*Click on names for more info*

Status Definitions 

Servant of God  - Cause for sainthood has been opened by local bishop

Venerable - The pope confirms that candidate has met minimum threshold of living a life of "heroic virtue".
 

Shahbaz Bhatti

Status:  Servant of God
Cause:  Pakistani politician Matryred for Catholic faith
Died: 2011

Vincent R. Capodanno

Status:  Servant of God
Cause:   Heroic svc as military chaplain in Viet Nam War. 
Died: KIA 1967
 

Anne-Gabrielle Caron

Status:  Servant of God

Cause:   Heroic virtue; exemplary faith 

Died: 2010, age 8, Ewings Sarcoma
 

---

Silvio Dissegna

Status:  Venerable
Cause:   Heroic virtue; exemplary faith 
Died: 1979, age 12, bone cancer

Maria Esperanza de Bianchini

Status:  Servant of God
Cause:   Marian visionary; local bshp approved
visions, not messages
Died: 2004
 

Matteo Farina

Status:  Venerable
Cause:  Heroic virtue; evangelization & perseverance
Died: Age 19, in 2009 (brain tumor)
 

Status:  Servant of God
Cause: Martyrdom 
Died: June 3, 2007 after Mass in Mosul Iraq

Alexia Gonzalez

Status:  Venerable
Cause: Heroic virtue 
Died: Age 14 (spinal cancer) in 1985
 

Willi Graf

Status:  Servant of God
Cause: White Rose Nazi resistance
Died: 1943 (age 25)
 

Dom Prosper Guéranger

Status:  Servant of God
Cause:   Proponent of Immaculate Conception and 
infallible pope.
Died: 1875
 

Father Jacque Hamel

Status:  Servant of God
Cause: Martyr;
Murdered at Mass by ISIS supporter 
Died: 2016, Normandy, FR
 

Satoko Kitahara

Status:  Venerable
Cause:  Care of poor and suffering Japanese after WWII 
Died: 1958, of tuberculosis
 

Samuel Mazzuchelli

Status:  Venerable
Cause:  Mission to Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois
Died: 1864, (natural)

Allesandro Nottegar

Status:  Venerable
Cause:  Tended lepers in Brazil; founded community
Died:  1986, of natural causes
 

Patrick Peyton

Status:  Venerable
Cause:  Founded "Family Rosary Crusade"
Died:  1992, of natural causes

 

Chiara Corbella Petrillo

Status:  Servant of God
Cause:  Gave life for unborn child.
Died:  2012, of carcinoma
 

Charlene Richard

Status:  Servant of God
Cause:  Heroic virtue in illness; Miracles
Died:  1959, of acute leukemia,  age 12

Sr. Lucia dos Santos of Fatima

Status: Servant of God
Cause: Marian visionary (Fatima)
Died: 2005 (natural)
 

Guido Vidal Schaffer

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Status: Venerable
Cause:  Heroic Virtue; Evangelization
Died: 1979 (natural)
 

Angelica Tiraboschi

Status: Servant of God
Cause:  Heroic Virtue; Evangelizing in Illness
Died: Age 19, 2015 (breast cancer)

 

---

Daniela Zanetta

Status: Venerable
Cause:  Heroic Virtue; Evangelizing in Illness
Died: Age 23, in 1986 (skin disease)

 

---

Sr. Clare Crockett

   

Reason: Heroic virtue
Story: From Derry, N.
Ireland; Gave up movie/TV 
career to become a nun;  
died in Ecuadorian
earthquake in 2020, age 24;  
Many miracles already
attributed to her intercession.

Saint - The Catholic Church has determined infallibly that an individual (or group of individuals) is in Heaven and worthy of honor, prayer, veneration, and memorials/feasts in the liturgical cycle.  Two documented miracles are typically required for sainthood to be conferred.

Blessed - aka "Beatified".  The Catholic Church is morally certain that an individual (or group of individuals) is in Heaven (usually by virtue of one confirmed miracle), but awaiting confirmation of a second confirmed miracle before elevation to canonical sainthood.  A cult following is acceptable, as well as prayers for their intercession.  

St Aloysius Gonzaga - June 13th

Born: March 19, 1568 at Mantua, Italy
Died: June 21, 1591 at Rome, Italy
Canonized:  December 31, 1726
Claim to Fame: Heroic purity; received First Communion from St. Charles Borromeo;  spiritual director was St. Robert Bellarmine; desired to become a Jesuit missionary and was disowned by his aristocratic family; ailed from kidney disease but died in the midst of a plague in Italy.  
Patron: Young students, the blind, AIDS patients

In 1591, a plague broke out in Rome. The Jesuits opened a hospital for the stricken, and Aloysius volunteered to work there.  After begging alms for the victims, Aloysius began working with the sick, carrying the dying from the streets into a hospital founded by the Jesuits.

While there, Aloysius lifted a man out of his sickbed, tended to him, and brought him back to his bed. But the man was infected with the plague. Aloysius grew ill and was bedridden by 3 March 1591, a few days before his 23rd birthday.  He rallied for weeks, then succombed.  "His eyes were fixed on the crucifix he held in his hands, and as he tried to pronounce the name of Jesus he died."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloysius_Gonzaga
 

St Alphonsa - July 28th

Born: August 19, 1910 at Kudamalloor, India
Died: July 28, 1946 at Bharananganam, India
Canonized: October 12, 2008
Claim to Fame: First saint of the the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church; received childhood vision of Saint Therese of Lisieux, who promised her she would become a saint; Spurned numerous arranged-marriage proposals to dedicate her life to Christ;  Suffered foot injury that left her disabled for life;  Suffered grievously after entering convent; 
Patron: Against foot disease  

St André Bessette - January 6th

Born: August 9, 1845 at Quebec, Canada  
Died: January 6, 1937 at Montreal, Canada
Canonized:  October 17, 2010
Claim to Fame: Mirculous healer; Brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross; Healing power credited to devotion to Saint Joseph;  Used holy oil as healing substance; Great patron of French-Canadiens; One million people attended his wake
Patron: French Canadiens
 

St Anthony of Padua - June 13th

Born: August 15, 1195 at Lisbon, Portugal  
Died: June 13, 1231 at Padua, Italy
Canonized:  May 30, 1232
Claim to Fame: Doctor of the Church; Given oversight of education of friars at Bologna, Italy by St. Francis of Assisi; Preaching recognized by Pope Gregory IX; Finder of lost keys and cellphones deposited in couch cushions.
Title: "Ark of the Testament"
Patron: Lost souls, lost items, Native Americans, sterility, the elderly


Prayer to St. Anthony of Padua

O Holy St. Anthony, gentlest of Saints, your love for God and Charity for His creatures, made you worthy, when on earth, to possess miraculous powers. Encouraged by this thought, I implore you to obtain for me (request). O gentle and loving St. Anthony, whose heart was ever full of human sympathy, whisper my petition into the ears of the sweet Infant Jesus, who loved to be folded in your arms; and the gratitude of my heart will ever be yours.  Amen.

St Arnold of Soissons - August 14th

Born: AD 1040 at Flanders, Belgium 
Died: AD 1087 at Soissons, France
Canonized:  January 6, 1120 
Claim to Fame:

THE PATRON SAINT OF BEER
Yes, he's holding a mash rake and hops.  He founded an abbey in Oudenburg, Belgium, and began brewing beer.  He encouraged the locals to drink beer instead of water due to what he called its "gift of health" to the consumer.  During a plague, it is said his direction to drink beer instead of water saved lives.  Although the Church celebrates his feast on August 14th, the city of Brussels, Belgium holds a parade
                                                   in honor of St. Arnold on the annual "Day of Beer" July 18.
 

