SAINTS OF THE MONTH: LISTING

Feast Day: June 1
Canonized: Pre-Congregation

Justin was born in Palestine around the year 100. He was well educated and became a professor of philosophy. He was interested in the meaning of life and why the world and people exist. He studied and taught about the great philosophers of his day, but nothing made sense to him until he followed the advice of a wise man who…

Feast Day: June 3
Canonized: October 18, 1964
Beatified: June 6, 1920
Venerated: February 29, 1920

Charles Lwanga was born in Uganda on the continent of Africa in the last half of the 19th century. He and other young men and boys were required to work for King Mwanga. King Mwanga was an evil man who treated all people harshly, especially the boys who worked for…

Feast Day: June 9
Canonized: Pre-Congregation

Columba (521-597) was born of a royal family in Donegal, Ireland, but he is best known as one of the most famous Scottish saints. He became a monk at an early age and founded monasteries in different parts of Ireland. He was forced to leave Ireland because of a personal feud that turned into a war. Bishops and abbots…

Feast Day: June 11
Canonized: March 11, 1984
Beatified: June 8, 1930
Venerated: August 15, 1928

Paula Frassinetti led a happy life in Genoa, Italy, until she was 9. That was when her mother died, in 1818, leaving Paula to care for her father and four brothers and their household. At this young age, she made many sacrifices to give attention to her family…

Feast Day: June 13
Canonized: May 30, 1231

Anthony of Padua felt that God called him to try many new and different things. As he felt the tug of God’s love, he gave up one job to work at another. He did this over and over.

Anthony was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1195 to a wealthy and noble family. His father chose to serve God as a soldier, but…

Feast Day: June 17
Canonized: November 12, 1989
Beatified: June 22, 1983
Venerated: January 20, 1977

As a young revolutionary and artist in Poland, Adam Chmielowski was not a young man whom people thought would someday be a saint.

He was born in 1845 to wealthy parents and studied agriculture with plans of taking over his family's estate near…

Feast Day: June 19
Venerated: October 3, 1975

Matt Talbot was born in 1856 to a poor family with 12 children in Dublin, Ireland. His father and several of his brothers were alcoholics. Matt began working as a messenger boy when he was 12 years old. He also began drinking alcohol around the same time.

Once he began drinking, Matt could not stop. Alcohol became the most…

Feast Day: June 22
Canonized: 1935
Beatified: 1886

In the Opening Prayer on June 22, we pray, “Give us the courage to proclaim our faith by the witness of our lives” (Sacramentary). Thomas More was a man of great faith and courage whose life shows us what it means to be a witness to our faith.

Thomas was born in London in 1478. He became a…

Feast Day: June 24
Canonized: Pre-Congregation

John the Baptist was Jesus’ older cousin. He was a prophet sent by God to prepare people for the coming of Christ into the world.

John’s parents were Elizabeth and Zechariah. They were an elderly couple who had nearly given up hope that their marriage would be blessed with a child. Then the…

Feast Day: June 29
Canonized: Pre-Congregation

Does it surprise you that a man who once wanted to put Christians to death became one of the Church’s greatest saints? That man is Saint Paul.

Paul, who was named Saul, was born in Tarsus, in the country we now call Turkey. As a boy, he learned the family business—making and repairing tents—from his father. Saul’s family were…