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Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 105 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Patron Saints
Throat. On the feast of St. Blaise the priest crosses two candles and puts them by your neck. Then he says 'Through the intercession of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat, and from every other illness.'
St. Agnes. St. Agnes has her feast day on January 21. She was martyred during the persecution by Emperor Diocletian around 304 at the age of thirteen. She is one of the most highly regarded Roman martyrs. She was accused of being a Christian by her suitors because she refused them all. She endured many trials, such as being sent to a house of prostitution and having torture devices placed before her eyes. She was then beheaded. St. Ambrose remarked about her that "she went to the place of execution more cheerfully than others go to their wedding." A church was erected in her honor by Constantine, and she is buried on the Via Nomentana.
St. Isidore. St. Isidore is commonly known as St. Isidore the Farmer. His feast day is May 15. He spent most of his life as a laborer on a farm outside Madrid. It is said that he was favored with celestial visions and that angels helped him in his field work. He was canonized in 1622. In 1947 the National Rural Life Conference in the United States declared him their patron.
St. Mathilda. St. Mathilda's feast day is March 14. She was married to Henry "the Fowler" by her parents. She was a pious queen who commonly visited and comforted the sick, instructed the ignorant, and converted sinners. She died in 968.
St. James the Greater. St. James the Greater has his feast day on July 25. He is called the "Greater" to distinguish him from the other Apostle of Christ named James, who is referred to as the "Lesser." He preached the Gospel in Spain and then returned to Jerusalem, where he was the first of the Apostles to be martyred. He was ordered by Herod Agrippa to be beheaded around the feast of Easter in 44.
St. Anthony of Padua. St. Anthony of Padua's feast day is June 13. At fifteen he entered the Order of Regular Canons of St. Augustine. He is also known as the patron of those who have lost something because of the miracle he performed with a Psalter that was stolen and then returned. He devoted his life to preaching the Good News. He died June 13, 1231 and was canonized in 1232 by Pope Gregory IX.
St. Gemma Galgani. St. Gemma Galgani's feast day is April 11. She was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the spine when she was twenty. Told that it was incurable, she prayed countless novenas to St. Gabriel. She was completely cured on the first Friday of March, 1899. The stigmata appeared intermittently for over eighteen months on her hands and feet. She was beatified by Pope Pius XI on March 14, 1933. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII on Ascension Day, 1940.
St. Epipodius. St. Epipodius has his feast day on April 22. He was an unmarried man of Lyons. He was arrested, imprisoned, and brought before the governor during the persecution of Marcus Aurelius. Readily admitting to being a Christian, the governor attempted to make him lose his faith. He was unmoved and continued to profess his faith. He was then laid upon a rack, with his sides being rent by iron claws. He was finally beheaded.
Impossible cases. St. Rita is the patron saint of desperate cases, and her feast day is May 22. After the death of her family, she entered the convent of the Augustinian nuns at Cascia in Umbria. She once asked God to let her suffer like Christ. She was then struck the thorns from the crucifix on the forehead. The deep wound never healed and caused her much suffering. She died on May 22, 1457 and was canonized in 1900 by Pope Leo XIII.
St. Camillus de Lellis. St. Camillus de Lellis' feast day is July 14. He laid the foundation of the Congregation of Regular Clerics to administer to the sick. He then devoted the rest of his life to the sick and dying. He died on July 14, 1614 and was canonized in 1746 by Pope Benedict XIV.
Television. St. Clare, the patron saint of television, has her feast day on August 11. She helped in the founding of Poor Clares, which is also known as the Second Order of St. Francis. She died on August 11, 1253 and was canonized in 1255 by Pope Alexander IV.
St. John Vianney. St. John Mary Vianney's feast day is August 4. His life was filled with extreme mortification. He was known to hear confessions for sixteen hours each day. He remains the living image of the priest after the Heart of Christ to this day in the Church. He was canonized on May 31, 1925 by Pope Pius XI.
Librarians. St. Jerome is the patron saint of librarians, and his feast day is September 30. His scriptural works are still unmatched within Church history. He died at Bethlehem in 420.
St. Maria Goretti. St. Maria Goretti is the patron saint of youth, and her feast day is on July 6. She was called "the St. Agnes of the 20th century" by Pope Pius XII. Alexander, the son of St. Maria's father's partner whom they shared a house, began to make sinful advances toward her. When she resisted, he began to strike at her blindly with a dagger, several of the blows passed through her body. She was canonized on July 25, 1950 by Pope Pius XII, with her family present, which is very unique in Church history. Her murderer, after being released from prison after twenty-seven years, went on to become a Capuchin laybrother, having a complete change of heart.
