This Week in Saints

This week our patron saint was St. Swithin.  As much as I love the rain (we don't get many rainy days around here), our old roof is leaking like a sieve.  Just when I thought I knew where all the leaks were, at least three new ones appeared.  Over the front door, over the kitchen sink and then, it took me a minute to put it together why Sister Mary Fiacre's lunch had water spilled on it.  It wasn't until I got a paper towel to wipe it up that I noticed the water was kind of brown and realized she was parked under a new leak.  At least all the leaks are in the kitchen. The front door is actually in the kitchen.  Odd but true.  


Looks like a lot of people are looking for their patron saints of the week:
Hello Sr. Mary Martha, I've just found out that a teenager in our family circle (thankfully not at my house) has a problem with porn. Is there a saint/novena you can recommend for us to pray? I'm praying the rosary for him but would like to know if there's a special saint I can recommend.


Indeedy.  There are quite a number of saints for the virtue of purity, from the virgin martyrs like St. Agnes, St. Cecilia and St. Wilgefortis, to saints who were known for their pious pureness, such as St. Aloysius and St. Dominic Savio.


But for this sad problem, I'm going to recommend St. Maria Goretti.  For one thing, she is the patron saint of teenagers.  And for another, her death was a direct result of the problem your teenager is facing. Her murderer had a thing for a certain type of magazine.  So sad and sordid.  She is officially the patron saint against pornography.


I like to focus on the outcome of this terrible event. Maria Goretti was able to show us all a thing or two by forgiving her killer with her final breaths.  And her killer was able to repent. He stood side by side with Maria's mother at Maria's canonization ceremony.  That's pretty momentous. A lesson for us all.

Hello Sister Mary Martha,
First, thank you for your blog! Second, can you recommend a patron saint for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or just extreme, debilitating fatigue.
Thank you!!
Honestly, the saint who springs to mind is St. Rosalia, who just wanted to go hide in a cave and be hermit away from everyone. I often think of her myself when I'm very tired, especially when I'm weary from dealing with a lot of "face" time.  


But I'm sure she didn't just go lie down. She no doubt spent all her time praying and kneeling on dried peas.


So maybe you want to go with St. Catherine of Sienna, who pretty much didn't sleep at all, except for a few minutes here and there. She must have been exhausted.

Here's a fun one for patron saint matching, Sister! I'm reading about all these patron saints and haven't found one who really "clicks" with me. Is there a patron saint for the overly picky?


Ha! Yes!  St. Teresa of Avila is my pick for the patron saint for perfectionists who are not perfect. She drove herself crazy (figuratively) nitpicking her own short comings, which included things like a love of romance novels and perfume and nice shoes.  I suppose if she were alive today she would be the type of person who loves reality TV shows that feature groups of women from various parts of the country behaving badly.  


By that I mean to say that St. Teresa was a very typical pretty young lady who managed to unburden herself from the yoke of the mundane. And then some.  There are only three women who attained the title "Doctor of the Church" and St. Teresa is one of them.


Pop Quiz!  Who are the other two? (Hint, one is right under your nose.)