Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Quote

Above all it’s the Gospels that occupy my mind when I’m at prayer; my poor soul has so many needs, and yet this is the one thing needful. I’m always finding fresh lights there, hidden and enthralling meanings.

– Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux's patronage: Gardens of Vatican City; Missionaries; France; Russia; radio care-a-thons; florists and gardeners; loss of parents; the Russicum; Alaska; foreign missions; pilots; against tuberculosis; AIDS sufferers; illness; Australia; France; Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska; Diocese of Fresno, California; Diocese of Juneau, Alaska; Diocese of Pueblo, Colorado.

Saint Jerome Quote

No one should think that I mean to explain the entire subject matter of this great book of the prophet Isaiah in one brief sermon, since it contains all the mysteries of the lord. It prophesies that Emmanuel is to be born of a virgin and accomplish marvelous works and signs. It predicts his death, burial and resurrection from the dead as the Savior of all men. Whatever is proper to holy Scripture, whatever can be expressed in human language and understood by the human mind, is contained in the book of Isaiah.

– Saint Jerome from a commentary on Isaiah

Saint Jerome's patronage: Archeologists; archivists; Bible scholars; librarians; libraries; schoolchildren; students; translators; City of Saint-Jérôme, Quebec; diocese of Saint-Jérôme, Quebec; Taos Indian Pueblo

Saint John Vianney Quote on Angels

The first thing about the angels that we ought to imitate, is their consciousness of the Presence of God.

– Saint John Vianney

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila Quote

I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God; Had I a thousand lives, all these to Him shall I offer.

-- Saint Lorenzo Ruiz

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz's patronage: The Philippines; Filipinos; Overseas Filipino Workers and migrant workers; the poor; separated families; Filipino youth; Chinese-Filipinos; Filipino altar servers; Tagalogs; Archdiocese of Manila.

Saint Vincent de Paul Quote

Saint Vincent de Paul

As it is most certain that the teaching of Christ cannot deceive, if we would walk securely, we ought to attach ourselves to it with greatest confidence and to profess openly that we live according to it, and not to the maxims of the world, which are all deceitful. This is the fundamental maxim of all Christian perfection.

– Saint Vincent de Paul

Saint Vincent de Paul's patronage: charitable societies; charities; horses; hospitals; leprosy; lost articles; prisoners; volunteers; spiritual help; Saint Vincent de Paul Societies; Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory; Vincentian Service Corps; Madagascar; diocese of Richmond, Virginia; volunteers.

Saint Marie Victoire Therese Couderc Quote

The surrendered soul has found paradise on earth, since she enjoys that sweet peace which is part of the happiness of the elect.

– Saint Marie Victoire Therese Couderc

Saint Marie Victoire Therese Couderc's patronage: Sisters of the Cenacle

Blessed Herman the Cripple Quote

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy. Hail my life, my sweetness and my hope! To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve! To you do we send up our sighs; mourning and weeping in this vale of tears! Turn, most gracious Advocate, your eyes of mercy toward me, and after this, our exile, show to us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus Christ! Clement, loving, sweet Virgin Mary! Amen.

– Blessed Herman the Cripple the author of "Salve Regina" and "Alma Redemptoris Mater".

Blessed Anton Martin Slomsek Quote

Blessed Anton Martin Slomsek

When I was born, my mother laid me on a bed of straw, and I desire no better pallet when I die, asking only to be in the state of grace and worthy of salvation.

– Blessed Anton Martin Slomsek

Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina Quote

Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have You present so that I do not forget You. You know how easily I abandon You. Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak and I need Your strength, that I may not fall so often. Stay with me, Lord, for You are my life and without You I am without fervor. Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light and without You I am in darkness. Stay with me, Lord, to show me Your will. Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear Your voice and follow You. Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love You very much and alway be in Your company. Stay with me, Lord, if You wish me to be faithful to You. Stay with me, Lord, as poor as my soul is I want it to be a place of consolation for You, a nest of Love. Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late and the day is coming to a close and life passes, death, judgment and eternity approaches. It is necessary to renew my strength, so that I will not stop along the way and for that, I need You. It is getting late and death approaches, I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need You, my Jesus, in this night of exile! Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers, I need You. Let me recognize You as Your disciples did at the breaking of the bread, so that the Eucharistic Communion be the Light which disperses the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart. Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to You, if not by Communion, at least by grace and love. Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone I look for, Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because I love You and ask no other reward but to love You more and more. With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart while on earth and continue to love You perfectly during all eternity. Amen.

– Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina from his Prayer After Holy Communion

Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina's patronage: Civil defense volunteers; Adolescents; Pietrelcina; Stress relief; Italy; Malta

Saint Paul Chong Hasang Quote

I have told you that I am a Christian, and will be one until my death.

