Friday, October 18, 2013

The Universal Call to Holiness



Hey Catholics,

I could use some help on a project. I'm doing a piece on what I call the Do-it-Yourselfers," saints who became very holy and/or mystics without entering holy orders or belonging to a religious order. Lay people who focused their lives totally on God and achieved great heights of holiness.

In Rome we see a lot of people who have, for whatever reason, been unable or unwilling to join the religious orders of the Church in their current form. They sometimes go so far as to make themselves a habit, and spend a lot of time in Rome's 900 churches, praying and making reparation. Some of them are probably at least a little nuts, and in other, less tolerant nations would likely be locked away or regarded as "homeless" and shunned. Here, they are are at least partly revered and are treated with a certain amount of deference.

Italians and other Catholics remember people like St. Benedict Labre, and Gemma Galgani, Anna Maria Taigi and Margaret of Castello.

It's these kinds of saints and blesseds I'd like to do a piece on, particularly the ones who most people might not have heard of, to encourage people in our... errm... difficult times.

The criteria are simply great holiness and the lay state. Members of secular/third orders, oblates and whatnot too.

Anyone got a favourite lay saint? Suggestions in the commbox pls.

St. Catherine of Sienna
St. Rose of Viterbo
Bl. Margaret of Castello
Bl. Mrs. Anna Maria Taigi
St. Benedict Joseph Labre
Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati
Bl. Ivan Merz
Bl. Frédéric Ozanam
St. Maria Goretti
St. Thomas More
St. Giuseppe Moscati
~

20 comments:

Lynne said...

St. Genevieve

Anonymous said...

How about some rather exceptional women?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Sch%C3%A4ffer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Katharina_Emmerich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Notburga

Well, and one man:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_of_Treviso

Zwetschgenkrampus

Anonymous said...

Elisabeth Leseur, although she is still in the Servant of God category.

I envy those people who can spend their time praying in Rome's beautiful churches.

Lydia

Felix said...

and there's the parents of St Therese of Liseux. Both wanted to join orders but married instead; they're on the track to canonisation.

Felix said...

Oh, and there's Matt Talbot, the holy ex-alcoholic of Dublin.

Anonymous said...

St Xenia, if you're not picky about schism - Karen

Mark said...

- St. Zita, servant girl.

- St. Isidore the Laborer (life long layman, canonized along with St. Teresa of Avila and St. Ignatius. His wife is also a saint, St. Maria)

- St. Germaine Cousin (abused by her mother)

- St. Catherine of Genoa

Anonymous said...

Dorothy Day is a blessed. She started out communist, converted and was devoted to the traditional mass.

Vickie

Laura said...

I love the forty martyrs of England and Wales. There are several lay saints among them:

St. Margaret Clithrow
St. Richard Gwyn
St. Anne Line
St. Philip Howard
St. John Rigby
St. Nicholas Owen
St. Margaret Ward
St. Swithun Wells

Seraphic said...

St. Monica. St. Margaret of Scotland, who was a queen. Other queens & empresses, too: St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Hedwig/Jadwiga of Poland, St. Helen (mother of Constantine). There were the women who hung out with St. Jerome--I think one was called Paula. And among the men there was St. Edward the Confessor, King of England.

--Dorothy

John said...

You might take a look at St Richard Gwyn. He was one of Michael Davies' favourites as he was also married, Welsh, and a school-master. He was one of the English and Welsh martyrs. He had a witty tongue in his head and didn't suffer fools gladly. (And his last name "Gwyn" translates as "White" in English. Hmmm.)

Cheers,

-John-

bernadette said...

Gianna Beretta Molla. A pro=life saint.

Clive said...

St Joan of Arc!

Anonymous said...

St. Frances of Rome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_of_Rome) - Noblewoman, wife, mother, widow, Benedictine Oblate & foundress

Jennifer

bradmaddox said...

St. Margaret Clithrow

bradmaddox said...

St. Richard Gwyn

bradmaddox said...

St. Anne Line

bradmaddox said...

St. Philip Howard

bradmaddox said...

St. John Rigby

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