Catholic saints in May

St. Joseph the Worker
Saint Joseph the Worker has two feast days on the liturgical calendar. The first is March 19 –
Joseph, the husband of Mary. The second is May 1 – Joseph, the Worker. There is very little about the life of Joseph in Scripture, but it is known he was the chaste husband of Mary, the foster father of Jesus, a carpenter and a man who was not wealthy. Joseph is the patron of many things, including the universal Church, fathers, the dying and social justice.
 
Our Lady of Fatima
May 13 is the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima to three shepherd children in the small village of Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. She appeared six times to Lucia, 9, and her cousins Francisco, 8, and his sister Jacinta, 6, between May 13, 1917, and October 13, 1917.
 
Our Lady of Fatima revealed three secrets. The first two refer to the vision of hell and the souls languishing there, the request for an ardent devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the prediction of the Second World War and finally the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism. The third “secret” was not revealed until 2000 and referred to the persecutions that humanity would undergo in the last century: “The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated.”
 
St. Andrew Bobola
Saint Andrew Bobola is a Polish-born martyr whose feast day is May 16. He was born in Sandormir, Poland, in 1591 to a noble family. He was ordained a Jesuit in 1622 and three years later became a parish priest in Vilna, Lithuania. Saint Andrew Bobola was captured after Mass and was brutally tortured. He was beheaded and died a martyr, refusing to denounce his Catholic faith.
 
St. Rita of Cascia
On May 22, the Church celebrates the feast day of Saint Rita of Cascia, who Saint John Paul II called “a disciple of the crucified one” and an “expert in suffering.” Born in 1386 in Roccaparena, Umbria, Saint Rita was married at age 12 to a violent and ill-tempered husband. He was murdered 18 years later and she forgave his murderers. On the 100 ^th anniversary of her canonization in 2000, Saint John Paul II noted her remarkable qualities as a Christian woman. “Rita interpreted well the 'feminine genius' by living it intensely in both physical and spiritual motherhood.”
 
Alexander Sanchez is a student at Cristo Rey OKC Catholic High School.