 

Blessed Bartolo Longo - October 5th

Born: February 10, 1841 at Latiano, Italy  
Died: October 5, 1926 at Pompei, Italy
Beatified: October 26, 1980
Claim to Fame: Former Satanic priest who reverted to his Catholic faith; Friend convinced him to revert and helped spur his devotion to the Rosary;  Served the poor and propagated the Rosary in the spirit of St. Dominic 
Title: "Apostle of the Rosary"; 
Patron: Those suffering from depression & anxiety
 

St Bernardine of Siena - May 20th

Born: September 8, 1380 at Massa Marittima, Italy  
Died: May 20, 1444 at Aquila, Italy
Canonized: May 24 1450
Claim to Fame: Franciscan missionary and skilled preacher who preached against sexual perversion, sorcery, infanticide, witchcraft, and usury; Devoted to the Holy Name of Jesus, he devised the now well-known symbol for Christ - IHS - which comprise the first 3 letters of Jesus in Greek; Friend of St. John of Capistrano;
                                                Title: "Apostle of Italy"
                                             Patron: Advertising, chest problems, gambling
                                             addicts

Blessed Carlo Acutis - October 12th

Born: May 3, 1991 at London, England
Died: October 12, 2006 of leukemia at Monzo, Italy
Beatified: October 10, 2020
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue; devout communicant from age 7; defender of the disadvantaged; created website cataloging every Eucharistic Miracle in the world. 
Path:  Sainthood pending verification of second miracle by his intercession 
Patron: Youth, computer programmers 

Acutis's mother, Antonia, is said to attribute to his intercession the fact that, at the age of 44, she gave birth to twins, born exactly four years to the day after his death. Following the Catholic Church's recognition of a miracle in 2020, attributed to Acutis, Antonia told the press that her son had appeared to her in dreams saying that he will not only be beatified but also canonised a saint in the future.  
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Acutis

St Catherine of Genoa - September 15th
Born: c. 1447 at Genoa, Italy
Died: September 15, 1510 at Genoa, Italy
Canonized: AD 1737
Claim to Fame: A member of Genoese nobility, she did tremendous work for the poor and the sick during a local plague; Had a mystical prayer life; Wrote a seminal work, Treatise on Purgatory, which, alone, was enough to prove her sanctity, according to Pope Clement X. 
Patron: Brides, childless people, difficult marriages, victims of adultery and infidelity, widow
 

St Charles of Mount Argus - January 5th

Born: December 11, 1821 at Munstergeleen, Netherlands
Died: January 5, 1893 at Mt. Argus Retreat, Ireland
Canonized:  June 3, 2007
Title: "The Saint of Mount Argus"
Claim to Fame: Passionist priest; Tremendous gift of healing; His reputation as a miracle worker was referenced by James Joyce in his epic novel Ulysses;  Popular devotion and miraculous outcomes led to friction with local physicians in Dublin
Patron: The sick and dying

Prayer for Intercession of St. Charles of Mount Argus

Heavenly Father,
you filled Blessed Charles with your Holy Spirit.

In love with Christ Crucified
he spent his life in prayer at the foot of the cross.
From the cross he went forth to bring good news to the poor,
healing to the sick and dying,
and forgiveness to the sinner.

Through the intercession of Blessed Charles
give us the graces we need.
Heal our aches and pains,
our hurts and wounds,
our anxieties and bad memories.
Free us from depressions, habits of sin, ald all evil.
Strengthen our faith,
deepen our hope,
and increase our love.

We make our prayer through Christ our Lord.
 

St Charles Borromeo - November 4th

Born: October 2, 1538 at Milan, Italy  
Died: November 3, 1584 at Milan, Italy
Canonized: November 1, 1610
Claim to Fame: Archbishop of Milan and Cardinal, instrumental in the Counter-Reformation in response to the Protestant revolution; He was the force behind the establishment of seminaries for the formation of priests; a close friend of St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Philip Neri.
Patron: Ulcers, seminarians, intestinal disorder catechumens, apple orchards

 

Blessed Chiara Badano - October 29th

Born: October 29, 1971 at Sassello, Italy
Died: October 7, 1990 of bone cancer at Sassello, Italy
Beatified: September 25, 2010
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue;  Served Christ in the Focolare movement;  Fell ill with cancer at age 16 and offered her life completely to the will of Christ;  
Path:  Sainthood pending verification of second miracle by her intercession.  
Patron: Teenagers, athletes, Focolare Movement 



"When the doctors began to carry out this small, but quite demanding, procedure, a lady with a very beautiful and luminous smile came in. She came up to me and took me by the hand, and her touch filled me with courage. In the same way that she arrived, she disappeared, and I could no longer see her. But my heart was filled with an immense joy and all fear left me. In that moment I understood that if we're always ready for everything, God sends us many signs of his love."

