Z for St. Zita

Last week, we (finally!!!) finished our Saint Alphabet, which has been years in the making.  As we've moved from letter to letter, and Saint to Saint, we have learned the stories (a short and simple version usually) about them and grown to love and cherish them as dear friends.  Some of them we knew a bit about before, some of them we'd never even heard of until I looked them up.  

And here we are at letter Z--learning about St. Zita.  Here are a few fun facts:

• Zita was born into a poor, but holy family
• As an early teen, she was sent to a housekeeper in the home of a wealthy family in Lucca
• She was a hardworking woman, but still found time to make it to daily Mass and to pray often
• She gave generously to others and won over other jealous servants and her employers with her simplicity and humble holiness.  
• Her feast day is April 27
• She is the patron of homemakers, domestic workers, and servers

The girls and I read about her in my Book of Saints for Catholic Moms (by Lisa Hendey) and my favorite line from Lisa's book about St. Zita is this one: 

"For her, work and prayer were interchangeable, and a constant rhythm of devotions accompanied her day."

 

St. Zita, pray for us!

Y for St. Joseph Yuen

Little is known about St. Joseph Yuen.  He was canonized by Pope John Paul II, as one of the Martyr Saints of China, many of whom were killed in the Boxer Rebellion.  It is said that he heard the preaching of a bishop and was overcome by the beauty of the Christian faith.  He became a Chinese diocesan priest and was later killed for sharing his faith throughout China.  

What a brave and loving soul he must have been.  

St. Joseph Yuen, pray for us!

 

X for St. Francis Xavier

Moving on (slowly as usual) with our Alphabet of Saints....

A few fun facts about

St. Francis Xavier:

* He studied in Paris (le sigh!) and was one of 7 to help found The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in 1534. 

* His feast day is December 3

* He traveled to the far east as one of the first Jesuit Missionaries, so it makes sense that he became...

*the Patron Saint of foreign missions. 

* He is said to have preached, introduced and/or restored Christianity to parts of the Phillipines, Japan, and India. 

* In India, we would walk through the streets ringing a little bell to invite the children to hear the Word of God.

   

St. Francis Xavier, 

pray for us!

W for St. Winifred of Wales

I almost chose St. Wenceslaus for letter W, but saw Winifred on the list, and couldn't resist.  My husband's great aunt is a Winifred (we call her Aunt Winnie), and she is a ball of fun energy.

picture found at saintsbridge.wordpress.com

Legend says that St. Winifred was the sister of St. Beuno, and was beheaded when she refused to submit to the advances of Caradog.  Beuno prayed and miraculously restored her to life.  She lived the rest of her life as a nun. Stories say that a spring welled up at the spot where Winifred's head fell, called The Holy Well or St. Winifred's Well.  Other accounts say it was her tears that gave rise to the well. It has been a site of pilgrimage and miraculous healings over the years.  Her feast day is November 3. She is the patron saint of virgins.

My daughter made Winifred's house and the well is that orange oval with water on the right hand side of the picture.  Pretty cute.  

St. Winifred, pray for us!

V for St. Veronica

Little is known about St. Veronica, but she is said to be the woman who wiped the face of Jesus when he was carrying his cross to Calvary (and his image is said to have appeared on the cloth she used).  Her feast day is celebrated on July 12 and her act of love is remembered as one of the Stations of the Cross (click on the link to pray Mother Angelica's version).  

We aren't anywhere near Lent at the moment, but as we near the season of Advent, it's still a great time to reflect on this great act of charity and Christ's sacrifice for us.  As we prepare our hearts to receive him at Christmas, we can remember that he calls us daily to serve the needy, the sick, the lonely, the lost because when "we do it for these least brothers..we do it for" Him.  

U for St. Ursula

There's not much information about St. Ursula and even most of that is legend, but here are some basics of her story that my little girls found to be very intriguing.

