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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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Rose Philippine Duchesne: Born in Grenoble, France, of a family that was among the new rich, Philippine learned political skills from her father and a love of the poor from her mother. The dominant feature of her temperament was a strong and dauntless will, which became the material—and the battlefield—of her holiness. She entered the convent at 19 and remained despite their opposition. As the French Revolution broke, the convent was closed, and she began taking care of the poor and sick, opened a school for street urchins and risked her life helping priests in the underground. <p>When the situation cooled, she personally rented her old convent, now a shambles, and tried to revive its religious life. The spirit was gone, and soon there were only four nuns left. They joined the infant Society of the Sacred Heart, whose young superior, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, would be her lifelong friend. In a short time Philippine was a superior and supervisor of the novitiate and a school. But her ambition, since hearing tales of missionary work in Louisiana as a little girl, was to go to America and work among the Indians. At 49, she thought this would be her work. With four nuns, she spent 11 weeks at sea en route to New Orleans, and seven weeks more on the Mississippi to St. Louis. She then met one of the many disappointments of her life. The bishop had no place for them to live and work among Native Americans. Instead, he sent her to what she sadly called "the remotest village in the U.S.," St. Charles, Missouri. With characteristic drive and courage, she founded the first free school for girls west of the Mississippi. </p><p>It was a mistake. Though she was as hardy as any of the pioneer women in the wagons rolling west, cold and hunger drove them out—to Florissant, Missouri, where she founded the first Catholic Indian school, adding others in the territory. "In her first decade in America, Mother Duchesne suffered practically every hardship the frontier had to offer, except the threat of Indian massacre—poor lodging, shortages of food, drinking water, fuel and money, forest fires and blazing chimneys, the vagaries of the Missouri climate, cramped living quarters and the privation of all privacy, and the crude manners of children reared in rough surroundings and with only the slightest training in courtesy" (Louise Callan, R.S.C.J., <i>Philippine Duchesne</i>). </p><p>Finally, at 72, in poor health and retired, she got her lifelong wish. A mission was founded at Sugar Creek, Kansas, among the Potawatomi. She was taken along. Though she could not learn their language, they soon named her "Woman-Who-Prays-Always." While others taught, she prayed. Legend has it that Native American children sneaked behind her as she knelt and sprinkled bits of paper on her habit, and came back hours later to find them undisturbed. She died in 1852 at the age of 83.</p> What should I do about my son’s Jewish wedding? O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: Come to teach us the path of knowledge!

 
PICK OF THE DAY
DVD! The World of St. Francis
The World of St. Francis: Past, Present and Future includes three programs on the life, times and influence of St. Francis.

 
CATHOLIC GREETINGS
Thanksgiving
In America, Thanksgiving is one of the rare times when religion and civics intersect. Let us always give thanks and praise ...



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