St. Thomas the Apostle. St. Thomas the Apostle's feast day is July 3. He is most commonly known as St. Thomas the Doubter after his unwillingness to believe in the Resurrection until he could putting his fingers in the wounds left by the nails in Christ's side. He was killed at Calamine.
Stomach Disorders. St. Timothy's feast day is January 26, and he is the patron saint against stomach disorders. After studying under his master, the Apostle St. Paul, he spent the remainder of his life as Bishop of Ephesus. He was martyred during the winter of the year 97.
St. Gerard Majella. St. Gerard Majella is the patron saint of expectant mothers. He is invoked as patron because of a miracle that occurred through his prayers for a woman in labor. He was canonized in 1904 by Pope St. Pius X, and his feast day is October 16.
St. Cecilia. St. Cecilia's feast day is November 22. She took a vow of virginity at a young age and died a martyr with her husband and brother-in-law. She was killed sometime between 161-192. She is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass.
| This Italian prioress and founder was bedridden one Christmas and could not attend the Christmas Matins. Miraculously, on the wall of her sickroom, she received a vision of the entire ceremony as if it were a television or movie screen. Because of this, she is the patroness of all who work for, or on television. Who is she? | More Patron Saint Trivia
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St. Clare of Assisi. Clare was a daughter of the wealthy and aristocratic Fiumi family of Assisi. In 1212, upon hearing a sermon by her fellow Assisian, St. Francis, she resolved to follow his example. She ran away from her home on Palm Sunday, received the habit from Francis, and entered the Benedictine convent of St. Paul near Bastia, since there was, as yet, no Franciscan convent for her to join. Her fifteen year-old sister Agnes soon joined her. When her enraged father sent armed soldiers to drag them back home, Clare's prayers are said to have rendered the two girls so heavy that the soldiers could not lift them. Clare founded the order of the "Poor Clares", one of the most austere and strict of all religious orders (Isabel, in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure", is about to join this order when we first see her). Clare died in 1253; the story related above supposedly took place in the last years of her life and is described musically in Ottorino Respighi's "The Matins of St. Clare", one of four descriptive musical pieces comprising his suite "Church Windows".
John Vianney. John Vianney, patron saint of parish priests, was himself a devoted parish priest, serving the people of Ars-en-Dombes in France for over forty years. He was a gifted preacher, and it was not long before Ars-en-Dombes, despite its small size and isolation, became a centre for pilgrimage as thousands of people flocked to hear this man of God. His fellow clergy, discomfited by all the attention that the Cure of Ars was getting, complained to their Bishop that John was mentally deranged, but the Bishop's only response was, "I wish all my clergy were so afflicted."
Casimir of Poland is the patron saint of bachelors (and since RC priests are celibate, he could qualify, I suppose). Charles Borromeo is responsible for seminarians, who are not yet priests. Francis Xavier is the patron saint of foreign missions, which makes sense, since he was the fellow who took the gospel to the East Indies and Japan.
Agatha. St. Agatha is the one who is also the patron saint of bellfounders because her symbol, a pair of breasts on a dish, looks rather like bells. Maybe the connection to nursing came with that well known phrase "Ring for the nurse."
Anne, the putative mother of the Virgin Mary, is the patron saint of mothers and pregnant women. Anthony of Padua keeps an eye on barren women, and women in labour can appeal to St. Elmo.
Gemma Galgani. Gemma Galgani was a devout Italian girl who suffered from ill health all her life. Evidently, she was a quiet, unexcitable girl who had occasional bouts of strange behaviour which some put down to demonic possession. She was one of the saints who bore the stigmata (the wounds of Christ). She never worked as a pharmacist, but during her 25 years of life she must have ingested a lot of pills and powders to alleviate her aches and pains.
Benedict is the saint to call on if you accidentally ingest poison, Jacinta Marta is in charge of all bodily ills, and Josemaria Escriva is the patron saint of diabetics.
Matthew. Matthew, who was Levi before he left his job behind to become a disciple of Jesus, was a tax collector, so it makes sense that he is the patron of accountants. He's also responsible for bankers, bookkeepers and his former colleagues, tax collectors.
Thomas More gets civil servants, Isidore of Seville is in charge of computer programmers, and Vincent de Paul watches over charities and volunteers.
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