St. Anthony of Padua (c.1195 to June 13, 1231)

I don't even know the official prayer but every time I lose a contact lens, my wallet, or piece of jewelry, I say something like "Please, St. Anthony, please help me" and it suddenly reappears. And this was even before I went to Padua, Italy.
When I stepped off the train, it was a dark, gloomy day. In the square outside the basilica, vendors sold balloons in an almost circus-type atmosphere creating a colorful contrast against the ominous sky. Young and old descended upon Padua and as I turned the knob to open the basilica door, I could hear the voice of Mr. Thomas reciting the Litany of the Saints at Easter Vigil, "St. Anthony of Padua." (Actually St. Anthony wasn't on the list but Mr. Thomas added him anyway. Maybe because he was part Portuguese.)
St. Anthony's tongue (his relic) is located in the apse of the church. It is said that it was chosen because he was a great orator.
He was born in Lisbon, Portugal c.1195 and joined the Franciscan Order in 1221. St. Anthony's story needs no explanation. He is one of the most popular saints of all time. He died in Padua, Italy on June 13, 1231 and is the patron saint of lost articles and American Indians.
St. Anthony was canonized less than a year after his death on May 30, 1232.

St. Lucy (283 to 304)

I've worn contacts since junior high school and I've never experienced any kind of problems with my eyes. So, when I woke up with a large bubble on the white of my right eye, it was cause for concern. For more than a week, I went from doctor to doctor. I was given antibiotics and even had it drained but it would not go away. One doctor even said to me that she had never seen anything like it before.
I'm more of a fan of the saints than modern medicine, so I was certain if I prayed to St. Lucy, she would help. The next morning I called a practice near my house and was given an appointment that day. The physician took one look at me and said it was a cyst which he would remove the next day.
"It's going to be fine. Your eye will be as good as new in a week," he said.
When I checked out with the receptionist, I looked at the date. It was within 24 hours of St. Lucy's feast day which is Dec. 13. 
The next day when the cyst was removed, I felt the incision but by focusing on St. Lucy it was a breeze.
She was born in Syracuse, Italy in 283 and was a young Christian martyr. St. Lucy (also known as St. Lucia) is celebrated in a modern day festival in Sweden filled with sweets and lights. A young girl wears a crown of candles on her head and a white robe. In the procession other girls carry candles.
St. Lucy died in Syracuse in 304 and is the patron saint of eyesight. Canonization: pre-congregation.

St. Isabel of France (March 1225 to Feb. 26, 1270)

When I was young girl in grade school, the name Isabel was considered unusual. My parents chose it as my middle name after my grandmother and she told me that it would be popular again, one day.
Fast forward 38 years, and she was right. My grandmother has since passed away, but her name lives on in me.
St, Isabel, the daughter of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castille, was born in March 1225. She is known for helping the poor and sick. She founded the Franciscan Monastery of the Humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Longchamp, France. She died on Feb. 26, 1270.

Infant Jesus of Prague

   Many years ago, in the middle of the night, I awoke to a glowing red light that appeared on my bedroom wall. I was actually scared to death and didn't want to move because right there in the middle of the light was an image of the Infant Jesus of Prague.
   I jumped out of bed, turned on the light, and went over to the wall. There was nothing there. I remember that the date was Sept. 1 because it was my late Uncle Vinnie's birthday who had died from a heart attack.
   The following morning, I told my parents what had happened.
    "It felt bad. Like something wasn't right," I said.
   My mom was fascinated that I knew it was the Infant Jesus of Prague rather than it appeared to me in the middle of the night. My dad thought nothing of it because since I was a child I've always been intuitive about things.
   That afternoon, my mom told me she was worried about my older brother. At the same time I saw the glowing red light, he saw a person in his bedroom in an old house where he lived in New York. Always a man of logic and reason (who earned a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of  Technology), my brother described what he saw as a person in a long, blue robe with  familiar big, blue eyes like my mother.
   But, the strange thing was, this person had no hair. My brother said he wasn't afraid when the person went up into the air and disappeared.
  We never mentioned that mysterious night until a couple of years later in July 1999. I was sitting at the kitchen table with my mother. She had terminal cancer and it was one month before she died.
  "Do you remember the night you had that dream about the Infant Jesus of Prague and your brother saw a person in his room with big, blue eyes and no hair?" she asked me.
  I nodded "yes."
  "That was me," she said confidently.
  I told her she was being ridiculous and that she was going to get better very soon.
  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
  The day before my mother died, her cousin, Jerry,arrived at the house with his 7-year-old daughter, Jennifer who had a gift for her.
  She handed me a brown scapular, which is a symbol of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. My mother was born on that feast day (July 16). It was the name given to Mary as the patroness of the Carmelite Order.
  I thanked Jennifer and promised I would give the scapular to my mother. There was no way I was going to let her into the bedroom. I wanted Jennifer to remember my mother as the lively, beautiful, and vibrant person that she was in her lifetime.
   A few months after my mom died, it all came together for me. What my brother and I experienced were premonitions. When my younger brother questioned why he didn't see anything, I told him he probably didn't need to because he's less of a skeptic.
  The blue robe represented Mary or Our Lady of Mount Carmel who holds the infant Jesus. The Infant Jesus of Prague ended up being a gift to the Discalced Carmelites. The image with the blue eyes that rose up through the ceiling and disappeared meant that my mom was safe in heaven now.
  Many references to the Infant Jesus of Prague are often referred to as legends. The most common one is that the statue was given to Maria Manrique de Lara, a Spanish princess as a wedding gift from her mother Isabella. Maria went to Prague to marry a man of Czech royalty. When Maria's daughter, Polyxena, got married she gave her the statue.
  In turn, it ended up as a gift to the Discalced Carmelites who lived near the Church of Our Lady Victorious in Prague, where the statue is now kept. This was around the year 1628.
  Some stories say after the city and church were invaded (by Turks or Protestant Swedes) and the statue's hands were broken off.
  A Friar named Father Cyril claimed that the infant Jesus told him to repair the statue saying, "The more you honor me, the more I will bless you." He fixed it and to this day the statue is said to perform miracles.

St. Michael the Archangel

My family parish was St. Michael's Church in Georgiaville which is why I've always enjoyed anything that has to do with St. Michael the Archangel.
By the time I was four, the church where I was baptized was knocked down and replaced with a modern one down the street. I was told the young priest who baptized me wrote the song Roman's Eight (For To Those Who Love God) and went on to become a songwriter to the Pope. He has since written many spectacular operas.
My only recollection now of the old St. Michael's is following the Mass in a folded program and my dad taking me for a lemon-lime soda afterward.
St. Michael, who defends God's honor against the devil, is shown stepping on Satan or a serpent, and carrying a sword, scales, and banner. Since the time of the Apostles, he has been considered the patron saint of the church. His feast day, along with Archangels St. Gabriel and St. Raphael, is Sept. 29.
St. Michael is also the patron saint of police officers. I didn't know that until 10 years ago when a friend of mine, who was a police sergeant, showed me a large tattoo of St. Michael the Archangel on his upper arm.
"He is there to protect me," he said.

St. Raphael the Archangel

St. Raphael the Archangel is first mentioned in the Holy Scripture in the book of Tobias in which he says "I am the Angel Raphael, one of the seven who stand before the throne of God." He appears disguised in human form when he travels with Tobias.
There is a bible story which explains that the archangel healed the Earth when it was made impure by the sins of the fallen angels. This is referred to in the book of Enoch.
In artwork, he is often depicted holding a flask or staff, wearing a flowing robe and sandals, or is shown with Tobias. His symbol is a fish.
His feast day is celebrated on Oct. 24 and also on Sept. 29 with the Archangels Michael and Gabriel.
St. Raphael the Archangel is the patron saint against nightmares (I'm surprised it's not St. Gabriel the Archangel who appeared to the Virgin Mary). It is said that single women should wear the archangel on a pendant and they will find the right man.

St. Gabriel the Archangel

One day when I was at Mass at St. Joseph's Church in Providence, Father McCaffrey posed a good question about the Annunciation (March 25). It's when the Archangel Gabriel told Mary that she would conceive a child who was the son of God.
The priest asked if a teenage girl who lived in Fox Point went home and told her parents she never had sex but was going to have a baby and, in addition to that, it would be the son of God, do you think they would believe her? Probably not.
We can only imagine how Mary and her parents must have felt.
Gabriel told Mary to name the child Jesus who would be conceived by the Holy Spirit, Son of the Most High, and the Savior of the world.
The archangel is depicted with a lily, shield, trumpet, or spear. He is also mentioned in the prophecies of Daniel in the Old Testament and in the apocryphal book of Henoch.
Gabriel the Archangel's feast day is celebrated Sept. 29 along with Archangels Michael and Raphael.

