Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Maurice Timothy ReidyOctober 07, 2012
Photo by Jenny Marvin on Unsplash

From its earliest days of publication, America has published frequent reflections on the saints, both longstanding and soon-to-be. Here we offer a selection of those articles. Not all of the individuals below have been canonized, but someday we hope they will be.

"Holy Men and Women," Drew Christiansen, S.J., October 29, 2007

"10 Best Films and Documentaries about the Saints," James Martin, S.J., October 30, 2006

"Five Years with Dorothy Day," Robert Ellsberg, November 21, 2005

In My Soul," James Martin, S.J., September 24, 2007 (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)

Of Many Things, James Martin, S.J., May 28, 2007 (On intercession)

"The Most Infallible Sign," James Martin, S.J., April 2, 2007 (The saints and humor)

"Believe Me If You Like," James Martin, S.J., May 22, 2006 (St. Joan of Arc)

"Friends in the Lord," Mark A. Lewis, December 5, 2005 (St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier and Blessed Peter Faber)

"The Saint of the Sock Drawer," James Martin, S.J., January 3, 2005

"United in Happiness," Lawrence S. Cunningham, February 23, 2004

"Holy Terrors," John W. Donohue, S.J., May 13, 1995

More: Saints
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Craig McKee
14 years 7 months ago
Karl Rahner, S.J. has a great quote about why the saints matter:

"Herein lies the special task which the canonized saints have to fulfill for the Church. They are the initiators and the creative models of the holiness which happens to be right for, and is the task of, their particular age. They create a new style; they prove that a certain form of life and activity is really a genuine possibility; they show experimentally that one can be a Christian even in 'this' way; they make such a type of person believable as a Christian type."

from K. Rahner, THE PRACTICE OF FAITH: A HANDBOOK OF CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY, p. 157; cited in Kenneth L. Woodard, MAKING SAINTS, p. 224.

The latest from america

At a Mass for the Jubilee of Youth outside Rome, Pope Leo exhorted over a million young people to be "seeds of hope" and a "sign that a different world is possible."
Gerard O’ConnellAugust 03, 2025
Perhaps it is the hard-won wisdom that comes with age, but the Catholic rituals and practices I once scorned are the same rituals and practices that now usher me into God's presence, time and time again.
Maribeth BoeltsAugust 01, 2025
"Only through patient and inclusive dialogue" can "a just and lasting conflict resolution can be achieved" in the long-running conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, said the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations.
This is the movie poster for “The Bad Guys” (CNS photo/DreamWorks Pictures)
The ”Bad Guys” films ask, how do we determine who the “bad guys” are? And if you’re marked as “bad” from the start, can you ever make good?
John DoughertyAugust 01, 2025