• St. Ursula was a princess, the daughter of a Christian king. 
• She is not to be confused with "Mean Ursula" from The Little Mermaid.  My 5 year old has been telling my 3 year old all week, "No, St. Ursula is nice.  She's a saint.  She's not like 'Mean Ursula'.  She is nice to people."
• Her feast day is in a few days on October 21
• She was allowed to go on a European pilgrimage of sorts (she even allegedly asked the Pope to join them) for a year before she was to be married off. 
• On the way home, she and her companions were killed after she refused to marry a pagan chieftain and refused to renounce her faith. 
• She is the namesake for the Ursuline Order, founded to educate Catholic girls and women. 

So not too much known information, but we have a lovely princess saint for our letter U in the Saint alphabet.  

 

The girls loved decorating a castle and crown for this princess saint.  

You can find some additional information and a prayer here

T for St. Therese of Lisieux

We decided to try out homeschooling for our 5 year old, Kayla this year.  I've been working with her and our 3 year old on their alphabet, among other things, for several years now, but with Kayla starting Kindergarten, we have made our homeschooling just a tad more formal.  Each morning we have a nice little routine going and it is neither too loose or too rigid for us, so it works out nicely in our home.  I want to do Saint studies that last about two weeks and give us a chance to really learn about some of the saints with a bit more depth.  We have been working on a Saint alphabet for a long while now, which is a great way to introduce some great Saints when the kids are young, but now that Kayla is in Kindergarten and Elise is preschool age, we are going to combine the two projects and have even more fun.

We are reading a few chapters a day in a simple chapter book about St. Therese (part of the Encounter the Saints series).  Reading a couple chapters a day should put us finishing the book in two weeks.  Additionally we work review of her story and facts about her life into other aspects of her curriculum like reading and math, and so far our first Saint study is a lot of fun.  Today we completed the St. Therese for our Saint alphabet and added her to our wall.  I make all the Saints, so the project is not so much for the kids to do, but experience more long-term.  We hang the Saints in our entry way, and learn fun facts about the Saints and use them to review our alphabet plus it's a nice reminder of our own goal towards holiness.  Here's Saint Therese and a few fun facts....

the beginnings of putting St. Therese together....

               

And the finished product. 

Fun Facts:

• Therese had 4 older sisters (Marie, Pauline, Leonie, and Celine) 
• Therese became a Carmelite at the age of 15. 
• She was very humble and viewed herself as merely a little wildflower in God's garden, but knew that her role, though small and unnoticed, would bring glory to God just as much as the roses and lilies of the church if she loved God to the best of her ability.
• She loved nature and used it often to explain God's presence.  
• She became very ill, but remained cheerful despite her discomfort.  
• She died at the age of 24 and later became a Doctor of the Church.  
• She practiced a simplicity of life and love of God that she called "The Little Way"

Her feast day is October 1 and she is the patron Saint of missions, florists, and aviators. 

S for St. Sebastian

Moving on to letter "S" with St. Sebastian.  And of course,  a few interesting facts about our brave Saint...

painting by Peter Paul Rubens
found on Wikiart.org

• He was a soldier in the Roman army. 
• He converted many by his encouragement, curing of disease and perseverance in faith. 
• When it was discovered that he was a Christian, he was sentenced to death.
• He was shot full of arrows and left to die, but a kind woman nursed him back to health.  
• Not to be deterred for long, Sebastian called the Emperor out for his cruelty to Christians, and was put to death.  
• He is the patron Saint of athletes (because of his physical endurance and the energy with which he spread the faith) and soldiers (he joined the army to protect Christians without drawing attention to himself).  
• His feast day is January 20

 

Saint Sebastian, pray for us!

R for St. ROSE of Lima

We have finally made it to letter R (actually like 2 weeks ago, but I'm dreadfully behind on getting our "R" projects up.  We celebrated Elise's 3rd birthday, and the hubby and I went on a big hike, and I'm currently in the middle of scoring high school exit exams...BUSY (but nonetheless blessed!).