St Clelia Barbieri - July 13th

Born: February 13, 1847 at Bologna, Italy 
Died: Age 23, July 13, 1870 at Bologna, Italy
Canonized:  April 9, 1989
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue; Resisted family pressure to marry, in favor of a life serving others; Deeply contemplative since childhood; Age 21, joined an order of nuns to serve the poor; Died of tuberculosis
The Voice:  St. Clelia's unique voice has been often and inexplicably heard during prayers and song in the houses where her order was located.
Patron: Catechists, people ridiculed for their piety

St Damien of Malokai - May 10th

Born: January 3, 1840 at Tremelo, Belgium  
Died: April 15, 1889 at Malokai, Hawaii
Canonized:  October 11, 2009
Title: "The Apostle of the Lepers"
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue; spent 11 years ministering to a leper colony of 600 on the island of Molokai; contracted leprosy himself and died.
Patron: People with Leprosy


Mahatma Gandhi said that Father Damien's work had inspired his own social campaigns in India, leading to independence for his people and also securing aid for those who needed it. 

The political and journalistic world can boast of very few heroes who compare with Father Damien of Molokai. The Catholic Church, on the contrary, counts by the thousands those who after the example of Fr. Damien have devoted themselves to the victims of leprosy. It is worthwhile to look for the sources of such heroism.      - Mahatma Gandhi
 

St Dominic Savio - March 9th

Born: April 2, 1842 at Piedmont, Italy
Died: Age 14, March 9, 1847 at Piedmont, Italy
Canonized:  June 12, 1954
Title: "The Schoolboy Saint"
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue; under the tutelage of St. John Bosco, who wrote a biography of the boy; youngest non-martyr saint until Francisco and Jacinta Marto were canonized in 2017
Patron: Choirboys, falsely accused people, juvenile delinquents

"Resolutions made by me, Dominic Savio, in the year 1849,
on the day of my First Communion, at the age of seven.
 

1. I will go to Confession often, and as frequently to Holy Communion as my confessor allows.

2. I wish to sanctify the Sundays and festivals in a special manner.

3. My friends shall be Jesus and Mary.

4. Death rather than sin."

St Elizabeth of Hungary - November 17th

Born: July 7, 1207 at Pozsony, Hungary  
Died: Age 24, November 17, 1231 at Hesse, Germany
Canonized:  May 27, 1235
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue; daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary; gave up royal privileges, converted a castle into a hospital, sold all of her belongings, and cared for the sick and the poor; experienced Miracle of the Roses; received blessing from St. Francis of Assisi just prior to his death.
Title: "Patron Saint of the Third Order of Francis"
Patron: Hospitals, nurses, dying children, bakers
 

St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows - February 27th

Born: March 1, 1838 at Assisi, Italy  
Died: February 27, 1862 at Isola Gran Sassa, Italy
Canonized:  May 13, 1920
Claim to Fame: Passionist seminarian who gave up a privileged life to serve God; Had significant devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows; Developed tuberculosis, but instead of becoming despondent, prayed for a drawn out death for the sake of spiritual preparation; His face glowed and he reached out for the Blessed Mother from his deathbed as he passed at age 23.  
Patron: Students, youth, seminarians, clerics
 

St Gerard Majella - October 16th

Born: April 9 1726 at Naples, Italy
Died: October 16, 1755 at Campania, Italy
Canonized:  December 11, 1904
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue; Redemptorist brother; Ability to bilocate;  Ability to read souls; Survived slanderous attack while under the authority of St. Alphonsus Liguori (his accuser recanted)   
Title: "The Saint of Happy Childbirths"
Patron: Unborn children, expectant mothers, the falsely confused, good confessions 

