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The Catholic church has thousands of saints. There is a saint assigned to just about everything. This is how patron saints are defined:
"A patron is one who has been assigned by a venerable tradition, or chosen by election, as a special intercessor with God and the proper advocate of a particular locality, and is honored by clergy and people with a special form of religious observance. The term 'patron', being wider in its meaning than that of 'titular', may be applied to a church, a district, a country, or a corporation. The word 'titular' is applied only to the patron of a church or institution. Both the one and the other, according to the legislation now in force, must have the rank of a canonized saint." (source: New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia)
How do these intercessors connect to what the Bible says?
26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. - Romans 8:26-27,34
Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. - Hebrews 7:25
Here is an example of one of the saints of the Catholic church:
Catherine of Alexandria
She was the well educated daughter of aristocratic, pagan parents in Alexandria in the 4th century AD. Converted to Christianity by a hermit, she dreamt she was the bride of Christ and woke up with His ring on her finger. She protested against the persecution of Christians under the Emperor Maximinus (one of the last pagan Emperors). The Emperor sent some notable philosophers to argue with her: she converted them. He sent a Centurion: she converted him. Finally Maximinus offered her marriage, she refused him. She was condemned to be broken on the wheel (hence the modern 'Catherine wheel' firework): it was the wheel that miraculously broke. She was then beheaded and she bled milk. She was carried to heaven by angels, or alternatively to the Monastery of St Catherine at Mount Sinai, the site of Moses' conversation with God in the burning bush. Some historians think that the 'angels' were actually monks of the Monastery (the Greek for 'monk' is actually 'angel'). Sometimes pieces of the wheel are said to have killed large numbers of pagan onlookers. Most saints die bravely for their faith, but Catherine went further than that. She not only died bravely but she had the intelligence and the skill to persuade her persecutors that they were wrong. They chose to die with her. (source: The Legend of Saint Catherine)
The patron saint of:
- The University of Paris
- Spinsters: women often go to her chapel to ask her to find them a worthy husband
- Philosophers
- Wheelwrights: because the wheel she was to be tortured on broke under her
- Powerless women: maids, servants, virgins, prostitutes
- Medical professions: nurses, doctors
- Those dying
List of Catholic Saints (Starting with A)
| Accountants | St. Matthew |
| Actors | St. Matthew |
| Addicts | St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe |
| Advertising | St. Bernardine of Siena |
| African-Americans | St. Peter Claver, St. Martin de Porres, & St. Benedict the African |
| AIDS patients | St. Peregrine Laziosi |
| Air travelers | St. Joseph of Cupertino |
| Alcoholics | St. Monica & Venerable Matt Talbot |
| Altar servers | St. Monica & Venerable Matt Talbot |
| Americas | St. Rose of Lima & Our Lady of Guadalupe |
| Anesthetists | St. Rene Goupil |
| Animals | St. Francis of Assisi |
| Archaeologists | St. Francis of Assisi |
| Architects | St. Thomas the Apostle |
| Argentina | St. Thomas the Apostle |
| Art & Artists | St. Luke & St. Catharine of Bologna |
| Astronauts | St. Joseph of Cupertino |
| Astronomers | St. Dominic |
| Athletes | St. Sebastian |
| Attorneys | St. Raymond of Peņafort & St. Thomas More |
| Australia | St. Raymond of Peņafort & St. Thomas More |
| Authors | St. Francis de Sales |
See the
resources page for links to listings of more Catholic saints.
There are special prayers to recite to these saints in certain situations.
Do you see a connection with these Catholic saints and anything we have studied with the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Cretan, Greek, and Roman subjects? Is it part of man's nature to want more than just one God?
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