Life

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Drogo

1105-1186

Feast Day: April 16

Patronage: baristas, coffee house owners, unattractive people, bodily ills, broken bones, cattle, sheep, shepherds, deaf people, gall stones, hernias, insanity, mentally ill people, midwives, orphans, ruptures, and sick people.

Saint Drogo was a Flemish noble orphaned at birth. He practiced mortifications as a youth, then wanting to be Christ-like he gave away his wealth and became a shepherd. He then went on pilgrimages to many of the holy sights where he contracted a disfiguring disease. The townspeople were so offended by his looks that they built him a small cell beside the church with only a window, where he received barley, water (being the patron of coffee), and the Eucharist, that he lived in for 40 years. He gave spiritual advice and many miracles are attributed to him.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[did-you-know]

Keeping a strong social life can lead to significantly improved memory in old age. 

[portraitsofsaints]

The Baptism of the Lord

“The Lord was Baptized, not to be cleansed Himself, but to cleanse the waters, so that those waters, cleansed by the flesh of Christ which knew no sin, might have the power of Baptism.” St.Ambrose

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint John Neumann

1811-1860

Feast day: January 5

Patronage: Catholic Education

St. John Neumann was the first canonized male saint of the United States. He is proclaimed the model and patron for all the faithful. He introduced the Forty Hours devotion and laid the foundation for the Catholic school system in this country and also founded a religious community of nuns.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[catholicpriestmedia]

"O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord." - #TraditionalChristmasCarol 

📷 Image of Mary and Jesus / © Kara Gebhardt via #GettyImages. #Catholic_Priest #CatholicPriestMedia #ChristmasOctave

[catholicpriestmedia]

"Behold Jesus Christ crucified...He is our Mediator and Advocate; the victim and sacrifice for our sins." - #SaintCharlesBorromeo #SantodelGiorno #SaintoftheDay

📷 Old Italian Crucifix / © AlanStix64 via #GettyImages #Catholic_Priest #CatholicPriestMedia #PrayforPeace

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Charles Borromeo

1538–1584

Feast day: November 4

Patronage: Catechists, Catechumens, Seminarians

Saint Charles Borromeo was a cardinal and archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584. Among the great reformers of the troubled sixteenth century, Borromeo, with St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Philip Neri, and others, led the movement to combat the heresy of the Protestant Reformation. He was a leading figure during the Counter-Reformation and was responsible for significant reforms in the Catholic Church, including the founding of seminaries for the education of priests.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[portraitsofsaints]

All Saints Day

These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:14)

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[did-you-know]

If you didn’t sleep well last night, you can convince yourself that you did just by believing you aren’t tired. It’s called ‘placebo sleep,’ it improves cognitive function, and it makes you perform better than when you spend the day thinking about being tired. 

[portraitsofsaints]

The Canonization of Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis by Pope Leo XIV. Two saints for the youth of our day.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase.

  (website) (website)

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne

590 - 651

Feast day: August 31

Patronage: Northumbria, firefighters

Aidan of Lindisfarne was an Irish monk and missionary credited with restoring Christianity to Northumbria. He founded a monastic cathedral on the island of Lindisfarne, served as its first bishop, and traveled ceaselessly throughout the countryside, spreading the gospel to both the Anglo-Saxon Nobility and to the socially disenfranchised (including children and slaves).

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Rose of Lima

1586-1617

Feast Day: August 23 (New), August 30 (Trad)

Patroness of Latin America

Invoked against vanity

St. Rose was a very pretty and obedient girl born in Peru. She was determined to take a vow of virginity, which was opposed by her parents, who wished her to marry. When she was admired for her beauty, Rose cut off her hair and smeared pepper on her face to ruin her complexion so she would not be attractive. She lived and meditated in a garden, raising vegetables and making embroidered items to sell to support her family and help the poor. She was a Dominican tertiary, mystic and visionary. She received the invisible stigmata and suffered from assorted physical and mental ailments. She died in 1617 at the age of 31 and was the first saint of the Americas.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[portraitsofsaints]

Blessed Father Michael McGivney

1852-1890

Feast Day: August 13

Patron and Founder of the Knights of Columbus

Father Michael McGivney was born in 1852 in Connecticut to Irish immigrants. He was ordained in 1877 and served the large Irish-American Community. In 1882, he started the Knights of Columbus, which provided mutual aid and fraternal support to the families who lost their breadwinner. His vision empowered the laity to serve the church and its neighbors. Today it’s one of the largest Catholic Fraternal organizations worldwide. Father McGivney died in a pandemic of pneumonia, like the coronavirus of today.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Cajetan

1480-1547

Feast Day: August 7

Patronage: job seekers, the unemployed, workers, bankers, gamblers, Argentina, Italy

Saint Cajetan was born into a noble, Venetian (Italy), family. He studied law before he became a priest at 35. These were troubled times in the church with unscrupulous and uneducated priests and the start of the Protestant revolt. Instead of leaving the Church, he sought to reform it by forming a new order called the Congregation of Clerks Regular (Theatines). They established hospitals, lived in the spirit of monasticism and ministered to the poor and sick. He established a bank as an alternative to usury. (The Bank of Naples) The order made converts by their zeal and love for God and neighbor.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Mary MacKillop

Sister Mary of the Cross

1842-1909

Feast Day: August 8

Patronage: Australia, Brisbane, Knights of the South

Saint Mary MacKillop is the first saint to be canonized in Australia. Mary and her 9 siblings were homeschooled by their Scottish father. At 14, she worked to provide for her family and soon met Fr. Julian Woods who encouraged her to help educate the poor. In 1867, she became a nun and founded with Fr. Woods, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites) whose charism is teaching, charity, total poverty and trusting in Divine Providence. Throughout the years, she had many challenges with priests and Bishops but always prayed for God’s will to be done. Miracles continue to occur through her intercession.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Bonaventure

Doctor of the Church

1221-1274

Feast Day: July 15 (New), July 14 (Trad)

Patronage: Intestinal disorders, Bagnoregio, Italy, Conchita Indian Pueblo, St. Bonaventure University, NYC

Saint Bonaventure was a Franciscan, theologian, philosopher, teacher, writer, cardinal and mystic, lovingly called the ”Seraphic Doctor.” He was close friends with St. Thomas Aquinas and King St. Louis IX. He’s considered the second founder of the Franciscans and spoke at the Council of Lyons. In wisdom and humility, he united the pastoral and practical aspects of life with the doctrines of the Church. Bonaventure died of natural causes.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[marian-devotee]

🥹🥹🥹 I love him so much