St. Rose is, of course, very near and dear to my heart because she is my patron Saint.  I was named after my great-grandmother, Rose, but my mom also made sure to educate me on the wonderful Saint whose name my great-grandma and I share.  Rose of Lima.  I have read several books over the years about her life and it never grows old to me.  She was a woman filled with humility and great love for our Lord.

A brief summary of St. Rose:

St. Rose's birth name was Isabel.  Rose was a nickname given to her because of her great beauty.   She lived almost as a hermit in a hut in her parent's garden, devoting her life to helping her family, prayer, and penance.  At her confirmation she took the name Rose, and eventually took the habit of the third order of St. Dominic.  She did even more extreme penance and cared for the homeless, elderly, and sick.

I believe we can safely say that a this quote of Fulton Sheen's sums up St. Rose's life. 

 St. Rose is the first canonized Saint of the New World.    Her feast day is August 23 and she is the patroness of Latin America and the Philippines.

God our Father, for love of you, Saint Rose gave up everything to devote herself to a life of penance.  By the help of her prayers, may we imitate her selfless way of life on earth and enjoy the fullness of your blessings in heaven.  Grant this through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen. 

A quote I have shared many times before, but it is a great one especially as we approach Good Friday. 

   

Q is for St. Quirinus of Siscia

As you might imagine, there aren't a whole lot of Saints whose names begin with letter Q.  And of the Saints that I found, there isn't much information known about them.  So, this will be a short blog post.

To make a short story shorter, St. Quirinus was a bishop of Siscia, Croatia and  was martyred.  In a very sinister way.  He had a millstone tied around his neck and he was thrown into the river.  His feast day is June 4.  Needless to say, the girls got the REALLY short version.  He was a bishop and he was killed for believing in Jesus.  

 

 

P is for St. Pio

We found a Saint for letter P who is absolutely fascinating and his name is an alliteration of "P"s!  St. Pio of Pietrelcina, best known as Padre Pio.  The girls got a kick out of all the "P" sounds and had fun trying to say Pietrelcina (Pee-ate-tral-chee-na).  It mostly sounded something like "pet-trel-pina".  :)

taylormarshall.com

There is so much to say about St. Pio, but here are a few bits of information we focused on:

• Feast day: September 23
• He was named Francesco at birth in honor of St. Francis of Assisi
• He became a Capuchin novice at age 16 and was ordained a priest several years later. 
• He received visible signs of the Crucifixion (called the stigmata) which disappeared when he died leaving no scars whatsoever. 
• He had the ability to read hearts and was a great confessor. He offered great wisdom and counsel and gave great encouragement to sinners who came to him. 
• He would often say, "I am a poor Franciscan who prays".  And pray he did; with great zeal. 
• He was physically and spiritually tormented.  His body endured much suffering and the devil tormented him extensively.  Padre Pio felt that suffering, if accepted with love, was a means to unite himself more closely to Christ who suffered for the whole world. 

 

pinterest source

O is for St. Omer

I looked over the list of Saints whose names begin with letter "O" on the "Catholic Online" website, but found none whose stories or names I was really familiar with.  What did catch my eye was the name OMER on the list.  This is a family name on my husband's side: His grandfather (they called him Pépé) was named Omer.  Apparently a family tradition of each of the first born son's using their middle name for their own first born son started here, so this is also my hubby's dad's middle name.  I had no idea he was also a French Saint!  There wasn't a lot of information about St. Omer, but what they had was fun to read especially given our French heritage on that side of the family and the name Omer among our relatives.  

Here are the basics:

• St. Omer was a bishop and miracle worker. 
•  He was also known as St. Audomar (though better known as Omer). 
•  A town in northern France Saint-Omer was named after him. 
• He founded the Abbey of St. Peter (now St. Bertin's).  
• He loved study of the Scriptures (hence why he is depicted holding a Bible).  
• His feast day is September 9.  