Advocating for Expectant Mothers

"One day Brother Gerard was leaving the home of his close friends, the Pirofalo family, when one of the daughters ran after him — he had dropped his handkerchief. “Keep it,” Gerard told her. “Someday you’ll find it useful.” Within a few years, Gerard had died and this same young woman had married and became pregnant. When it was time for the baby to be born, the labor went badly; the midwives were certain they would lose both the mother and the child. In her fear and agony, the woman remembered what Gerard had said; she asked for the handkerchief. Pressing it against her belly, she prayed to Brother Gerard to help her. Immediately the woman’s labor pains diminished and she delivered a strong, healthy child."
Source: SimplyCatholic


 

St Germaine Cousin - June 15th

Born: 1579 at Pibrac, France
Died: 1601 at Pibrac, France (Age 22)
Canonized:  June 29, 1867
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue; Suffered tremendous abuse at the hands of her stepmother; Suffered from  physical deformity and other illnesses from birth; Made reparations for heretics acting in surrounding churches; Devoted to the Holy Rosary
Patron: Abuse victims, abandoned people, against poverty, disabled people, girls from rural areas, unkind people. 

St Gianna Molla - April 28th

Born: October 4, 1922 at Magenta, Italy
Died: April 28, 1962 of septic peritonitis at Monza, Italy
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue; Elected to forego recommended abortion in favor of a procedure to remove a tumor from her uterus;  Gave birth and died from complications of the fibroid removal. 
Path:  Canonized on May 16, 2004 with her husband and children present.
Patron: Doctors, mothers, unborn children
 

St Hilary of Poitiers - January 13th

Born: c. AD 310 at Pictavium, France
Died: c. AD 367 at Poitiers, France
Canonized: Pre-Congregation
Title:"Hammer of the Arians"
Claim to Fame: Church Father & Doctor; Unanimously elected bishop by people of Poitiers;  Was married and had a daughter, Saint Abra of Poitiers;  Wrote De Trinitate and De Synodis - momentous theological works;  Considered the first Latin Christian hymnist.  
See Also:  St. Hilary, Church Father 
 

St John Neumann - January 5th

Born: March 28, 1811 at Prachatitz, Bohemia
Died: January 5, 1860 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Canonized: June 19, 1977 
Claim to Fame: First canonized U.S. Bishop; Founded the first Catholic Diocesan school system in the United States; Redemptorist Priest 
Patron: Catholic education
Quote: "Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing"
 

St John Henry Newman - October 9th

Born: February 21, 1801 at London, England
Died: August 11, 1890 at Birmingham, England
Canonized: October 13, 2019 
Claim to Fame: Theological writings, treatise on "Development of Doctrine", defender of the faith, convert from Anglican Church
Patron: Poets, Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
Quote: "To be deep in history, is to cease to be Protestant."

John Henry Newman argued that various Catholic doctrines not accepted by Protestants (such as devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Purgatory) had a developmental history analogous to doctrines that were accepted by Protestants (such as the Trinity or the divinity and humanity of Christ). Such developments were, in his view, the natural and beneficial consequences of reason working on the original revealed truth to draw out consequences that were not obvious at first.  This thinking of Newman had a major impact on the Bishops at the Second Vatican Council, and appears in their statement that ″the understanding of the things and words handed down grows, through the contemplation and study of believers, ... (which) tends continually towards the fullness of divine truth."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_doctrine

 
St John Vianney - August 4th

Born: May 8, 1786 at Dardilly, France
Died: August 4, 1859 at Ars, France
Title: "The Curé of Ars"
Claim to Fame: Heroic Piety; Mystic; Tireless confessor; Reader of souls; Pastored his flock with orthodoxy in the aftermath of the French Revolution 
Path:  Canonized on May 31, 1925
Patron: Parish priests, Confessors 
Quote: "A priest goes to Heaven or a priest goes to Hell with a thousand people behind."

