The saints are our friends and intercessors in heaven, and the angels are God's messengers and our guardians. This catalog lists every saint, angel, and Marian title that appears in the prayers on Daily Catholic Prayers, in alphabetical order, with the feast day kept by the Church. Each profile gives a short biography, the saint's traditional patronages, and links to every related prayer on the site. Feast days follow the current General Roman Calendar where a saint appears o

Feast day: August 20 (Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church) Patron of: Beekeepers and the Cistercian Order. About St. Bernard of Clairvaux St. Bernard was born in 1090 into a noble family in Burgundy, France. At about twenty-two he entered the struggling monastery of Cîteaux, the first house of the strict reformed Benedictines later called Cistercians, and he brought about thirty relatives and friends with him, including several of his brothers. In 1115 he

Feast day: August 7 (optional memorial) Patron of: Job seekers, the unemployed, and workers. About St. Cajetan St. Cajetan, in Italian Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene, was born in 1480 in Vicenza, in northern Italy. He earned a doctorate in law at Padua and served in the papal court in Rome, but he was drawn to a deeper life and was ordained a priest in 1516. He joined the Oratory of Divine Love, a brotherhood of priests and laypeople devoted to prayer and to serving the sick and

Feast day: July 3 (Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle) Patron of: India, architects and builders, and those who struggle with doubt. About St. Thomas the Apostle St. Thomas, also called Didymus, meaning "the Twin," was one of the Twelve. He is remembered above all for the week after Easter. He had not been with the other apostles when the risen Jesus first appeared, and he declared that unless he could see the wounds and put his hand into His side, he would not believe. Eight days

Feast day: June 21 (Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious) Patron of: Young people, students, and Christian youth. About St. Aloysius Gonzaga St. Aloysius Gonzaga was born in 1568 in Castiglione, in northern Italy, the eldest son of a powerful noble family. His father intended him for a military career and trained him from boyhood, but Aloysius was drawn early to prayer and made a private vow of chastity as a child. He served as a page at the courts of Florence and Madr

Feast day: June 19 (no longer on the General Roman Calendar; commemorated in the Roman Martyrology) Patron of: The city of Milan. About Sts. Gervase and Protase Sts. Gervase and Protase, also called Gervasius and Protasius, were early martyrs of Milan, traditionally said to be twin brothers. Almost nothing certain is known of their lives, but the discovery of their relics is one of the best documented events of the fourth-century Church. In the year 386, St. Ambrose, bishop o

Feast day: June 11 (Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle) Patron of: Cyprus. About St. Barnabas St. Barnabas was a Levite from Cyprus named Joseph, whom the apostles nicknamed Barnabas, "son of encouragement." The Acts of the Apostles introduces him selling a field and laying the money at the apostles' feet, and it calls him "a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." Although he was not one of the Twelve, the Church honors him with the title of apostle. When the newl

Feast day: May 22 (optional memorial) Patron of: Impossible causes, difficult marriages, and abused wives. About St. Rita of Cascia St. Rita was born around 1381 near Cascia in the mountains of Umbria, Italy. She wished to become a nun, but her parents arranged her marriage to Paolo Mancini, a man known for his violent temper. For some eighteen years Rita remained faithful, patient, and prayerful, and tradition holds that her husband was gradually changed by her gentleness. H

Feast day: May 14 (Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle) Patron of: No widely recognized patronage. About St. Matthias the Apostle St. Matthias is the apostle chosen to take the place of Judas Iscariot. The first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles tells how, in the days between the Ascension and Pentecost, St. Peter stood up among about one hundred and twenty believers and explained that someone must be chosen to be a witness to the Resurrection with the Eleven. He had to be a man

Feast day: April 30 (optional memorial) Patron of: No widely recognized patronage; remembered especially for the feast of the Rosary. About Pope St. Pius V Michele Ghislieri was born in 1504 in Bosco, in northern Italy, to a poor family, and worked as a shepherd before joining the Dominicans at fourteen. He became a respected teacher of theology, a bishop, and a cardinal, known for his austerity and strict devotion to duty. In 1566 he was elected pope and took the name Pius V

Feast day: April 25 (Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist) Patron of: Venice and notaries. About St. Mark the Evangelist St. Mark, called John Mark in the Acts of the Apostles, wrote the second and shortest Gospel. His mother's house in Jerusalem was a gathering place for the first Christians, and it was there that St. Peter went after an angel freed him from prison. Mark was a cousin of St. Barnabas and set out with Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary journey, but he turned

Feast day: March 25 (commemorated in the Roman Martyrology; not on the General Roman Calendar) Patron of: Prisoners, repentant sinners, and the dying. About St. Dismas, the Good Thief St. Dismas is the name tradition gives to the repentant criminal crucified beside Jesus. St. Luke's Gospel tells us that two criminals were crucified with the Lord, one on His right and one on His left. One of them mocked Jesus, but the other rebuked him: "Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou

Feast day: March 15 (kept by the Vincentian family and in some places; not on the General Roman Calendar) Patron of: Social workers. About St. Louise de Marillac St. Louise de Marillac was born in 1591 in France. Her mother is unknown, and although her father, a nobleman, loved and educated her, she was never fully accepted by his family. As a young woman she hoped to become a Capuchin nun but was refused because of poor health. She married Antoine Le Gras, a secretary to the

Feast day: February 11 (optional memorial) Patron of: The sick and all who suffer in body. About Our Lady of Lourdes Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous, a poor and sickly fourteen-year-old girl, in the grotto of Massabielle near the town of Lourdes in southern France. The Lady asked for prayer and penance, asked that a chapel be built, and told Bernadette to dig in the ground, where a spring began to flow

Feast day: January 31 (Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest) Patron of: Young people, students, apprentices, and editors. About St. John Bosco St. John Bosco was born in 1815 in a poor farming family near Turin, in northern Italy. His father died when he was two, and his mother, Margherita, raised him in deep faith. At the age of nine he had a dream in which he was told to win over wild boys "not with blows but with gentleness." He learned juggling and acrobatics to draw other

Feast day: January 22 (optional memorial; January 23 in the United States) Patron of: Vinedressers and winemakers; Lisbon and Valencia. About St. Vincent of Saragossa St. Vincent was a deacon of the Church of Saragossa in Spain, serving under his bishop, St. Valerius. Because Valerius had a speech impediment, he entrusted much of the preaching to Vincent. During the persecution of the emperor Diocletian, around the year 304, both were arrested and taken to Valencia. The bisho

Feast day: December 26 (Feast of St. Stephen, the First Martyr) Patron of: Deacons. About St. Stephen St. Stephen was one of the seven men chosen by the apostles, as recorded in the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, to serve the daily needs of the widows and the poor in the young Church of Jerusalem. He was "a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost," and he is honored as one of the first deacons. He worked great wonders among the people and spoke with such wisdom t

Feast day: December 25 (commemorated in the Roman Martyrology; not a memorial on the General Roman Calendar) Patron of: No widely recognized patronage. About St. Anastasia St. Anastasia was a Christian martyr who died at Sirmium, in present-day Serbia, around the year 304 during the persecution of Diocletian. Her name, from the Greek word for resurrection, was honored early in the East, and when her relics were brought to Constantinople in the fifth century, her fame spread w

Feast day: December 11 (optional memorial) Patron of: Archaeologists (by popular association). About Pope St. Damasus I St. Damasus I was pope from 366 to 384. Born in Rome around 305, the son of a priest of Spanish origin, he served as a deacon of the Roman Church before his election, which was bitterly contested by a rival faction and led to violence in the city. Despite this difficult beginning, his long pontificate strengthened the Church at a time when Christianity was b

Feast day: December 6 (optional memorial) Patron of: Children, sailors, and the falsely accused. About St. Nicholas of Myra St. Nicholas was bishop of Myra, a city in Lycia on the southern coast of present-day Turkey, in the fourth century. Few historical details of his life survive, but he was so loved that he became one of the most popular saints in both East and West. Tradition holds that he suffered imprisonment during the persecution of Diocletian and later attended the