Start with your person, add a white cassock,
then a green vestment over top...

Add a bishop's hat and your red vestment over
the top...it's all about layering.

And because St. Omer loved Scripture, we practiced some of our memory verses today.  Here is one we are working on.  Kayla has it halfway memorized already.  

"Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God for everything!"

- Ephesians 5:19-20

All Saints Day - Alphabet BINGO

Today is the Feast of All Saints.  Nowadays people celebrate the day before All Saints (All Hallow's Eve of Halloween) as if it's more important than All SAINTS Day, but that would be like celebrating Christmas Eve with tons of fun and glitz and forgetting CHRISTMAS DAY.  So, don't miss out on celebrating on this wonderful Church feast day!

We have very young children around here, so our celebration will geared in that direction.  My mother in law sent this book, An Alphabet of Catholic SAINTS by Brenda and George Nippert, and it will be used over and over again today especially.

One game we plan to play together today I thought I'd share with all of you is an All Saints Day Alphabet BINGO.  I got the idea from my mother in law.  She has an actual Saints Bingo set that she purchased somewhere, but I don't have one, so (OF COURSE) it's time to make my own.  In the future, I plan to make more long-term, durable cards and include more Saints as the kids grow, but this BINGO version is perfect for kids 2-5.  

1. Start with a blank BINGO sheet (this is the same template we used for my sister's baby shower).  One can easily make their own by inserting a table into a Microsoft Word Document.  :)

2. Next add letters and a coordinating Saint.  (I used the book for this, though you could easily use the internet of course as well).  Here's the quick list of Saints from the book:

A-Anne         B-Bernadette        C-Cecilia         D-Dominic      E-Elizabeth Ann Seton

F-Francis      G-George           H-Helen          I-Ignatius          J-Joseph

K-Kateri Tekakwitha      L-Lucy      M-Martin de Porres       N-Nicholas     O-Odilia

P-Patrick      Q-Mary, Queen of Saints        R-Rose        S-Sharbel       T-Therese

U-Ursula       V-Vincent de Paul      W-Wenceslas    X-Francis Xavier   

Y-Joseph Yuen    Z-Zita

I only had to make two cards (I made three and figured I'd do one for Ava myself or let the hubby)

3. Make coordinating letter call-out cards. 

4. To play: Mix up the call-out cards and pick them one at a time.  Call out the letter and say the Saint's name who goes with that letter.  My 4 year old will be able to mark her card just by hearing the letter, but I'll put the call-out card in front of my 2  1/2 year old to allow her to try to match the letter to one she sees on her card.  While they look and mark their cards, read the coordinating page from the Saint alphabet book so the kiddos can learn about the Saints more while they play. 

5. Prizes.  You can go pick up holy cards for cheap and let the kids choose a holy card each time they get a BINGO, or you can use Halloween candy for prizes and have one holy card/religious prize for a blackout.  Get creative and have fun learning about the Saints and the alphabet.  

Other All Saints Day ideas!  

1. Dress up as a Saint.  This year we had St. Cecilia, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, and St. Agnes. 

          

2. Goody bags- One thing I tell the small ones to give a reason why Halloween is all about candy, candy, candy is that Hallowed means Holy.  Halloween and All Saints Day are supposed to celebrate holy people (the Saints).  Holy people act like Christ and are "sweet", so we get sweet treats to remind us to be holy and sweet to others.  I meant to get holy cards for the Saints they chose to dress up as to put in their goody bag, but the Catholic bookstore in this area is a bit of a drive and I just didn't get to it in time.  Next year.  

3. Say some special Saint prayers.  Perhaps look up prayers related to the Saints the kids chose to dress up as or find a Litany of the Saints or make up your own!

4. Make sure you get to Mass!  It's a Holy Day of Obligation!

5. Get TONS more fun resources here at Catholicicing.com

Happy Feast of All Saints!