“Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1)
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Based on the General Roman Calendar with the proper calendar for the United States. Your diocese or parish may have its own feasts. Ranks: Solemnity, Feast, Memorial, Optional Memorial.
Short introductions to saints who show us what it looks like to follow Jesus.
Born in London to Italian parents and raised in Milan, Carlo loved his friends, his dogs, video games, and computer programming, and loved Jesus in the Eucharist above all. He went to daily Mass, prayed the Rosary, and built a website on the Eucharistic miracles of the world. He died of leukemia at fifteen, offering his sufferings for the Pope and the Church. Pope Leo XIV canonized him on September 7, 2025.
“The Eucharist is my highway to heaven.”
The husband of Mary and foster father of Jesus, a just man who obeyed God without a recorded word (Matthew 1:19–24). He protected the Holy Family and worked as a carpenter (Matthew 13:55). In 1870 Pope Pius IX proclaimed him Patron of the Universal Church.
Simon, a fisherman, was called by Jesus to be a “fisher of men” and renamed Peter, the rock on which Christ would build His Church (Matthew 16:18). Though he denied Jesus three times, the risen Lord restored him: “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17). He led the Church as the first Pope and was martyred in Rome.
Saul of Tarsus persecuted the Church until the risen Christ met him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). He became the Apostle to the Gentiles, preached across the Roman world, and wrote letters that fill much of the New Testament. Tradition holds that he was martyred in Rome.
A brilliant, restless young man from North Africa, Augustine searched everywhere for truth while his mother, St. Monica, prayed for him for years. He was baptized by St. Ambrose in 387, became Bishop of Hippo, and wrote the Confessions and The City of God. He is a Doctor of the Church.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” (Confessions I, 1)
The son of a wealthy cloth merchant, Francis gave up everything to follow Christ in poverty and joy. He founded the Friars Minor (Franciscans), helped St. Clare begin the Poor Clares, set up a living Nativity scene at Greccio in 1223, and received the stigmata in 1224.
A Dominican friar and one of the greatest theologians in history, he showed that faith and reason work together. His Summa Theologiae is still studied today, and he wrote Eucharistic hymns still sung at Benediction, such as the Tantum Ergo. He is the “Angelic Doctor.”
She entered the Carmelite monastery at Lisieux at fifteen and died at twenty-four. Her “Little Way” of doing small things with great love, told in Story of a Soul, has touched millions. She was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997 and is co-patroness of the missions.
Born to a Mohawk father and an Algonquin Christian mother in what is now upstate New York, Kateri survived smallpox and was baptized in 1676 despite opposition. She lived a life of prayer and penance at the Kahnawake mission near Montreal. Called the “Lily of the Mohawks,” she was canonized in 2012.
A Capuchin friar, Padre Pio bore the wounds of Christ (the stigmata) for fifty years and spent long hours in the confessional at San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, reconciling countless souls to God. He also founded a hospital there, the “Home for the Relief of Suffering.” He was canonized in 2002.
“Pray, hope, and don’t worry.”
Karol Wojtyła of Poland lived through Nazi occupation and Communism, became a priest, bishop, and in 1978 Pope. In nearly 27 years as Pope he traveled the world, gave us the Luminous Mysteries and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and began World Youth Day. He was canonized in 2014.
“Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors for Christ!”
Born in Skopje, she served as a Loreto Sister in India before founding the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 to serve “the poorest of the poor.” She saw Jesus in every suffering person (Matthew 25:40). She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was canonized in 2016.