needs through visits. </p><p>The work was exhausting, but she was not alone for long. Volunteers who came to join her in the work, some of them former students, became the core of the Missionaries of Charity. Other helped by donating food, clothing, supplies, the use of buildings. In 1952 the city of Calcutta gave Mother Teresa a former hostel, which became a home for the dying and the destitute. As the Order expanded, services were also offered to orphans, abandoned children, alcoholics, the aging and street people. </p><p>For the next four decades Mother Teresa worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor. Her love knew no bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe pleading for support and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the poor. In 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God called her home.</p> How do I deal with my angry brother? We do not love the Blessed Virgin specifically because of what we obtain or hope to obtain from her; but we love her because she is worthy of our love.

 
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