There's a Patron Saint for Just About Everything Quiz

Answer: Phocas

St. Phocas' feast day is September 22

Phocas earned his living by cultivating a garden near the city gate of Sinope, now located in Turkey. He shared with the poor what he earned from his gardening, and opened his home to travelers lacking a place to stay. Discovering his Christian identity, Roman soldiers were dispatched to find and arrest him. Upon nearing the city, they stopped at Phocas' door and received lodging from him, unaware that their host was the man they were charged to capture. In his home, they spoke openly of their mission before retiring for the night.

As the soldiers slept, Phocas prayed and prepared himself for martyrdom, even digging his own grave during the night! The next morning, he revealed to them his identity. The soldiers were at first reluctant to carry out their orders against their kind host, but in the end they beheaded him.

Answer: Dismas

St. Dismas' feast day is March 25

We don't know for certain that his name was Dismas, but he is traditionally called this.

From the Gospel of St. Luke 23:39-43, New Revised Standard Edition
"One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, 'Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!' But the other rebuked him, saying, 'Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.' Then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' He replied, 'Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.'"

Answer: Peregrine Laziosi

St. Peregrine Laziosi's feast day is May 1

A victim of a spreading cancer in his foot, Peregrine was scheduled for an amputation. He spent the night before the operation in prayer; he received a vision of Christ who touched the diseased area. The next morning, Peregrine found his cancer completely healed.

Answer: Julian the Hospitaler

St. Julian the Hospitaler's feast day is February 12

While St. Julian was out hunting, his parents came for a visit and were put up in the bedchamber of Julian and his wife. Upon his return home, he found a man and woman asleep in his bed. Believing he had discovered his wife in bed with another man, he flew into a rage, drew his sword and killed them both. As he was leaving, he saw his wife sitting with the other women. She told him: "There are your mother and father resting in your room".

In penance, Julian and his wife went to Rome. Returning after receiving absolution, Julian built an inn and a hospital for the poor. He even put a leper into his own bed. That leper was an angel.

Answer: Florian

St. Florian's feast day is May 4

St. Florian was an officer in the Roman army. In addition to his military duties, he was also responsible for organizing firefighting brigades. Florian organized and trained an elite group of soldiers whose sole duty was to fight fires.

When reports reached Rome that Florian was not enforcing the proscriptions against Christians in his territory, Aquilinus was sent to investigate these reports. When Aquilinus ordered Florian to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods in accordance with Roman religion, he refused. Florian was sentenced to be burned at the stake. Standing on the funeral pyre, Florian is reputed to have challenged the Roman soldiers to light the fire, saying "If you do, I will climb to heaven on the flames." Apprehensive of his words, instead of burning Florian, they executed him by drowning in the Enns River with a millstone tied around his neck.

Answer: Dymphna

St. Dymphna's feast day is May 15

Her mother died when she was only 14. Her father, Damon, suffered a sharp decline in his mental health after his wife's death. When he decided to remarry, he sought a woman who resembled his deceased wife. When none could be found, he turned his attention to his daughter, due to her strong resemblance to her mother.

When Dymphna learned of this, she fled to Belgium with her confessor. Her father tracked her down and killed her confessor, then attempted to force her to return with him. When she refused, he cut off her head.

She was only 15 when she died.

Answer: Eugene de Mazenod

St. Eugene de Mazenod's feast day is May 21

His mother was of the wealthy French middle class and his father was a poor aristocrat. Their marriage, and Eugene's home life, were plagued by constant family in-fighting, and interference from his maternal grandmother and a neurotic maternal aunt. When he was eight years old, his family fled to Italy to escape the French Revolution. While in Palermo, he was exposed to a wild and worldly life among rich young Italian nobles.

After the revolution, his mother returned to France, but his father stayed in Italy. Upon his own return to France in 1802, in an attempt to reclaim the family lands, Eugene tried to reunite his parents. He failed in this, and they were divorced, an unusual event in those times. His often unsupervised youth, constant fighting at home, and the eventual breakup of his family led to his patronage of dysfunctional families and those in them.

Answer: Patrick

St. Patrick's feast day is March 17

Born in Scotland, St. Patrick was kidnapped on the British mainland and sent to Ireland as a slave. He served as a shepherd and spent his days in prayer. After a dream in which he was commanded to return to Britain, he escaped and became a priest after studying in several monasteries in Europe. He returned to Ireland and converted the people there over the next 33 years.

Legend says that he drove all the snakes from Ireland, making it safe for ophidiophobs.

Answer: Roch

St. Roch's feast day is August 6

St. Roch was a French nobleman who gave his fortune to the poor and became a mendicant pilgrim. While on pilgrimage, he came upon an area afflicted by the plague. He stayed to tend the sick, affecting miraculous cures by making the sign of the cross over the victims. Roch contracted the plague himself, and went to the forest to die. He was befriended by a dog who fed him with food stolen from his master's table. Roch recovered, only to be arrested as a spy in Montpellier, France. He languished in jail for five years before his death.

Answer: Gertrude of Nivelles

St. Gertrude's feast day is March 17

St. Gertrude is known as the patron saint of cat lovers, since she was so effective at getting rid of the mice that threatened the town's grain stores. She prayed for the mice to go away, and they did. Offers of gold and silver mice were often left at her shrine in Cologne, Germany.

An Irish priest once told her that St. Patrick would meet her in heaven, and she died on March 17 at the age of 33.