Exploring Saint Feast Days with Your Kids

Throughout the year there are days set aside to celebrate the different saints and leaders throughout the history of Christianity. Below are a couple of saints whose feast days fall in the month of June.

 Consider looking up some of these saints with your kids and talking about the different things about them that make them unique and worth celebrating.

Justin Martyr

Feast Day - June 1st  

Justin was born in the year 100 in Palestine and died in Rome, Italy. He was born into a Jewish family and started following Jesus as an adult, possibly in Turkey, after studying different philosophies that were not based in faith. One of his most famous writings was written to two different Roman Emperors, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelios. In it, he defended Christians and tried to convince these emperors not to charge Christians with hostility to the Roman state. His unique approach to Christian philosophy was his belief that Christianity—when explained intellectually—was in “harmony with reason,” like Platonic philosophy. He saw both as emphasizing the “relationship between human reason and the divine mind.” Jesus was the perfect representation of this idea. Thanks to Justin, we have descriptions of how the early church celebrated baptism and Communion and in his writing he was the first person to quote from the book of Acts. He was martyred for his faith.

Elizabeth Hesselblad

Feast day – June 4th

(Image by Gracie Morbitzer)

Mary Elizabth was one of 13 children in her family, born in Sweeden on Jun 4th, 1870. She learned what it meant to follow Jesus when she left home, moved to New York, and studied nursing where she took care of many patients who were Catholic, and introduced her to Christianity.

Her faith, and then finding herself being taken care of by the Carmelite sisters of St. Bridget when she became sick, made her want to bring this religious order of nuns to other places in the world—including Sweeden, England, Rome and India.

During World War II she worked very hard to improve the communication between those who were Christians and those who were not, and worked hard to help the poor and others who were at risk during this time. Because of her work, she is responsible for saving the lives of over 60 Jewish people during the Holocaust and she is remembered as  a “Righteous Among nations” – a title given to people who helped aid Jewish people, and others, who were being targeted by Germany, Romania and Italy during WWII. She died April 24, 1957.

St. Aloysius Gonzaga

Feast Day – June 21st

Aloysius Gonzaga was born into an incredibly wealthy and noble family in Italy on March 9, 1568. His family had plans for him to eventually have a military career and he was sent away starting at 8 years old to prepare for this. But Aloyius became very sick and was unable to continue getting his education. While he was recovering, he felt like he should become a priest instead. Even though his family had other plans for him, when he was 18 years old, in 1586 he told his family he was joining the Society of Jesus—the Jesuits—and renounced the land and title that was his birthright. He continued his studies at Roman College after becoming a Jesuit.

In 1591 a plague came to Rome and Aloysius volunteered to work at the hospital where the sick and infected were taken. He fed them, cared for them and cleaned them in the midst of their sickness, and as a result he got sick himself. He died on June 21, 1591 at 23 years old, and is known now for his care for others even when it cost him his own health and life, and for doing this at such a young age.