-- Saint Paul Chong Hasang

Saint Bede the Venerable Quote on Saint Matthew

"Saint Matthew"
-- by James Tissot

Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him: "Follow me.” Jesus saw Matthew, not merely in the usual sense, but more significantly with his merciful understanding of men. He saw the tax collector and, because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said to him: “Follow me.” This following meant imitating the pattern of his life – not just walking after him. Saint John tells us: “Whoever says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” “And he rose and followed him.” There is no reason for surprise that the tax collector abandoned earthly wealth as soon as the Lord commanded him. Nor should one be amazed that neglecting his wealth, he joined a band of men whose leader had, on Matthew’s assessment, no riches at all. Our Lord summoned Matthew by speaking to him in words. By an invisible, interior impulse flooding his mind with the light of grace, he instructed him to walk in his footsteps. In this way Matthew could understand that Christ, who was summoning him away from earthly possessions, had incorruptible treasures of heaven in his gift.

– Saint Bede the Venerable from a homily

Saint Matthew's patronage: Accountants; bankers; bookkeepers; customs officers; security guards; stock brokers; tax collectors; Salerno, Italy.

Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn Quote

This is my last hour of life, listen to me attentively: if I have held communication with foreigners, it has been for my religion and for my God. It is for Him that I die. My immortal life is on the point of beginning. Become Christians if you wish to be happy after death, because God has eternal chastisements in store for those who have refused to know Him.

– Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn

Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn's patronage: Korea; Korean Clergy

Trivia note: Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn was the first native Korean priest.

Saint Jerome Quote

Thank God I am deemed worthy to be hated by the world.

– Saint Jerome

Saint Jerome's patronage: archeologists; archivists; Bible scholars; librarians; libraries; school children; students; translators

Saint Joseph of Cupertino Quote

Clearly, what God wants above all is our will which we received as a free gift from God in creation and possess as though our own. When a man trains himself to acts of virtue, it is with the help of grace from God from whom all good things come that he does this. The will is what man has as his unique possession.

– Saint Joseph of Cupertino

Saint Joseph of Cupertino's patronage: air travellers; astronauts; aviators; paratroopers; pilots; students; test takers.

Saint Robert Bellarmine Quote

It is not difficult for one seal to make many impressions exactly alike, but to vary shapes almost infinitely, which is what God has done in creation, this is in truth a divine work.

– Saint Robert Bellarmine

Saint Robert Bellarmine's patronage: canon lawyers; canonists; catechists; catechumens; archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Saint Cyprian of Carthage Quote

After this we must subjoin, that being redeemed and quickened by the blood of Christ, we ought to prefer nothing to Christ, because He preferred nothing to us, and on our account preferred evil things to good, poverty to riches, servitude to rule, death to immortality; that we, on the contrary, in our sufferings are preferring the riches and delights of paradise to the poverty of the world, eternal dominion and kingdom to the slavery of time, immortality to death, God and Christ to the devil and Antichrist.

– Saint Cyprian of Carthage from his Exhortation to Martyrdom

Saint Cyprian of Carthage's patronage: Algeria; North Africa

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Quote On the Blessed Virgin Mary

Do not be surprised, brothers, that Mary is said to be a martyr in spirit. Let him be surprised who does not remember the words of Paul, that one of the greatest crimes of the Gentiles was that they were without love. That was far from the heart of Mary; let it be far from her servants.

Perhaps someone will say: “Had she not known before that he would not die?” Undoubtedly. “Did she not expect him to rise again at once?” Surely. “And still she grieved over her crucified Son?” Intensely.

Who are you and what is the source of your wisdom that you are more surprised at the compassion of Mary than at the passion of Mary’s Son? For if he could die in body, could she not die with him in spirit? He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since his.

– Saint Bernard of Clairvaux from a sermon on the Martyrdom of Mary at the foot of the Cross

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux's patronage: Cistercians; Cistercian Order; Burgundy, France; beekeepers; bees; candlemakers; chandlers; Gibraltar, Spain; Algeciras; Queens' College, Cambridge; Speyer Cathedral; Knights Templar; wax-melters; and wax refiners

Saint Andrew of Crete Quote on the Holy Cross

Therefore, the cross is something wonderfully great and honorable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation – very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory. The cross is honorable because it is both the sign of God’s suffering and the trophy of his victory. It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death. But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world.

-- Saint Andrew of Crete from a discourse on the Glory and Victory of the Cross

Saint John Chrysostom Quote

The love of husband and wife is the force that welds society together.

-– Saint John Chrysostom

Saint John Chrysostom's patronage: Constantinople; epilepsy; orators; preachers; speakers; education; lecturers; Istanbul, Turkey

Saint Francis of Assisi Quote

It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.

-- Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi's patronage: against fire; animals; Catholic Action; dying alone; ecology; environment; families; fire; lacemakers; merchants; peace; zoos; Italy; Assisi, Italy; Colorado; Sante Fe, New Mexico; archdiocese of San Francisco, California; archdiocese of Denver, Colorado; archdiocese of Sante Fe, New Mexico; diocese of Salina, Kansas.

