Saint Stories

How valuable is a single soul? The story of St. Ansgar (or Anskar), apostle to Sweden and the Vikings, points us to eternity. And baptism.

How do you listen to God? Part of the answer for Catholics has always been to use our reason. Today we celebrate a great academic saint: St. Thomas Aquinas.

The guide pointed to the wooden floor of the church. “You see the holes? Fr. Damien carved them out so the congregation didn’t worry about profaning...

Augustus Tolton could be the first African American saint. He was a former slave who found comfort in a Church that had canonized slaves and Africans. Unfortunately, he also found racism.

People complain that we are too quick to put our heroes “on a pedestal.” Normally this phrase isn’t literal. For the Syrian saint Simeon Stylites, it...

I feel guilty if my bird feeder runs empty in the winter. I suppose it’s silly. After all, birds have survived thousands of winters without people...

A young boy proudly announced to his mother that he had received a speaking part in the church Nativity play. “Good job!” his mother said. “What...

If you’ve every seen a woman holding her eyes on a plate, you’ve probably met St. Lucy. If that image is a little too macabre for...

St. Nicholas—the real Santa Claus—would not have been happy to be called a “right jolly old elf.” Other parts of Clement Moore’s “‘Twas the Night Before...

“Mr. Shuler, this is weird.” One of my first teaching assignments was leading a discussion section at the University of Notre Dame. The professor had assigned...