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The Church has venerated Catholic saints since the beginning. Who are the saints? Who decides who is and is not a saint? How many are there? Do saints hear our prayers? Find the answers to these questions and articles on saints. Click here to receive Saint of the Day in your email.

Questions and Answers on Catholic Saints
 from St. Anthony Messenger

Why isn't there a saint for every day
Why so few lay saints?
What is the process for canonizing someone
How many saints are there?
Do saints hear our prayers?
Are saints' names required for Baptism?
Are statues idols?
What's a Seraphic saint?

Real Women, Real Saints
The saints are our spiritual guides, our companions on life's journey. Their experiences show us the path we are to take in our own lives. In Real Women, Real Saints: Friends for Your Spiritual Journey, Gina Loehr profiles a hundred women—saints, the blessed, servants of God—we can use as models of holiness. See a sample chapter and then purchase the book, Real Women, Real Saints, from our catalog.

Saints in the News
The Catholic Church's veneration of saints dates back to the beginnings of Christianity. Yet Catholic saints are not just figures from ancient history, but have lived during our lifetimes and their example and the process toward beatification continue to make news today.

Lourdes 150th anniversary
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Mary's appearance to St. Bernadette Soubirous near Lourdes, France. See our special Lourdes 150th anniversary area for the latest on the observance.

Year of St. Paul
The Catholic Church celebrates a special jubilee year dedicated to St. Paul through June 29, 2009, to mark the approximately 2,000th anniversary of the saint’s birth. Our "Year of St. Paul" feature offers coverage of the Pauline year and focuses on the apostle’s courageous missionary efforts and inspiration to Catholics today.

Introducing St. Paul the Apostle: His Life and Mission
Catholic Update explores his call and mission, his work as an evangelizer, his teaching through letter writing, his conversion, his Roman citizenship and his role in shaping our Catholic culture.

A Visit to Padre Pio's Tomb
This month marks the 40th anniversary of the death of St. Padre Pio. St. Anthony Messenger magazine senior editor, Father Jack Wintz, O.F.M., reflects on his recent pilgrimage to and guides readers through the saint’s shrine in Italy.

St. Joan of Arc's Message for Today
This 19-year-old peasant from 15th-century France has much to teach us about listening to our hearts, trusting in God and confounding the odds, according to St. Anthony Messenger magazine managing editor, Barbara Beckwith.

Saint of the Day
Read about the life of today's Catholic saint and browse a list of patron saints as well as a calendar of feast days. Learn about the Feast of All Saints and the Feast of All Souls.

Franciscan Radio
Listen to or download program #08-44 of American Catholic Radio. Topics include the communion of saints, a portrait of St. Paul and an interview with the author of Saints at the Dinner Table.

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.

Saint Features
Explore the lives of St. Anthony, St. Francis, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Padre Pio, St. Patrick and Mother Teresa.

More About All Saints and All Souls

Did Saints Fall From Favor After Vatican II?
 from Friar Jack's E-spirations

I'd Like to Say: We're All Called to Be Saints
 from St. Anthony Messenger

The Where, Who and How of Heaven
 from Friar Jack's E-spirations

Patron Saints for Modern Challenges
 from St. Anthony Messenger

What Makes a Saint?
 from St. Anthony Messenger

Celebrating the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls
 from Friar Jack's E-spirations

The Communion of Saints
 from Scripture From Scratch

Faith-Filled Family: Halloween and Its Christian Roots
 from St. Anthony Messenger

All Saints
 from Friar Jack's E-spirations

Ten Great Catholics of the Second Millennium
 from St. Anthony Messenger

How Halloween Can Be Redeemed
 from Catholic Update

Saints: Holy and Human
 from Catholic Update

Six Saints for the New Millennium
 from Catholic Update

Send a Saint e-Greeting

Celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day with a Catholic e-card. Also, choose from our selection of e-greetings depicting Catholic saints.



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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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