Thousands of Catholic Saints – How Do You Choose?
One piece of advice I’ve given in previous articles about having a solid saintly devotion is to choose specific saints to build a relationship with rather than holding a general devotion to all of them. When I suggest this, some people get immediately overwhelmed. There are so many to choose from! How can you choose just a few to build a relationship with? Are you struggling with choosing which saints to partner with out of the thousands to choose from?
This article will offer you some solutions. Typically this problem presents itself in 3 stages. Let’s take a closer look at each stage and how to solve it.
Stage #1: Widening the Field
The first challenge is that we don’t really know many Catholic saints, especially compared to the number of saints out there. So while we may be concerned with choosing a few saints from the many available in the Church Triumphant, we actually have to first learn about more of them! Most of us know the more popular saints. We’ve heard children’s stories. We’ve heard some “saint of the day” spots on Catholic radio (that we probably only half-listened to). But as soon as we crack open an investigation into the saints, we quickly realize that there are many more saints than we don’t know and that our knowledge of those we think we know is pretty shallow. You may be rightfully concerned that your ignorance may cause you to miss out on building a relationship with saints who might be the best fit for you.
Widen your field of knowledge by starting your investigation with short encyclopedic biographies. Read as many short biographies as you can and keep notes on saints that catch your attention or (better yet) that you find connection with.
You can find short biographies on the internet. However, there are a few really good books I would also recommend.
- OSV Encyclopedia of the Saints
- Modern Saints Volume 1
- Modern Saints Volume 2
Stage #2: Finding Catholic saints you connect with
Once you’ve widened the field, it’s time to narrow it again. But now you have a better selection and are equipped with more knowledge. The challenge at this stage is finding saints that you have something in common with. You want to choose your partners from the Church Triumphant based on more than how you feel about them. Your feelings can be affected by popular opinion and childish assumptions. Instead, you want to choose saints based on how well a saint connects to your life. These connections will give you a pathway to an intimate connection with each saint. But how do you find these points of connection? It seems like a daunting task.
There is some work involved here. I’m not going to lie to you. Finding things that you have in common with a saint is going to require that you research saints more deeply. Chances are also good that you are going to find yourself adding to your list of saints.
Fortunately, the Church has given us a great shortcut to finding connections with the Catholic saints. This is why the Church gives us patron saints. Even though the practice can sometimes seem silly (and it’s OK to find humor in some of the reasons a saint is made patron of something), Make a list of things that are important to you. Then see if you can find a patron saint for each of these things.
Again, Google may be your best friend here. But especially if you’re struggling to think of ideas I highly recommend the book This Saint Will Change Your Life.
Stage #3: Intimate Connection
Hopefully, you now have a list of Catholic saints that you have something in common with. The challenge now is to create an intimate connection with each saint. This may be your greatest challenge yet. But the effort at this stage is actually a great spiritual exercise in itself.
You’re going to want to find some full-length biographies for the saints you’ve selected. Read those biographies slowly and prayerfully. You may even want to treat this reading as spiritual reading. As you read, take notes on things that the saint has in common with you. Pay attention to their spiritual struggles, their weaknesses, and the graces God gave them to overcome. Also, pay attention to how the saint chose to love and serve God and to love and serve others in God’s name.
Take these notes to prayer and you’ll find that your prayer to the saints becomes more and more intimate. Don’t worry that this step takes a lot of time. Intimacy and friendship are always a process. They always take time. Give your brothers and sisters the time necessary to really get to know them and you’ll forge a relationship for all eternity.