Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Kevin Wells, Catholic author, via phone on February 11th, 2026. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
Sponsored: This article is made possible by Follow My Camino, supporting quality and engaging Catholic content.
Most people think they know St. Francis of Assisi.
He’s the bird guy. The nature saint. The gentle medieval mystic who probably floated through fields quoting poetry to wildflowers.
The real Francis would smile at that image and then promptly dismantle it by doing something wildly inconvenient, like renouncing his inheritance in public or embracing a leper out of love for Christ.
Francis didn’t become famous because he was soft. He became famous because he was free. Once you understand that, you begin to see why pilgrims still lace up their boots and follow his footsteps across Italy eight centuries later.
St. Francis is one of the most beloved saints in history and also one of the most misunderstood.
He’s often portrayed as sentimental or dreamy, but the historical Francis was intense, disciplined, and radically committed. When Jesus said sell what you have, Francis didn’t treat that as a metaphor. He treated it as instructions. When Christ said take up your cross, Francis didn’t write a reflection about it. He obeyed it.
He once said:
“Sanctify yourself, and you will sanctify society.”
Continue readingThere are saints whose lives feel instantly approachable. Thérèse with her quiet trust, Joseph with his hidden faithfulness, Martha with her anxious hospitality that still looks suspiciously like my kitchen on a Tuesday night. And then there is Saint Paul, the former persecutor of Christians who needed nothing less than a divine flash of light to turn his life around.
At first glance, celebrating a man literally knocked off a horse by Jesus Himself can feel disconnected from our own slow and ordinary spiritual lives. Most of us do not encounter blinding lights or audible voices from heaven. Our conversions usually happen in coffee-stained prayer journals, in hurried acts of contrition, or in the quiet determination to try again after another failure. Yet the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, celebrated each year on January 25, may be the most reassuring feast on the Church’s calendar precisely because Paul did not begin as a saint. He began as a mess, and God loved him anyway.
The Acts of the Apostles introduces Saul of Tarsus not as a seeker or skeptic but as a man actively “breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” He is not wandering toward God with doubts or half-formed prayers. He is charging in the opposite direction, armed with authority and convinced that he is doing holy work by destroying the Church.
Continue readingG.K. Chesterton once wrote, “It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.”
I certainly think that he would have (and hopefully you will) chuckle at the following joke:What do you call Santa when he has no money? Saint ‘Nickel-less’.
Today is Saint Nicholas of Myra’s Feast Day. It’s also the greatest Catholic meme day of the year. 🙂🥊👊
Thinking about Saint Nicholas (aka Santa Claus, yes he is real and I still believe in him. 🎅 🙏 🙂) puts me in a jolly mood and sparks one of the greatest gifts God has given me— my creativity.
Enjoy this Ultimate Saint Nick Meme Collection.
Continue readingEditor’s Note: Article originally published on December 5th, 2022.
G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.” I certainly think that he would have (and hopefully you will) chuckle at the following joke: What do you call Santa when he has no money? Saint ‘Nickel-less’. Get it? Nicholas?
If you enjoy wordplay, you’re welcome! However, if you find such repartee revolting, I apologize and implore you to still read on.
Ironically, Nicholas came from a wealthy family (more about that later). Some believed his family riches provided means for him able to make generous visits through the night delivering anonymous gifts to the less unfortunate in his city.
Below are six common (or maybe not so common!) facts about the Catholic saint later popularized and associated with Santa Claus. Regardless of whether you heard of these facts before or not, they are still epic!
Continue readingEvery year, right as the Thanksgiving dishes are being crammed into leftover containers and Advent candles begin their annual migration to the dining-room table, the Church gives us a quiet but bold voice to start the new liturgical year: Saint Andrew the Apostle.
He doesn’t get the big headlines his brother Simon Peter receives. There’s no “Keys of Andrew.” No massive dome in Rome carrying his name. No moment where Jesus calls him “the Rock.”
But in the Gospels, Andrew has something Peter doesn’t:
He’s first.
The Protocletos (“First-Called”), the one who heard John the Baptist say, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” and responded immediately. The apostle who didn’t wait for perfect circumstances or a theological degree before bringing someone to Jesus. He simply encountered Christ then ran to get his brother.
