Catholic Feasts and Saints of the Week for October 19th – 25th

Welcome to the next edition of Saints of the Week! Today, I have 7 Saints for you to share with your students and children. Their Feast Days fall during the week.

This week’s saints and feasts are:

10/19 – Martyrs of North America
10/20 – St. Paul of the Cross
10/21 – St. Hilarion
10/22 – Pope St. John Paul II
10/23 – St. John of Capistrano
10/24 – St. Anthon Mary Claret
10/25 – St. Isidore of Seville

Each Saint will have the:

• dates of birth and death (when available)
• patronage
• Link to their resource or story page
• associated virtues
• virtue challenge and/or simple ways to celebrate the feast
• liturgical color

Along with the virtue, I will add a suggested virtue action for you to suggest to your students.  I will also include the liturgical color for the day. You can use this as a catechetical teaching moment to discuss the different liturgical seasons and vestment colors.

I tried to choose Saints from different countries, time periods, and with various vocations. Feel free to swap out other favorite Saints this week if you wish! This is just a guide that follows the Liturgical Year Feast Days. Please let me know if you would like any other resources for these guides, and I will try my best to add them for you. I kept these guides very open-ended so that you can tailor them to your students, and check out the suggested discussion questions below.

Be sure to visit this post for more information on our Saints of the Week Guides. And, if you’re new at Amazing Catechists, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter (in the sidebar) so that you never miss an issue of Saints of the Week!

Discussion questions:

1. What do you think a day in the life of this saint was like?
2. What difficulties or challenges did this saint face? How did he or she overcome them?
3. How did the saint exhibit virtue in his or her life? How can we work to imitate this virtue?
4. What else can this saint teach us about living a good life and how to grow closer to Christ?

10/19: Martyrs of North America

Feast Day: October 19

Liturgical color: Green

Patronage: Canada

Quick Facts:

• group of priests and lay brothers martyred for the Faith
• missionaries in Canada and New York

Virtue: Faith, courage

Virtue Challenges: Discuss what it means to be martyred for the Faith, and think about ways that you can live and proclaim the Catholic Faith more boldly.

10/20: St. Paul of the Cross (1694-1775)

Feast Day: October 20

Liturgical color: green

Patronage: Ovada, Italy

Quick facts:

• known as “God’s hunter of souls”
• the 2nd of 16 children
• attended Daily Mass as a child
• turned down an arranged marriage to become a priest
• Passionist order

Virtues: Humility, poverty, piety, faith, hope, love of God

Virtue challenge: Discuss what a vocation is, and say a prayer asking God to help you discern your vocations. Try to commit to praying about your vocation as often as possible.

10/21: St. Ursula (died 238)

Feast Day: October 21

Liturgical color: green

Patronage: British Virgin Islands, Catholic education (especially of girls), Cologne, Germany, holy death, students, school children, teachers, educators, University of Paris

Quick facts:

• martyr
• a princess
• the Ursuline Order is named after her – their purpose is the education of Catholic girls and women

Virtues: Faith, courage

Virtue challenge: Thank God for the gift of your education!

10/22: Pope St. John Paul II (1920-2005)

Feast Day: October 22

Liturgical color: green

Patronage: mountaineers

Quick facts:

• born as Karol Wojtyla at Wadowice, Poland
• secretly studied to become a priest during the German occupation of Poland
• has a Doctorate in Theology
• became the first non-Italian pope in 1978
• survived an assassination attempt, and publicly forgave the shooter
• fulfilled Our Lady of Fatima’s promises to consecrate the world to her Immaculate Heart

Virtue: Piety, love of God, humility

Virtue challenge: Pope Saint John Paul II had a huge devotion to Our Lady and the Rosary. He even wrote an encyclical on the Rosary called Rosarium Virginis Mariae. Check out the encyclical, and pray the Rosary, today!

10/23: St. John of Capistrano (1386-1456)

Feast Day: October 23

Liturgical color: green

Patronage: judges, jurists, lawyers, military chaplains

Quick facts:

• worked as a lawyer in Naples, Italy
• was a prisoner of war
• became a Franciscan priest
• preached to tens of thousands of people throughout Europe
• miraculous healing
• spoke out against heresies
• lead an army and succeeded in delivering Europe from the Muslims

Virtues: Courage

Virtue challenge: Define the word “heresy,” and do some research on some problematic ones during St. John of Capistrano’s life. Consider the courage needed to speak out against these widespread and false teachings of the Faith.

10/24: St. Anthon Mary Claret (1807-1870)

Feast Day: October 24

Liturgical color: Green

Patronage: Catholic press, Claretians, editors, Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, weavers

Quick facts:

• weaver
• Founded the Congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
• archbishop
• deeply devoted to the Blessed Sacrament and the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Virtue: Piety

Virtue Challenge: Learn this simple prayer to Our Blessed Mother: “O Mary, Conceived Without Sin, Pray for Us Who Have Recourse to Thee.”

10/25: St. Crispin and St. Crispian (tortured and beheaded c.286)

Feast Day: October 25

Liturgical Color: Green

Patronage: cobblers, shoemakers, glove makers, lace makers, lace workers, leather workers, saddle makers, saddlers, tanners, weavers

Quick facts:

• brothers
• evangelized the region of Gaul
• shoemakers
• martyred

Virtues: Faith, charity, piety, poverty

Virtue challenge: Read a section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church or Baltimore Catechism, today, and reflect on the truths of our Faith that are revealed to you.

References:

1. catholicsaints.info
2. gospeltodaycatholic.com/