Starting the New Year Off Right!
I’ve been told of a New Year’s tradition that is popular in monasteries and convents. Every year, the monks and nuns get together and draw the names of saints from a hat. These become their patrons of the year, about whom they will learn and for whose intercession they will pray.
So I spent some time to program the following for you. There are 130 possible saints. Enjoy!
Click on the name!
OR
Go look up your saint!
Happy New Year,
Micah
PS – I got St. Bede the Venerable for 2012!
PS – I got St. Kateri Tekakwitha for 2013!
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- Happy New Year | Catholic Home Schooling Mom - [...] I jut drew the name of a saint to be my patron for the year. Micah Murphy of Truth ...
- Western Mass Catholic Home Schoolers Happy New Year! | Western Mass Catholic Home Schoolers - [...] I just drew the name of a saint to be my patron for the year. Micah Murphy of Truth ...
- New Year’s Day Quiz – 1:1 for 1/1 | Truth & Charity The Intersection of Faith & Life - [...] Enjoy today’s quiz and don’t forget to draw the name of a patron saint for the New Year (and ...
- SO, HOW’S THE NEW YEAR GOIN’ FOR YA? « BAD HABIT - [...] I took a spin of the WHEEL OF SAINTS (actually I just clicked on a button) and came up ...
- An Announcement and Divine Providence | Truth & Charity The Intersection of Faith & Life - [...] on New Year’s Eve, I updated our annual-patron-saint-drawing thread to include 130 saints T&C readers could be blessed to ...
About the Author
Micah Murphy, a cradle-Catholic from Omaha, Nebraska, has been active in online apologetics since his coming of age discovery of the faith. Having graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2007 with his BA in Theology and Catechetics, Micah became a youth minister and then a teacher of Sacred Scripture at Loyola College Prep in the mission Diocese of Shreveport, where he now lives with his wife, Jennie, and their three children. A man of concrete thinking, Micah prefers scriptural to scholastic theology, in addition to catechetics, canon law, Latin grammar, Catholic facts both trivial and muy importante, and anything else that requires great precision.
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I drew St Francis of Assisi. Awesome!
Sweet! A Benedictine who loves a Franciscan! It could be weirder…you could be Dominican!
Cool! I got St. Gabriel the Archangel!
I cast lots and got St. James the Lesser!
Definitely got St. John Bosco. He has it out for me!
Haha, once a YM, always a YM. It’s an indelible mark of Baptism that comes out for special occasions.
I drew St. Michael the Archangel. Sweet!!!
I got St. Margaret Mary!
St. John Bosco, pray for us!
I got St. Lucy!
St. Simon Stock
An extremely fascinating concept. Do you have a lot more justifications? Develop, it’s going to be an excellent blog in the future
St. Wenceslas for me! Way exciting :)
St. Wenceslaus is on the list because I attended one of the TWO St. Wenc schools in Eastern Nebraska. So many Czechs!
What a great idea! I didn’t know this was a tradition! (We chose a family patron last year.) So all 10 kids picked one today for next year, and my husband and I also, and one for the whole family! Thanks!
Wow! Bless you! My wife and I have a young family of 3 kids (1 of whom is due any day now). A very blessed new year to you!
I drew St. Thomas Becket.
I was given St Thomas Aquinas.
Outstanding! I drew St. Pius V. Every year on the Feast of the Holy Rosary I subject my students to a lecture on the Battle of Lepanto. This year I will study more about Pius V.
AMDG
jsa
St. Mary Magdalene!
Whoa! Teresa of Avila! A scary-good choice! I am now reading a book by Marie-Eugene on Carmelite spirituality.
I got St. Louis Marie de Montfort! SO topical as well, I think!
I got St. Philomena!
I got St. John Neumann. :)
I got St. Thomas the Apostle.
I drew St. Gabriel the Archangel and my wife drew St. Anne. Interesting given our difficulties in conceiving & maintaining a pregnancy. Maybe this might be the year.
I pray it is!
St. Thomas Becket – very nice.
I selected seven names to be put in a hat for each of us, and one for the whole family. What a great idea.
The saint who picked me: St Benedict Joseph Labre… never heard of him… looking forward to being pals with him this year :-)
I got St. Frances Xavier Cabrini! :D
Which monasteries and convents? From what era? It sounds like a kindergarten class, praiseworthy perhaps for teaching children but a bit silly for adults who presumably have patron saints already, and probably have other meritorious ways of having them dedicated or assigned. I can’t imagine all the convents and monasteries with their different rules and disciplines would agree with this.
It’s actually a Franciscan custom (so perhaps I should’ve said “convents and friaries”) called “Extraction of the Saints.” I don’t see how picking a saint at random (the idea is that the saint picks you) is remotely childish, though I do find it – with respect – juvenile to attack a pious devotion intended to increase interest in the saints all on its allegedly being disagreeable to “rules and disciplines.”
Who said we can each only have one patron saint? Why do we get one at Confirmation if we already have one (or two) via our Christian names from Baptism? Why do the “rules and disciplines” of so many orders call for monks and nuns and friars to take new names and new patrons upon their entrance into the community?
I am preparing a talk about St. Ambrose in March. Who did I draw as my saint? St. Ambrose of course! How cool is that?
VERY INTERESTING, ST. CHARBEL MAKHLUF. A MONK WAS GIVEN TO ME.IVE NEVER PRAYED TO ONE ST.BEFORE ,FOR A YEAR. geri
Shameless hit=and-run spam: After you spin the wheel, come read about your new patron, and a bunch more of your extended family in heaven at http://saints.sqpn.com/
I linked to your saint profiles! Nobody has a better saint directory!
Thank you for posting this. I got St. Matthew and at first I was thinking in a bit of a bored attitude. “Really? St. Matthew?” but then I clicked on the link and read through it. He really is a perfect fit for me this year as my husband just lost his job as a delivery driver for hostess and God called Matthew away from his income and riches of his job as a tax collector in order to give him heavenly treasures.
It also touched my heart that Matthew was considered a traitor to his people but our Lord loved him and CHOSE him to be one of his Apostles.
I found St. Francis of Assisi!
Nothing like reading the quotes of these saints! :D
I got St. Albert the Great. Never thought about him before. He seems like a really big brain, and I could really use one as I try to juggle my life as teacher and writer this year. Thanks for the suggestion!
St. Mary of Egypt
Already knew about her. Wonder if it’s a sign.
Hope not.
I picked St. John of Avila. Upon my re-entry into The Church in 2010, I had chosen St. Teresa of Avila as another patron, so I am looking forward to knowing St. John better!
St. Francis Xavier Cabrini!
A perfect fit since I have resolved to work on me being charitable this year especially in my thoughts. What better a patroness to help me along than this dear Saint who was not only wholly devoted with her entire being to the Sacred Heart of Jesus but charity personified!
God reward you, Micah, for providing this “service”, and thanks be to God for leading me here! I would have never thought of St. Francis Cabrini for myself. I said a fervent prayer before I clicked on “Draw a Saint”.
Saint Nicholas Owen ? I wonder what we have in common; time will tell.
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich