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A patron saint for stomach ailments

On Jan. 26 the church celebrates the feast of Sts. Timothy and Titus, two disciples and friends of St. Paul who are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and in St. Paul’s letters. 

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A patron saint for diocesan priests

People who knew Thomas Becket didn’t like him much. He was a superb administrator, with a genius for making himself indispensible to the most powerful people in England. And he was very good at making himself wealthy. Considering that he was canonized only two years after his death, it must have come as a shock to them that Becket was now a saint and a martyr.

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A patron saint for horseback riders

On a bitterly cold night in midwinter, Martin, an officer in the Roman army, was making his way back to his quarters. In spite of the cruel weather Martin was comfortable, wrapped in a magnificent red wool cloak, a gift from the men in his cohort. As Martin rode along he saw a poor man, dressed in rags, shivering violently, and begging passersby to give him something warm to wear. Everyone ignored the poor man — except Martin. Bringing his horse to a stop, he drew his sword, cut his fine cloak in half, and gave it to the half-frozen beggar. 

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A patron saint for actresses

For the story of St. Pelagia we have two primary sources. The first is an entirely reliable account of the conversion of a notorious actress recounted by St. John Chrysostom in his Sermon 67. The second source is a detailed life of St. Pelagia written by a man who calls himself James the Deacon and claims to have known her. 

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A patron saint for the Personal Ordinariate

Richeldis de Faverches had a vision of Mary in which the Blessed Mother showed her the Holy House of Nazareth, the home of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Mary asked Richeldis to build a replica of the Holy House in England. Mary promised, “Whoever seeks my help there will not go away empty-handed.”

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A patron saint against cold weather

St. Sebaldus was an English monk, most likely a Benedictine, who knew St. Willibald, his brother St. Winebald, and their sister St. Walburga. All of them had been invited by their cousin, St. Boniface, to come to Germany and help him plant the faith among the tribes. Sebaldus joined the German mission, dedicating himself to the region in around Nuremberg.

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St. Elizabeth of Portugal, patron saint for healing family rifts

Like St. Elizabeth of Hungary, her great-aunt, Elizabeth of Portugal, married young. At age 12 she became the bride of Portugal’s 20-year-old king, Dinis. Today such a match is shocking, but child brides were commonplace in the Middle Ages. Among royal families every marriage was a political alliance, and the sooner the alliance was sealed at the altar, the better.

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A patron saint for Rome

Initially, Catherine served the hungry, the sick, the dying — all traditional works of charity for women who belonged to a Third Order. But then, in the early 1370s, she began to preach.

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