October is filled to the brim with feast days of some of the biggest saints in Church history!
Some may be familiar, others more obscure. Consider this a kind of “speed dating” to get to know these brothers and sisters in the Faith, and maybe choose one to pray to in a specific way this month.
All you holy saints and angels of God, pray for us!
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Oct. 1 — St. Thérèse of Lisieux
Jan. 2, 1873 — Sept. 30, 1897
Known as the Little Flower / considered herself a servant of Merciful Love / became a nun at 15 / poet / conqueror of scrupulosity / patron of missions / prayer warrior of priests
Oct. 2 — Guardian Angels
One for each person / assigned by God / watch over us / aid in our prayer / present our souls to God at our deaths
Oct. 3 — St. Theodora Guérin
Oct. 2, 1798 — May 14, 1856
French native / fragile health / accomplished teacher / missionary to Indiana / mother of her religious order
Oct. 4 — St. Francis of Assisi
1181 or 1182 — Oct. 3, 1226
Italian mystic / itinerant preacher / founder of the Franciscans / lover of poverty / filled with evangelical zeal
Oct. 5 — St. Faustina Kowalska
Aug. 25, 1905 — Oct. 5, 1938
Polish nun / visionary / prophet of Divine Mercy / deep mystical union with God / saw visions of heaven, purgatory and hell
Oct. 5 — Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos
Jan. 11, 1819 — Oct. 4, 1867
Born in Bavaria / moved to U.S. / joined the Redemptorists / worked alongside St. John Neumann / died of yellow fever after serving the sick
Oct. 7 — Our Lady of the Rosary
Feast established after the Blessed Mother helped secure victory at the Battle of Lepanto / feast for the universal Church began in 1716
Oct. 9 — St. John Henry Newman
Feb. 21, 1801 — Aug. 11, 1890
Anglican leader / converted and became a priest / made a cardinal without being a bishop / prolific writer / renowned theologian
Oct. 10 — St. Francis Borgia
1510 — 1572
Nobleman in the Spanish court / married and had eight children / after his wife’s death, he gave up his Dukedom to become a Jesuit priest / later named Superior General of the Jesuits
Oct. 11 — Pope St. John XXIII
Nov. 25, 1881 — June 3, 1963
Firstborn son of an Italian farming family / served in WWI / 261st pope / opened the Second Vatican Council / helped mediate the Cuban Missile Crisis
Oct. 23 — Bl. Carlo Acutis
May 3, 1991 — Oct. 12, 2006
Italian teen / computer geek / created website detailing the Eucharistic miracles from around the world / served the homeless / died of leukemia
Oct. 15 — St. Teresa of Ávila
March 28, 1515 — Oct. 4, 1582
Loved adventure novels as a girl / tried to run away to become a martyr / Carmelite reformer / master of prayer / founded over a half-dozen new monasteries
Oct. 16 — St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
July 22, 1647 — Oct. 17, 1690
Became a nun at 24 / had visions of Jesus in which he revealed his Sacred Heart / helped start the first Friday devotion
Oct. 17 — St. Ignatius of Antioch
Died around A.D. 107
Wrote letters to the early Church during imprisonment in Rome / helped articulate Church dogmas / martyred by lions in the Roman arena
Oct. 18 — St. Luke the Evangelist
Died around A.D. 84
The only Gentile Christian among the four Gospel writers / wrote the Acts of the Apostles / companion of St. Paul / symbolized in art with an ox or a calf, a sacrificial animal, pointing to themes in his Gospel
Oct. 19 — St. Isaac Jogues
1642
Jesuit from France / North American martyr / tortured / fingers cut off — some accounts say bitten off / returned to the New World after escaping / pope gave him permission to offer Mass with his mutilated hands
Oct. 20 — St. Paul of the Cross
Jan. 3, 1694 — Oct. 18, 1775
Brief time as a soldier / became a popular preacher / founded the Passionists / took a fourth vow to spread the memory of Christ’s passion among the faithful
Oct. 22 — Pope St. John Paul II
May 18, 1920 — April 2, 2005
Enrolled in an “underground” seminary in Kraków / attended Vatican II / first non-Italian pope in 455 years / helped bring down communism / suffered from Parkinson’s disease
