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My apologies for the long silence here at CSGT. I took a trip to Ithaca this last week, to give a paper and to settle some things concerning my academic program. The trip was very successful in all its intended goals, and carried the additional benefit of putting me back in company with those members of the Cornell Society for a Good Time who still reside in the Ithaca area. (Particular thanks go to Iosephus and Catharina Oxoniensis for their warm hospitality!) As usual, it brought me back with multiple posts in my mind, but I’m going to start with a small one just to get things warmed up again.
To which saints to you often appeal throughout the day or week? The practice of asking for the intercession of saints, throughout the day and in normal situations, has grown on me gradually in the years since I became a Catholic. I don’t believe I was ever explicitly recommended to do it. It becomes very natural, though, as you develop devotions to particular saints, that their help should be asked in situations where it seems they would be sympathetic. Appealing to God and to Our Lady can and should be done at all times of day, naturally. But more and more, I find particular other saints coming to mind for particular occasions.
St. Francis and St. Clare being my patron and patroness, it’s natural for me to ask their prayers for many occasions. I find that I do this particularly often, though, when I am feeling very grateful to God, or when I am not feeling as grateful as I think I ought. St. Francis was a very great saint, for whom the veil between Earth and Heaven seemed to grow extraordinarily thin. Thus, although all the saints glorify God, I tend to feel that giving praise is something of a speciality of his. I will ask him, after I have received the Blessed Sacrament, to sing an anthem of thanks to God for me, and likewise in other situations where I particularly wish for God to be praised.
Being myself a student of philosophy, I also have much occasion to ask the intercession of St. Thomas and St. Augustine, and especially St. Bonaventure, whose works I particularly study. I typically begin my academic work each day by asking the intercession of St. Bonaventure.
In times when I feel lost or threatened, I ask protection from St. Michael, of course, but also from St. Joseph. As the protector of the innocent and the terror of demons, St. Joseph is always a good friend to have on your side in times of danger. Also, he is my husband’s patron, and I know that my husband often asks him to watch over me, so I feel a special trust for St. Joseph.
On other occasions, when I am called to defend the faith in some way and my courage seems insufficient, I again implore St. Michael, but also St. Edmund Campion, whose display of courage in fighting for the faith was particularly outstanding. But also, since my battles are usually verbal ones, I sometimes ask the intercession of St. Paul. He had particular talents in that department.
If I am having particular difficulty bearing small trials, and having patience with the faults of others, I turn to the Little Flower, and to St. Francis de Sales. More than any other saints I know, they had a particular sensitivity to the great trouble that small disturbances can give us in our spiritual lives.
These are the main ones that spring to mind for me, though of course the list is not fixed, and any saint can enter into it once a special devotion to him is developed. I’ve never much bothered with learning the lists of who is the official patron of what. I just tend to figure that any saint can legitimately be asked for help if the difficulty is one he would particularly understand. But I am interested to know: which saints do other people implore? Under what circumstances?
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
In urgent and difficult needs I implore the help of the great thaumaturgis St Gerard Majella. In the US he is known principally as the patron of expectant mothers but in the rest of the world he is known as a miracle worker extradorinaire. He is also a great help for making a good confession.
St Joseph has never failed to find me a parking spot. Never. If I’m very specific his response is specific. If I’m more general, his response is more general. Even when I’ve thought he failed me, I always eat my words. Always.
St Alphonsus has been a great helper in moral issues and in the confessional and also in preaching. He also helps me suffer patiently with migraine headaches…he also suffered with them. And he keeps me close to our Lady and Gesu Sacramentato.
St. Clement Hofbauer is a sort of general patron for me. He keeps me rooted in the Redemptorist tradition.
St. Anne has always been a favorite who has never failed in any need. I often turn to her for things one might ask of a grandmother.
St. Francis Xavier is my champion of grace. When I need a great grace I always turn to him and he never fails. REMINDER: The Novena of Grace begins on March 4th. This is an especially powerful time to beg for graces from this saint along with millions of others throughout the world.
St. John the Baptist is my patron saint and is always with me.
My confirmation saint is Anthonly of Padua and he gives me great joy in the Eucharist. He also finds everything I lose and I keep him very busy!
My patron for this year is Giovanna Baretta Molla. I’m ashamed to say I don’t know much about her yet.
Other saints that I feel close to are John Vianny, Bernadette Soubirous and Therese of Liesieux.
And of course no account is complete without Sts. Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and my Guardian Angel.
Clara, I like your post, but I am going to use this opportunity to ask why the web page has been off for some time now? I.e. the home page does not display the text of the post unless one scrolls ALL the way down. And Our Lady of the Rosary looks fuzzy, not as crisp and clear as She used to. Perhaps we need the intercession of St. Catherine of Siena, or another great communicator, to get this medium back into shape…
Dear Fr. Bailey,
St. Gianna Molla is one of my fave saints — I thought you might enjoy this short anecdote about her.
http://church-ladies.blogspot.com/2008/01/fellow-church-lady.html
Best regards.