In other words, Andrew is the patron saint of every ordinary Catholic who has ever whispered, “You’ve got to meet Jesus,” to a friend, a child, a spouse, or a stranger. His whole life models evangelization and discipleship, not the polished programmatic kind but the relational “follow me and bring your brother too” kind.
Andrew’s story begins on the sandy shores of Galilee, where he and Simon Peter worked as fishermen. When he wasn’t mending nets, he was following John the Baptist and searching for the Messiah with a heart that wasn’t content to sit still.
That restlessness is part of why I love Andrew. He is the saint for all of us who are trying to find God while folding laundry or reminding kids that “bedtime” actually means going to bed. Andrew shows us that the desire for God is already a grace, and when God meets that desire, we move.
So when the Baptist pointed out Jesus, Andrew and another disciple (likely John the Evangelist) followed Him. Jesus turned, saw them walking behind Him, and asked the question that echoes into every restless human heart:
“What are you looking for?”
Andrew doesn’t respond with a theological statement. He simply asks, “Where are you staying?”
Translation: Can we be with You?
This is the heart of discipleship: desire → encounter → relationship.
And from that relationship comes Andrew’s defining moment:
“He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah.’ And he brought him to Jesus.” (John 1:41–42)
Andrew is the Church’s first evangelist. Not because he had a platform, but because he had a brother. Evangelization begins at home, around kitchen tables and school desks and daily routines.
If there’s a lesson here, it’s this:
Don’t underestimate what God wants to do through your simple invitation.
The Gospels give us small windows into Andrew’s personality, and together they paint a beautiful picture.
During the feeding of the five thousand, Andrew notices the boy with the five loaves and two fish. He points him out to Jesus with honest realism: “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many?”
Andrew sees the need, sees the limited resources, and sees the gap. Yet he still brings the offering to Jesus. He trusts that Christ can work with little.
Every parent, teacher, catechist, or exhausted Catholic praying the Saint Andrew Novena for the fifteenth time that day knows this feeling. We look at our world and want to say, “Lord, here is what I’ve got. It’s not much.”
Andrew replies: Bring it anyway. Christ multiplies.
Later, when a group of Greeks wants to meet Jesus, they approach Philip, who brings the request to Andrew. Andrew, true to form, brings them to Christ.
Jew or Greek, brother or stranger, child with a lunch basket or adult with big questions, Andrew’s instinct is always the same: Bring people to Jesus.
This is the essence of discipleship. Not complicated strategies, but the consistent habit of placing people in the presence of Christ.
After Pentecost, tradition says Andrew evangelized throughout the Greek-speaking world: Cappadocia, Bithynia, Pontus, Thrace, and finally Achaia. He traveled far from home, preaching Christ to those who had never heard the Gospel.
One early Christian tradition claims he appointed Stachys as the first bishop of Byzantium (later Constantinople), symbolically linking him with the Greek East just as Peter is linked with Rome and the West. This “Apostolic brotherhood” has become an image of ecumenical hope, often invoked by Popes Benedict XVI and Francis when praying for unity between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
Andrew’s martyrdom continues this theme of humble discipleship. Tradition says he was bound, not nailed, to an X-shaped cross to prolong his witness. For two days he preached Christ from the cross. One ancient text records his stunning words:
“Hail, O Cross, adorned with the limbs of Christ.
Before the Lord mounted you, you inspired fear.
Now, filled with heavenly love, I come to you willingly.”
That is the heart of a disciple.
Someone who sees the Cross not as an end, but as a doorway into the love of God.
Saint Andrew’s feast opens the door into Advent, a season that invites us to seek, invite, and prepare a place for Christ in our daily lives.
Last year, I introduced the Saint Andrew Christmas Novena to my family. We taped little printouts around the house to remind ourselves to pray. This year, I’m bringing it into my classroom too. It feels fitting. Andrew reminds us that discipleship thrives in simple, daily invitations.
The Church even has a modern practice inspired by his example: Project Andrew, where young men gather with priests to talk about vocation through relationship and conversation, not pressure. It mirrors Andrew’s original instinct to say, “Come and see.”
Your “brother” might be an actual sibling, a child, a spouse, a coworker, or a neighbor. It might be the person who always seems alone at Mass. Whoever it is, Andrew teaches us that evangelization is usually personal, simple, and rooted in love.