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1656 to April 17, 1680)

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 22, 1980. Since she will be the first Native American saint, I was curious to learn more about her, so took a road trip to the National Kateri Shrine in Fonda, New York in August 2004.
She was born in 1656 to a Mohawk chief father and a Catholic Algonquin mother near Auriesville, New York. When she was four-years-old she contracted the small pox. The disease killed her parents and brother and caused Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha to have a scarred face and poor eyesight.
She was adopted by an uncle and two aunts. Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha was baptized at age 20 and because of this, she endured hostility from her tribe. Eventually she moved to the new Christian colony of Native people in Canada.
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha cared for the sick and elderly and was devoted to the Eucharist and the Crucified Jesus. She died at age 24 in Kahnawake near Montreal, Canada on April 17, 1680. The people who witnessed her death saw the scars on her face disappear, including a pair of French trappers who knew her from many years earlier. They dropped to their knees and cried.
Then, the Frenchmen built her a wooden coffin, put her inside, and carried her to the riverbank.
When I was 12-years-old my parents took our family on a vacation to Quebec, Canada. We went to Ste. Anne de Beaupre Shrine and there was a beautiful statue outside of a Native American girl. It was Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.
In 1994, I visited the Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano in California. I wanted to go there since I was in third grade and learned about the swallows that return every March 19 (St. Joseph's Day and also my cousin Cindy's birthday ) Thirteen years later a large statue in which Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha is depicted was put up behind the main altar.
Pray to her and she will help you. The more you pray, the quicker she will become a saint. Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha's feast day is July 14.

"Oh God who among the many marvels of your grace in the New World did cause to blossom on the banks of the Mohawk and the St. Lawrence the pure and tender Lily, Kateri Tekakwitha, grant we beseech you the favor we beg through her intercession; that this Young Lover of Jesus and his Cross may soon be counted among her saints by Holy Mother Church, and that our hearts may be enkindled with a stronger desire to imitate her innocence and faith. We ask this through the same Christ our Lord. Amen."

Our Lady of the Woods

The Blessed Mother is the patroness of the United States and each state has its own representation of her. As I head out on vacation to Oregon this week, I would like to recognize Our Lady of the Woods, its patron saint. Mary's birth is celebrated on Sept. 8 and her death on the Assumption (Aug. 15).
"Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, Our life, our sweetness and our hope."

Blessed Brother Andre Bessette (Aug. 9, 1845 to Jan. 6, 1937)

When I was a reporter at the Kent County Daily Times in West Warwick, Rhode Island in 2001, I wrote an article about Blessed Brother Andre Bessette, a French Canadian, who in his early twenties, worked in a mill in Natick for several years.
Today, Pope Benedict XVI announced that Blessed Brother Andre Bessette has reached sainthood and will be canonized on Oct. 17, 2010. Being of French Canadian descent, this is particularly exciting for me and I'm even happier for the people of West Warwick.
The piece I was writing was in preparation for a French Canadian Heritage Festival which would begin with a Mass at St. John the Baptist Church, where Blessed Brother Andre Bessette served Mass and lived for a time.
Father Alphonse O. Lethiez said that one day he would become a saint. "I just know he will in my lifetime," he told me.
I learned that after working in the mill (he was not yet in the clergy), Blessed Brother Andre Bessette returned to his native Canada. However many years later, after performing thousands of healings in Canada, he returned to West Warwick, where he had numerous friends in the community.
Blessed Brother Andre was born Alfred Bessette in St. Gregoire d'Iberville, Quebec on Aug. 9, 1845. He was one of 12 children. His father died in a lumbering accident and his mother died from tuberculosis leaving him an orphan at age 12.
He was a sickly boy who took jobs as a baker, shoemaker, blacksmith, and farmhand for six years then moved to New England to work in the mills with thousands of other French Canadians.
Blessed Brother Andre Bessette moved back to Canada in 1867 and told his parish priest that he was interested in a religious life. He was sent to the Community of Holy Cross Brothers in Montreal where he entered the noviate of the congregation and took his final vows at age 28.
The Blessed worked as a doorman at the College of Notre Dame in Montreal for 40 years. He had healing powers which cured thousands of people and a tremendous devotion to St. Joseph who he attributed the miracles to.
Blessed Brother Andre founded St. Joseph's Oratory on Mount Royal. It is now a basilica which receives two million pilgrims each year. When I was 12-years-old, my family went there while on vacation. It is high atop a hill. This was two years before Blessed Brother Andre Bessette had been named a venerable in 1978.
When he died on Jan. 6, 1937, one million people walked by his casket. Blessed Brother Andre Bessette is buried at the basilica. His heart, which was stolen in March 1973 and returned in December 1974, is in a reliquary in the oratory.
It is my hope that the people of Rhode Island realize what an honor it is that this man lived part of his life here and will in some way celebrate his canonization in October.