Blessed Charles Spinola Quote

I, who can aver that I now begin to be a disciple of Christ amid the greatest pain and confinement of prison, even when my strength seemed failing from hunger alone, I was always refreshed by such delights of consolation, that I deemed all my sufferings undergone in the divine service richly rewarded. Were I still to pass several years in this dungeon, the time would seem to me short in my intense desire of suffering for His love, who so lavishly rewards the labors of this life and makes even torture itself sweet and desirable. Yet God is to be served chiefly for himself alone, for He is the fountain of all goodness, and merits all our devotion without any hope of reward.

-– Blessed Charles Spinola

Saint Nicholas of Tolentino Quote

The heavens are not pure in the sight of Him Whom I serve; how then shall I, a sinful man, stand before Him?

-– Saint Nicholas of Tolentino

Saint Nicholas of Tolentino's patronage: animals; babies; boatmen; diocese of Cabanatuan, Philippines; dying people; Lambunao, Philippines; Guimbal, Iloilo, mariners; diocese of Mati; holy souls; Philippines; sailors; sick animals; souls in purgatory; diocese of Tandag, Philippines; watermen; patron saint of Surigao City, La Huerta, Parañaque City and Buli and Cupang in Muntinlupa City, San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte a town named after St. Nicholas De Tolentino, Banton, Romblon in the Philippines; patron saint of La Aldea de San Nicolás in the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Island, Spain

Saint Peter Claver Quote

To do the will of God, man must despise his own; the more he dies to himself, the more he will live to God.

– Saint Peter Claver

Saint Peter Claver's patronage: against slavery; foreign missions; black people; race relations; Colombia; diocese of Shreveport, Louisiana; diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Saint Augustine of Hippo Quote

We used our immortality so badly as to incur the penalty of death: Christ used His mortality so well as to restore us to life. The disease was brought in through a woman's corrupted soul: the remedy came through a woman's virgin body. To the same class of opposite remedies it belongs, that our vices are cured by the example of His virtues. On the other hand, the following are, as it were, bandages made in the same shape as the limbs and wounds to which they are applied: He was born of a woman to deliver us who fell through a woman: He came as a man to save us who are men, as a mortal to save us who are mortals, by death to save us who were dead.

– Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Augustine of Hippo's patronage: Brewers; diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut; Cagayan de Oro, Philippines; diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan; printers; city of Saint Augustine, Florida; diocese of Saint Augustine, Florida; sore eyes; diocese of Superior, Wisconsin; theologians; diocese of Tucson, Arizona.

Blessed Giovanni Battista Mazzucconi Quote

I do not know what He is preparing for me in the journey I begin tomorrow. I know one thing only, if He is good and loves me immensely, everything else: calm or storm, danger or safety, life or death, are merely changeable and passing expressions of the beloved immutable, eternal Love. Yes, my beloved brethren, we have another country, another home, a kingdom where we must all meet, where there will no longer be separations or departures, where past sorrows and danger will merely serve to increase our consolation and glory.

-– Blessed Giovanni Battista Mazzucconi, writing before his last missionary journey

Blessed John Henry Newman Quote

I have a place in God’s counsels, in God’s world, which no one else has;

whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man,

God knows me and calls me by my name.

God has created me to do Him some definite service;

He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.

I have my mission–I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.

Somehow I am necessary for His purposes,

as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his

–if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work;

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons.

He has not created me for naught.

I shall do good, I shall do His work;

I shall be an angel of peace,

a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it,

if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

– Blessed John Henry Newman

Saint Teresa of Calcutta Quote

Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.

– Saint Teresa of Calcutta

Saint Teresa of Calcutta's patronage: World Youth Day; Missionaries of Charity

Saint Rose of Viterbo Quote

I die with joy, for I desire to be united to my God. Live so as not to fear death. For those who live well in the world, death is not frightening, but sweet and precious.

– Saint Rose of Viterbo

Saint Rose of Viterbo's patronage: people in exile; people rejected by religious orders; Franciscan youth; Viterbo, Italy

Pope Saint Gregory the Great Quote

If we are, in fact, now occupied in good deeds, we should not attribute the strength with which we are doing them to ourselves. We must not count on ourselves, because even if we know what kind of person we are today, we do not know what we will be tomorrow.

– Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Pope Saint Gregory the Great's patronage: choir boys; educators; gout; masons; music; musicians; choirs; singers; stonecutters; teachers; popes; students; scholars; against plague; against gout; against fever; England; West Indies

Saint Solomon Leclerq Quote

As for us, we hold to what we believed ten and twenty years ago; to what our forefathers believed one hundred years ago, and one thousand years ago, and to that which the whole Catholic world has always believed.

-- Saint Solomon Leclerq

Saint Solomon Leclerq's patronage: Persecuted Christians