Saints

Why Saint Pius X is the Eclipser of Errors

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Editor’s Note: Post originally published on August 23, 2017.

Pius X was an influential successor of St. Peter at the turn of the 20th century. Born Giuseppe Mechiorre Sarto in 1835, he lived near Venice, Italy. Coming from a poor family of ten children, Giuseppe acquired an education aided through his keen intellect and high moral character. Eventually, he rose the ranks of the Catholic Church and became supreme pontiff in 1903. He led the Church until 1914.

Pope Pius X

To be honest, my initial knowledge about Pius X was overshadowed by his predecessor and later successor bearing the same appellation—Pius IX and Pius XII. However, the more I read and learned about the sainted bishop the more I gained an appreciation for what he offered the Church.

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What St. Kateri Tekakwitha Taught Me About Risking Everything for Christ

/ chicoinematt

Every year, there are a few saints who surprise me.

Not because I had never heard of them before, but because I finally slowed down enough to really learn their story.

That happened to me this past school year while teaching history to my third-grade class. We were studying the 1600s and the discovery of the New World, and part of that journey included learning about St. Kateri Tekakwitha. I had known she was the first Indigenous North American saint, but reading her story alongside my students gave me a much deeper appreciation for her remarkable witness.

Sometimes teaching is one of the best ways to learn.

Known as the “Lily of the Mohawks,” St. Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in present-day Upstate New York. She was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and an Algonquin Catholic mother. At just four years old, a smallpox epidemic claimed the lives of her parents and younger brother. Though Kateri survived, the disease left her scarred, partially blind, and orphaned.

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5 Stunning Facts about Saint Catherine of Siena

/ chicoinematt

Sponsored: This article is made possible by Letters From Heaven — Saint Letters for Catholic Kids supporting quality and engaging Catholic content.

Saint Catherine of Siena was one of the greatest followers of Christ. Her ability to articulate the Gospel and her courage to call even the papacy to reform are among the key reasons she is one of my favorite saints. My youngest daughter is even named after this amazing saint, which means her story shows up often in our home in very real and tangible ways.

Read on to learn five amazing facts about Catherine:

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Saints Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea: Witnesses to Spiritual Renewal and the Dignity of Life

/ chicoinematt

The encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, as recounted in the Gospel of John, offers a glimpse into the transformative power of spiritual rebirth through baptism. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, seeks wisdom under the cover of night. This darkness can be seen as symbolic of his initial lack of understanding or hesitation to fully embrace the truth of Jesus’ message. Yet, by approaching Jesus, Nicodemus takes the first step out of this spiritual darkness.

Their conversation centers around the concept of baptism—a second birth that ushers believers into the realm of the spirit. Through baptism, individuals shed their old selves, emerging as adopted children of God, free from the constraints of original sin. Nicodemus’s willingness to engage in dialogue, despite his initial reservations, demonstrates his openness to spiritual growth. He becomes a beacon of hope for all who seek understanding and a deeper connection with divine truth.

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Lent: Walking the Desert, Climbing Carmel

/ chicoinematt

Lent is often described as a journey, but most of us imagine the wrong kind of trip.

We picture something orderly and purposeful, like a planned pilgrimage with clear stops and visible progress. In reality, Lent tends to feel less like a guided retreat and more like wandering through harsh terrain. The Church gives us images of deserts and mountains for a reason. Both places are beautiful, but neither is comfortable, and neither can be rushed.

Lately I have been thinking about how perfectly those two landscapes fit together. In a funny way, Antarctica might be one of the best physical analogies for Lent. It contains vast deserts, towering mountains, and long stretches of silence and darkness. It is stark, even unsettling, yet strangely magnificent. You do not go there to be entertained. You go there to be changed.

That is what Lent is meant to do to us.

The Desert Simplifies What We Complicate

Every year I begin Lent with some sort of plan. I imagine what my prayer life will look like, which devotions I will take up, and how disciplined I will be about fasting. Somewhere in the back of my mind there is always the hope that this will be the year I finally “do Lent right.”

Then the desert shows up.

The prayer feels dry. The sacrifices feel small. The daily routine crowds in, and whatever elaborate spiritual blueprint I had imagined starts to crumble. Instead of feeling like a spiritual athlete, I usually feel like someone who packed too much for a hike and now has to carry it through sand.

Part of this comes from how complicated the Catholic world around Lent can feel. There are challenges, book lists, podcasts, and endless suggestions for how to maximize the season. None of those things are bad, but if you are wired like me, it can quickly feel overwhelming. My ADHD brain does not need twenty possible Lenten programs. It needs a path that is clear and walkable.

The Church, in her wisdom, already gave us one.

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Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Theologian Who Taught the Church How to Pray

/ chicoinematt

By: Austin Habash

When most Catholics hear the name Saint Thomas Aquinas, they think immediately of dense theology, philosophical arguments, and the towering Summa Theologiae. He is often presented as the Church’s greatest intellect, the man who organized doctrine with unmatched clarity.

But this common picture is incomplete.

Aquinas was not only a master of theology. He was also a master of prayer. Some of the most beautiful liturgical and devotional texts in the Church’s life flow directly from his pen. To recover Aquinas as a spiritual guide, not only as a theological authority, is to rediscover a deeply underappreciated dimension of Catholic tradition.

This rediscovery has also affected my own spiritual life. Studying Aquinas daily for Summa in a Year began as an intellectual project. Over time, I found myself drawn not only to his arguments but to his spirit. He was a man who thought precisely because he prayed profoundly.

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The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul Explained

/ chicoinematt

There 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.

Grace Doesn’t Ask Permission

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.

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