Saintly Inspiration: Bringing the Communion of Saints into the Home

Probably many of America’s families grew up with Trick or Treating on Halloween. In our home, however, there was a different thrill—still centered around costumes—to the name of All Hallow’s Eve and All Saints Day. No terrorizing decor or frightful costumes for us, unless of course you counted the instruments of martyrdom and creative ways of portraying those saintly demises in costume. Each sibling had been thinking about their favorite saint (or outlandish saint story) from that year and coming up with the best outfit they could conceive during that week or sometimes from the beginning of October. When you are children willing to make complete suits of armor from tin foil and craft foam for an impromptu Joan of Arc play at the family cabin, you can imagine the elaboration that went into saint portrayals especially during the teen years. Our family has had arrows sticking out, friends have worn full chain mail, and some ambitious acquaintances even had a headless St. John the Baptist carrying his head on a platter and St. Thomas a Becket with a sword through his miter. We’ve also had extremely well done up St. Cecilia’s and all manner of saintly monarchs, very accurately clothed nuns, and so forth. But to continue…

All the preparation took place in the cooling Midwest darkness of an autumn night. The main house lights being off to avoid Trick or Treating parties ringing the doorbell added to the excitement of trying to collect costume props on the way out the door. But that was only the beginning of the fun. 

Whether it was an at-home party with our cousins and a couple families of friends or an enormous gathering (often in the parish school gym or fellowship hall) through our homeschool group or parish, it was a night of complete thrill and adventure. 

Typically there was always some sort of Adoration or prayer (usually Litany of Saints and hymns) followed by a Procession of Saints (often with candles). What followed was a grand assortment of pot-luck food, saint themed games and candy or more elaborate saintly prizes, costume contests, and communal festivity. Even as a young adult, I continued to relish the opportunity to help run such events and still dress up as or even officially portray a Saint as part of the event. One parish combined All Saints with an Oktoberfest for a parish wide evening, and I organized and ran the whole thing. Another community hosted an outdoor trick or treat style event where highschoolers and young adults each dressed as a different saint had stations around a religious property; they would tell their story and pass out cleverly themed treats or prizes to each group of younger children that visited them by candlelight. These are annual customs that I continue to treasure and bring bits of wherever we move to.

Now those activities are wonderful for celebrating the feast of All Saints itself, but how do we keep the Communion of Saints present in our homes throughout the year? After all, fostering daily devotions to the heroes in Heaven is what makes All Hallow’s Eve festivities so particularly magical. 

I would hazard an educated guess that our annual thrill over saints was fostered throughout the year by three main things: Saint books and stories, commemorating individual saint feast days, and devotion to our patron saints. 

Stories of the Saints

Butler’s Lives of the Saints or Father Lovasik’s collections are a simple daily way to start. Teens and adults can gain much from diving directly into the writings of the saints themselves as well as contemporary biographies or novel series such as the ones by Louis de Wohl. Yet the fostering must start from an early age in order for the saints to become an irreplaceable fiber of each individuals’ fabric. That means filling bookshelves not just with all the beautiful children’s authors and classics but also with saints stories retold from board book to chapter books. While I notionally believe one cannot have too many books and physically acknowledge that one can have too little space for endless tomes—and while I have seen the value of any exposure to saint stories even if tritely or badly written or illustrated, there are a few series that do exceptional justice to their subjects. 

Ignatius Press Vision Books Series has a phenomenal mix of republication of formerly out of print authors as well as newer authors writing on newer saints and blesseds. 

Tan Books has numerous series available, but the ones that molded us the most as children are Mary Fabian Windeatt’s series, the Catholic Stories for Boys and Girls series, and Neumann Press “A Story of…” Saint series.

These, Sophia Institute, and St. Augustine Academy Press all have individual saint stories as well. Other engaging series include Joan Stromberg’s American Saints and Blesseds stories and Bethlehem Books Living History Library (not all of the stories involve saints but a number of them do).

Saints Through the Year

Commemorating the feast days of saints throughout the year brings them directly into contact with day to day life and slowly over time embeds their presence in both the yearly cycle and the individual’s awareness. TAN Books has a wonderful Mary & the Saints Wall Calendar that is extra helpful because it lists the Old Calendar, the New Calendar, and historical feasts all in one place. Sophia Institute, if the family budget allows, also has a beautifully made subscription for wall posters called The Illustrated Liturgical Year that is especially helpful for young eyes in visualizing how the saints fit into the year. 

Calendars are there to help implement special family dinners or dishes in honor of saints, brief mentions of the saint of the day during family prayer time or breakfast, reading briefly from the missal or a saint book about the saint(s) of the day, and other such commemorative nods. 

Patronal Devotions

Cultivating a devotion to particular patrons is another way to connect the saints with our families. This could be through celebrating each person’s patronal saint feast days every year—with the spouses patronal feast days alone, that cultivate devotion to four to six saints automatically each year. This could also look like creating family litanies or having each family member list their patrons each morning to call upon for intercession that day. Another way to foster patronal devotion is by knowing details about one’s own patron, including their own favorite devotions. Once the personal patrons have been incorporated, there are family, parish, city, and national patrons to dive into. 

May you have a blessed All Saints Feast and see the fruit of incorporating their companionship throughout your upcoming year!