EM,
Thank you. What a beautiful idea! That even before she was married she was thinking of her children and hoping that if one was a son he would be a priest. I’m glad she picked me for this year.
God Bless you!
Don’t forget a Hail Mary and an invocation to Saint Christopher-patron of travelers-when you get into your car. His Feastday is July 25th.
JJ, I hate to say this but it’s Clara’s wedding picture that’s throwing everything off. I noticed the problem when it was first posted. Not that it’s not worth the confusion.
Oh, dear. You might be right, Discipule — I understand nothing of these matters. Actually, everything looks just fine on my browser so I had no idea that there was a problem. I’ll refer the matter to more computer-savvy minds than mine. Sorry!
Clara,
Being a scatter-brained creature, I invoke St. Anthony daily to recover my possessions, great and small, scattered hither and yon. This week he proved himself once again. I was randomly offered a copy of one of my favorite handouts - lost, to my great distress, by a roommate who borrowed it to write a paper - from a class I took about four years ago.
When driving, I depend upon Our Lady of the Highways, my guardian angel, St. Christopher and St. Raphael for a safe, happy journey. St. Brendan the Navigator helps me find my way. If I still get lost, I call upon St. Anthony too.
As a child, I received a pretty icon of St. Anne with Our Lady as a young girl. It inspired me to take St. Anne as a patron of femininity and holy womanhood. I often pray to her in the midst of baking or cleaning projects.
As a student, I started calling upon St. Jude whenever I failed to prepare properly for a test. And, by jove, it worked! The test was usually much easier than I expected and “A’s” were forthcoming.
Before reading or study, I like to invoke St. Thomas, who grasped intellectual concepts with such remarkable insight, and St. Joseph Copertino, who struggled terribly with academics.
St. Francis protects me from large insects.
Supposed, Martin de Porres is a patron of small favors, to petty to bother other saints with. I usually implore his assistance when I am running late and find this very efficacious.
When singing, I rely upon Sts. Gregory, Cecilia and Hildegard. I also invoke St. Hilegard in times of sickness, along with St. Raphael, whose name means “God has healed.”
If I feel myself under spiritual attack, I call upon St. Michael.
I am convinced that the intercession St. Padre Pio brought the indult to my town(before the MP).
When in great need, I call upon all of my favorite saints: i.e., the aforementioned along with St. Joseph, King St. Louis, St. Edmund Campion and my patron St. Lawrence.
I ask Our Lady and St. Catherine of Siena to teach me how to please Our Lord.
Ooh, sorry about the atrocious grammar:
“Supposedly, St. Martin de Porres is a patron of small favors, too petty to bother other saints with. I usually implore his assistance when I am running late and find this devotion very efficacious.”
A thought: I was told by a very wise and holy priest one time that if you really need something pray to one of the obscure saints you rarely if ever hear of. They can give you a lot of attention since they get very little work to do.
Oddly, Fr. Bailey, I have heard from some one who tried praying to obscure saints. He said that deserve their obscurity since they get so little done.
That may sound fatuous, but a saint’s ability to intercede has to do with his degree of merit and sway with the Almighty (whatever Fr. Neuhaus may say about that in his article on the BVM). If a saint barely got to Heaven and barely merited a cult following in the first place, he may not have that much pull. Why do we always pray to St. Anthony when something is lost? Because he gets things done.
Good point. I never thought about it that way. And I’ve never prayed to an obscure saint myself. I stick with the “tried and true” as it were. Why mess with what works?
I very much enjoyed this post, Clara!
Re Tobias Petrus’s comment: “Oddly, Fr. Bailey, I have heard from some one who tried praying to obscure saints. He said that deserve their obscurity since they get so little done.”
I don’t know that “obscure saints” are always little known because they “barely merited a cult following.”
I was recently introduced to the “obscure” Saint Walburga, who’s rapidly becoming a favorite intercessor of mine. Thing is she’s only “obscure” in this country, she’s renowned for miracles of healing and has quite a following in Germany. I love Benedictine women, anyway, the older and more “obscure” the better!
When what is known about life of a saint is short on details and so fails to capture the imagination, he may be consigned to an obscurity that has nothing to do with his degree of holiness. I doubt St. Therese would have the following she does today, had not her sister insisted that she write “the story of her soul.”
I also doubt St. Thomas More (another favorite of mine) has as great a following in the non-English speaking countries as he does in England and America.
I should say ‘though that (like many others) the balance of my favorites are “heavy-hitters.” St. Anthony of Padua is my heavenly patron (for everything, not just lost items) as is St. Margaret Mary, patroness of my life-long parish. I call on St. Benedict and Scholastica, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Gregory the Great as well.