Recently, I started a series where I would send weekly emails with ideas for incorporating the saints into your classroom. I realized that it may be even more powerful to provide you with the framework to create your own lessons on the saints and feast days throughout the liturgical year. I decided to end that series so that I can focus on more specific faith formation content and resources, but I wanted to give you a guide with ideas for how to present the saints to your students.
We can learn so much from the saints! Many of them lived hard lives of sacrifice that we can try to model so that we may become more holy. It is so important to focus on the virtue(s) that each saint embodied, and discuss how you can grow in that virtue by following his or her example.
Here are 2 easy steps to plan your own saint and feast day lessons for your classroom. Please let me know if you have any questions or need further information!
Step 1 – Check the Liturgical Calendar for Feast Days and Solemnities
There are many resources for keeping up with the Liturgical Year. You can choose a resource to use to help you plan out what feast days you would like to share with your students.
Free Catholic Church Calendar
Since Advent is coming, many parishes will have Catholic Church calendars for the year. Be sure to grab one! It has all of the major saint feast days and solemnities for the year.
The Divine Office
I have started praying the Divine Office recently, and I highly recommend starting this practice! It is very flexible and the free app/website, www.divineoffice.org, is a treasure trove of information. Check the “About Today” section in the app for saint stories and information on the day. You can even pull prayers and scripture passages from the daily prayers to share with your students.
Monthly Dedications in the Church
Every month in the Church has a special dedication. These can give you lots of ideas for enriching your lessons liturgically. For example, October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary. You could do a number of Rosary activities throughout the month with your students. Here is a great post to give you some ideas for each month’s dedication.
Free Liturgical Calendar to Synch with Your Phone Calendar
This is such a cool resource if you prefer digital calendars. You can synch this calendar to your digital calendar on your device, and never miss a feast day! I have used it for a couple of years, and I love it.
Step 2: Parts of the Lesson
Lesson Timing
When you plan your saint lesson, consider how much time you would like the lesson to take. Do you just want to take 5 minutes at the beginning of class to share the feast? Or, do you want the majority of the class time to be the lesson? Once you determine this, you can choose from the following components for your lesson:
- dates of birth and death of the saint
- patronage
- short story about the saint’s life (see www.divineoffice.org or catholicsaints.info)
- associated virtues
- virtue challenge and/or simple ways to celebrate the feast
- liturgical color
- discussion questions to dive deeper
Sample Discussion questions:
- What do you think a day in the life of this saint was like?
- What difficulties or challenges did this saint face? How did he or she overcome them?
- How did the saint exhibit virtue in his or her life? How can we work to imitate this virtue?
- What else can this saint teach us about living a good life and how to grow closer to Christ?
Sample Lesson Plans
Here is how I would plan out a quick lesson on some different saints using the resources mentioned above. Liturgical colors can be found at gospeltodaycatholic.com.
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
- 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
- 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
- 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.