 

St Josephine Bakhita - February 8th

Born: c. 1869 at Darfur (Sudan)
Died: February 8, 1947 of septic peritonitis at Schio, Italy
Title: Patron saint of Sudan
Claim to Fame: Abducted by the Sudanese slave trade and forced to convert to Islam;  Sold to an Italian politician who brought her to Italy, and giving her temporary shelter at a convent;  Converted and became a Canossian Sister. 
Path:  Cause opened immediately following death;  Canonized on October 1, 2000 
Patron: Human trafficking surivors, the Sudan

"Rejoice, all of Africa! Bakhita has come back to you. The daughter of Sudan sold into slavery as a living piece of merchandise and yet still free. Free with the freedom of the saints."

-- Pope St. John Paul II at Josephine's Beatification in 1993

"If I were to meet those who kidnapped me, and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. For, if these things had not happened, I would not have been a Christian and a religious today".

-- St. Josephine Bakhita

Born: 1474 at Cuauhtitlán, Mexico
Died: 1548 at Tepeyac, Mexico
Canonized: July 31, 2002 
Claim to Fame: Received visitation of the Blessed Mother, later titled "Our Lady of Guadalupe",  in December of 1531;  Received miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin on his tilma;  Following these apparitions, millions of indigenous Aztec converted and became members of the Roman Catholic faithful.
Patron: Indigenous peoples of the Americas
 

St Kateri Tekakwitha - July 14th

Born: 1656 at Ossernenon, NY
Baptized: April 16, 1676, after "Catherine of Siena"
Died: April 17, 1680 Kahnawake, Quebec
Canonized:  April 21, 2012
Title: "The Lily of the Mohawks"
Claim to Fame: First Native American Catholic saint; 
Cult: Following death, honored unofficially as patroness of Montreal and Indegenous Peoples of Americas. Indian missionary bishops requested her veneration simultaneous with yet-sainted Isaac Jogues.  Beatified in 1980.  
Patron: Ecologists, environment, loss of parents, people in exile


Kateri's Conversion

"I have deliberated enough. For a long time my decision on what I will do has been made. I have consecrated myself entirely to Jesus, son of Mary, I have chosen Him for husband and He alone will take me for wife."

The Church considers that in 1679, with her decision on the Feast of the Annunciation, her conversion was truly completed and she became the "first virgin" among the Mohawk.
 

King St. Louis IX - August 25th
Born: April 25, 1214 in Poissy, France
Died: August 25, 1270 in Tunis, North Africa
Canonized:  1290
Claim to Fame: Only French King to be made a saint; ascended throne at age 12; introduced concept of "presumed innocence" in court proceedings; led the 7th and 8th crusades, the latter which he died in due to dysentery. 
Patron: Barbers, grooms, Archdiocese of New Orleans
 

St Marianne Cope - January 23rd

Born: January 23, 1838 at Heppenheim, Germany
Died: August 9 1918 at Kaulaupapa, Hawaii
Canonized:  October 21, 2012
Claim to Fame: Founder of New York's St. Joseph Hospital, relocated in 1883 to Hawaii to serve lepers on island of Molokai (see also St. Damien of Molokai);  Helped develop medical infrastructure of Hawaii; did NOT contract leprosy, unlike St. Damien.
Quote:  "I am not afraid of any disease, hence, it would be my greatest delight to minister to the abandoned lepers.”
Patron: Lepers, outcasts, HIV/AIDS sufferers
 

St Martin de Porres - November 3rd

Born: December 9, 1579 at Lima, Peru
Died: November 3, 1639 at Lima, Peru
Canonized:  May 6, 1962
Title: "Saint of the Broom"
Claim to Fame: Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order;  Built orphanage and children's hospital; Could levitate, bilocate, read souls, communicate with animals; Miracle worker;  Abstained from meat, and chose to live in poverty.
Patron: Black people, mixed race people, barbers, innkeepers, Diocese of Biloxi, the poor
 

St Monica - August 27th

Born: AD 332 at Souk Ahras, Algeria
Died: AD 387 at Ostia, Italy
Title: "Mother of the Virtues"
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue; suffered through adulterous marriage; Mother of Saint Augustine of Hippo; won his conversion through tireless prayer; her death inspired him to write his epic treasure, Confessions. 
Patron: Married women, difficult marriages, disappointing children, conversion of relatives 

“Son, nothing in this world now affords me delight. I do not know what there is now left for me to do or why I am still here, all my hopes in this world being now fulfilled.”  -- Saint Monica, prior to her death 

"Here the most virtuous mother of a young man set her ashes, a second light to your merits, Augustine. As a priest, serving the heavenly laws of peace, you taught [or, you teach] the people entrusted to you with your character. A glory greater than the praise of your accomplishments crowns you both – Mother of the Virtues, more fortunate because of her offspring." -- Funerary epitaph written for St. Monica by a Roman politician AD 387
 

St Nicholas - December 6th

Born: March 15, 270 AD at Patara (Turkey) 
Died: December 6, 343 AD at Myra (Byzantium)
Claim to Fame: Walloped a heretic at the Council of Nicaea;  Also, throwing bags of gold through windows in the middle of the night, for the sake of poor betrothed girls who can't afford their dowry.  
Cult:  Identified and venerated by Eastern Catholics around 6th century;  Latin Church doesn't begin venerating until the 11th century   
Patron: Children, sailors, the falsely accused.  

It became customary for Eastern Catholics to celebrate his feast day by placing shoes outside their door on December 6th, in hopes that a gold coin would be found in them the next morning.  

The Catholic Church in the Netherlands also celebrated the Feast Day of St. Nicholas -- rendered "Sinterklaas" -- whose devotion Dutch immigrants brought to America.  You may know Sinterklaas better by his Anglicized name -- Santa Claus.

St Nunzio Sulprizio - May 5th

Born: April 13, 1817 at Pescara, Italy
Died: Age 19, May 5, 1836 at Naples, Italy
Canonized: October 14, 2018
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue; suffered from abuse and neglect during his childhood, and poor health his entire life; Suffered under abusive work conditions until he contracted gangrene in his leg; Offered his suffering to Christ, including eventual amputation;  Died shortly thereafter.
Patron: The disabled, blacksmiths, workers
 

St Patrick - March 17th

Born: c. 4th century AD, Great Britain
Died: c. 5th century AD, Ireland
Claim to Fame:  Founder of Christianity in Ireland; Missionary zeal;  Demonstrated the dogma of the Trinity to native Irish using the three-leafed Shamrock. 
Legends: Banishing the snakes (driving out Paganism?); Miraculous walking sticks that turn into trees when planted in the ground.
Patron: Ireland, Engineers, Paralegals, Contra Snakes

Kiss me, I'm Irish

Saint Patrick is arguably a more successful beer seller than Adolphus Busch, which is saying a lot.  But the secularizing of the Feast of St. Patrick has overshadowed and silenced what he stood for as a faithful servant of Christ.  In his own words: 

"Never before did they know of God except to serve idols and unclean things. But now, they have become the people of the Lord, and are called children of God. The sons and daughters of the leaders of the Irish are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ!"

St Peter Claver - September 9th

Born: June 26, 1580 at Verdu, Spain
Died: September 8, 1654 at Cartagena, Spain
Canonized:  January 15, 1888
Title: "The Apostle of Cartagena"
Claim to Fame: Heroic virtue;  Baptized over 300,000 (!) slaves in North Africa;  Heard the confessions of 5,000 slaves annually;  Went from plantation to plantation ministering to slaves while slave merchants and masters were away; Scope of work was not understood until the months following his death.
Patron: African missions, race relations, slaves
 

Holy Patroness of those in need, Saint Rita, so humble, pure and patient, whose pleadings with thy Divine Spouse are irresistible, obtain for me from thy Crucified Christ my request (mention it here). Be kind to me, for the greater glory of God, and I promise to honor thee and to sing thy praises forever.

Oh glorious St. Rita, who didst miraculously participate in the sorrowful Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, obtain for me the grace to suffer with resignation the troubles of this life, and protect me in all my needs.  Amen