October Is a Blockbuster Month for Saints| National Catholic Register

A blockbuster is a large high-explosive bomb. That’s what the saints do — explode holiness and influence while blasting away evil.

Every month honors many of our holy brothers and sisters, but I think October deserves Hall of Fame status with so many saints of great consequence. As we journey through the month, we can especially call on them to help us on our journey to heaven. 

Oct. 1: St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897)

The fame of St. Thérèse spread wildly after her death despite entering a Carmelite monastery at the age of 15 and dying nine years later. When Thérèse died, her sisters did not think there was anything to say about her. Yet, her autobiography, Story of a Soul, became a classic in understanding the simplicity of the spiritual life and led to her being named a Doctor of the Church. She was quoted as saying: “Upon my death, I will let fall a shower of roses; I wish to spend my heaven in doing good upon the earth.” Many people claim to receive roses after praying — especially novenas — for her intercession.

Oct. 2: Feast of the Guardian Angels

In Matthew 18:10 Jesus said: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” This passage underlies our belief in guardian angels.

Oct. 3: St. Théodore Guérin (1798-1856)

Mother Guérin grew up in France under an anti-clerical government. She entered the Sisters of Providence at age 26. In 1840 Mother Théodore Guérin was sent to Indiana after the Bishop of Vincennes, Indiana, asked the order to send missionary sisters. She and five other sisters came and opened the Academy of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods school for girls and later other schools in Indiana and Illinois and orphanages and pharmacies to serve the poor. 

Today the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods serve in 20 states, Washington D.C., Taiwan and China. Mother Théodore told her sisters, “What have we to do in order to be saints? Nothing extraordinary; nothing more than what we do every day. Only do it for his love.” Visit her final resting place at the Shrine of Saint Mother Théodore Guérin at Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana.

Oct. 4: St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)

St. Francis is one of the most loved saints in the world, known for his gentle love of animals and most of all God. He grew up the only son of a wealthy cloth merchant in the Italian town of Assisi but yearned for more. While praying in the rundown church of San Damiano, he heard a voice asking him to rebuild the Church. Francis initially took that to mean the actual building but eventually came to understand it was to rebuild the Church through reform. 

He rejected wealth and lived a simple life clad in a brown robe. During a vision, St. Francis of Assisi was miraculously marked with the stigmata — the wounds from the nails and lance that Christ suffered during his Crucifixion. His passion for Christ and simplicity brought about spiritual renewal in the whole Church.

Oct. 5: St. Faustina (1905-1938)

St. Faustina received messages from Jesus giving us the feast of the Divine Mercy, the Divine Mercy chaplet and the Divine Mercy prayer.

Born in west-central Poland, the third of 10 children, she worked as a housekeeper before joining the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. St. Faustina’s spiritual life and messages from Jesus are contained in the writings her superior told her to keep: Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul.

Oct. 7: Our Lady of the Rosary

The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary also known for centuries as “Our Lady of Victory,” honors a 16th-century naval victory that saved Europe against Turkish invasion despite being vastly outnumbered. Pope St. Pius V credited the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was invoked on the day of the battle through a campaign to pray the Rosary throughout Europe.

Oct. 12: Blessed Carlos Acutis (1991-2006)

Acutis loved the Church and was interested in computers. He taught himself how to build websites in primary school, and he built websites for Catholic organizations. He also designed a website listing miracles from around the world based on a catalog he had been compiling since age 11. 

Acutis died from leukemia at age 15 and was quoted as saying, “I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, the Pope and the Church.”

Oct. 15: St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

St. Teresa was a mystic and a reformer of her Carmelite order. Despite frequent illness, she was a disciplined woman of prayer and compassion. Her writings are still in print today. The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle have impacted untold numbers to deeper spirituality. Teresa helped found 16 monasteries of women and traveled long journeys by donkey to do this.

Oct. 17: St. Ignatius of Antioch 

Tradition tells us that St. Ignatius of Antioch was born around the year 50 and martyred in Rome around the year 108. He was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist. He became bishop of Antioch and is known for his seven letters defending the Church against heresies. He was the first one to attach the term catholic (universal) to the early Christian Church.

Oct. 18: St. Luke

St. Luke is known to be the author of the Gospel of Luke as well as the Acts of the Apostles. He is thought to have been a physician, a disciple of St. Paul, and a martyr.

Oct. 19: St. Isaac Jogues (1607-1646)

Isaac Jogues was born in France and became a Jesuit missionary in Canada. His first six years were spent with the Huron Native Americans before expanding into the Ojibwa tribe in 1641. But warring Iroquois captured him and his companion René Goupil, and a group of Huron converts near Montreal. All were tortured and some were killed. Jogues became a slave for 13 months despite his mutilated hands and loss of some fingers from the torture.

With the help of the Dutch at a nearby fort, he escaped and made it to New Amsterdam, present-day New York City, and eventually back to France, where people had given him up for dead.

Most of us would never look back, but Jogues was eager to return to his missions. The French government sent him back in 1645 to establish peace between the French and the Mohawks. Within the year, when sickness broke out, the Mohawks accused him of practicing witchcraft, and he was killed by a tomahawk to the head. 

Oct. 11: Pope St. John XXIII (1881-1963)

St. John XXIII was the fourth of 14 children in a northern Italy farming community. When World War II began, he helped Jewish people escape Nazis in Germany under the protection of “transit visas” from his office. After World War II, he became pope during the Cold War when the U.S. and Russia began stockpiling weapons.

When Soviet missiles were found in Cuba, he broadcast a message on Vatican Radio to the world: “We beg all rulers not to be deaf to the cry of humanity.” The crisis was averted when Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba in exchange for the U.S. removing its nuclear missiles from Turkey. Pope John wrote spiritual notes that were collected into the book, Journal of a Soul.

His most momentous act was calling of the Second Vatican Council to renew the Church. It became controversial owing to later distortions: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who served the Council as a theologian and was prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, recalled in 1984 that “already during its sessions and then increasingly in the subsequent period” the Council “was opposed by a self-styled ‘spirit of the Council,’ which in reality is a true ‘anti-spirit’ of the Council.”

Oct. 19: Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko (1947-1984)

Jerzy Popiełuszko was born into a poor Polish farming family near the border of the Soviet Union, which is now known as Russia. World War II ended two years earlier and communism began to spread.

He left the seminary for a time for mandatory military service. His unwavering faith often resulted in punishment. In 1980, Father Jerzy joined the anti-communist Solidarity labor union. It was declared illegal, but Father Jerzy often defended freedom and human rights in his homilies. On Oct. 19, 1984, Father Jerzy was kidnapped and killed by government agents. More than 250,000 people participated in his funeral procession.

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Oct. 22: Pope St. John Paul II (1920-2005)

Nazi Germany invaded Karol Wojtyła’s Polish homeland during his youth. He had to study for the priesthood in secret. At the age of 38, he became the youngest bishop in Poland’s history. In 1978, John Paul was elected pope. He developed a close relationship with President Ronald Reagan and together with the Solidarity Movement, they were instrumental in ending Soviet communism in Russia and in Eastern Europe, including his homeland, Poland.

Pope John Paul II traveled more than any pope in history to 129 countries. He ushed in the New Evangelization and instituted World Youth Day at the end of 1985 to energize young people from around the world.

In 1981, he was shot by a Turkish gunman while greeting pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square. He recovered and later visited the gunman in prison, forgiving him for the attempt on his life.

These are just some of the great saints with feasts in October. Here is a listing of more.

National Catholic Register