He was the first to follow Christ.
But more importantly, he was the first to bring someone with him.
May we do the same.
Saint Andrew, First-Called Apostle and faithful evangelizer, pray for us.
Born in 1920 Karol Wojtyla, who became John Paul II, grew up during one of the most tumultuous eras in Polish history—Nazi occupation and later during the reign of Communism. Before he turned 22, Karol lost all of his immediate family members (his mother passed away during childbirth, his sister died before Karol was born, and his brother and father stated reason/manner). As if losing a family was not enough suffering to last a few lifetimes for anyone, in the beginning of his pontificate, John Paul was shot in a failed assassination.
The leader of the Catholic Church united himself so much to the suffering of Christ on the Cross. According to Jason Evert author of Saint John Paul the Great: His Five Loves, “When someone mentioned the impending suffering that would be required by one of his surgeries, [the pope] replied, ‘The Church needs suffering.’”
The Polish pope’s famous motto was Totus Tuus. This Latin phrase translates as “Totally Yours” and was a reference to Mary’s total obedience to the Father’s will.
Among the defining events of the sainted pontiff’s life, the assassination attempt on May 13th, 1981 certainly had to be a monumental turning point. Already possessing a strong piety to the Blessed Virgin, this only increased after the bullet missed hitting vital organs by mere millimeters. He quipped, “It was a mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s path.” Totally trusting in the mediation of Mary in his life, John Paul II provides a good example for other Catholics to rely on the Mother of God to be a good protector and guide towards Christ.
Jason Evert in his biography talks of the pope’s admiration to Mary in this way, “In True Devotion to Mary, St. Louis de Montfort wrote, ‘the most faithful servants of the Blessed Virgin, being her greatest favorites, receive from her the best graces and favors from heaven, which are crosses.’ If suffering is a sign of predilection, then John Paul II must have been one of our Lady’s favorites!” Of the importance of the rosary John Paul II declared, “[The rosary is] our daily meeting which neither I nor the Blessed Virgin Mary neglect.”
Recently, my family started praying a decade of the Rosary each night before putting the kids to bed. My outlook on life and graces for patience have never been higher. I am thankful for John Paul the Great’s great witness to Marian devotion!
Thousands of young people cheer Pope John Paul II during the 1992 World Youth Day in Czestochowa, Poland.
John Paul II instituted World Youth Day, a worldwide gathering of Catholic youth every four years. He saw the importance of youth, especially teens as being the future of the Church. The excitement that revolves around this event continues even in the years after his death. The Polish pope traveled extensively across the globe administering to all God’s people and showing the love of Christ. His long tenure afforded the opportunities for a generation to grow up under his papacy and enjoy stability of leadership for the Catholic Church.
Although John Paul II lived a remarkable life and endured his sufferings of Parkinson’s disease to the end, the most impressive feat of his papacy (and priesthood) was his daily reception of the Sacrament of Confession. He declared,
“It would be an illusion to seek after holiness, according to the vocation one has received from God, without partaking frequently of this sacrament of conversion and reconciliation. Those who go to Confession frequently, and do so with the desire to make progress, will notice the strides that they make in their spiritual lives.”
I feel out of whack spiritually when I fail to go to the proverbial “Medicine Box” for over a month. His near mastery of virtue—through the aid offered by the Holy Spirit in the confessional—is evident by his encounter with all he met and his quick canonization less than half a decade after his death.
Along with John Paul II’s ability to forgive others, such as the man who attempted to murder him, the Polish pope safeguarded and articulated the Catholic Church’s teaching boldly and clearly. Intrepidly standing up to the evils of Communism, the sainted pope never watered down truth for the sake of diplomacy.
St. John Paul II stated, “Remember that you are never alone, Christ is with you on your journey every day of your lives!” Truly God gifted the world with the holiness of Karol Wojtyla. St. Thérèse of Lisieux wrote, “You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all.” Following in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II will not be an easy feat, but it is a surefire and joyful path toward closer union with God.
Thank you Lord for the life of this wonderful saint, John Paul II!
St. John Paul II & the Eucharist
Here’s why John Paul II said “Do not be afraid”
Analysis of JPII’s The Splendor of Truth
On Polish Horseshoes, Karol Wojtyla, Accordions, and Other Possibly Polish Things