A few days before celebrating Father’s Day, we share the story of some dads who achieved sainthood and are a source of inspiration for many.
Saint Joseph
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God entrusted Saint Joseph with a great responsibility and privilege: to be the adoptive father of Jesus Christ and the chaste husband of the Virgin Mary.
Saint Joseph was a carpenter and a descendant of King David. When he went to Bethlehem with Mary to register for the census, she gave birth to Jesus in a stable and then they had to flee to Egypt to prevent the Child from being killed by order of King Herod.
Saint Joseph educated Christ and taught him the carpenter’s trade. He is known as the “patron of a good death” because, according to tradition, he died accompanied and consoled by Jesus and Mary.
In a speech, Pope Francis highlighted that Saint Joseph knew how to rest in God in prayer, rise with Jesus and Mary and be a prophetic voice in the middle of the world.
Saint Louis Martin
Saint Louis Martin was the husband of Saint Celia Guérin and father of five daughters. Among them, Saint Teresa of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, and Leonia, whose beatification cause was opened in 2015, stand out.
When he was young, Luis wanted to be a religious of the Hospitaller Congregation of the Great Saint Bernard, but he was not admitted because he did not know Latin. He learned the watchmaker’s trade and settled in Alençon (France), where he met his future wife.
Luis and Celia married on July 13, 1858 and had nine children, of whom five women survived. The couple had an intense spiritual life and formed the girls to be good Catholics and respectable citizens.
Celia died of cancer in 1877. Louis took care of his daughters and they moved to Lisieux. As the years passed, they all embraced religious life. The saint suffered from an illness that weakened him until he lost his mental faculties. He died in 1894.
In October 2015, Luis and his wife Celia were the first married couple to be canonized. His party is celebrated on July 12, the day of his wedding anniversary.
Saint Thomas More
Thomas More was born in London in 1477, and in 1505 he married Jane Colt, with whom he had a son and three daughters. However, his wife died young and he remarried Alice Middleton.
Saint John Paul II said that Saint Thomas More He was “a loving and faithful husband and father, deeply committed to the religious, moral and intellectual education of his children. His house welcomed sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and grandchildren.”
His excellent career as a lawyer took him to the English Parliament, and years later he held important government positions, after his book “Utopia” caught the attention of King Henry VIII.
He was imprisoned for opposing the monarch’s wishes to repudiate his wife to marry another woman and separate from the Catholic Church to form the Anglican Church.
His daughter Margaret visited him in prison frequently and they prayed together. For remaining firm in his convictions, he was declared a traitor and beheaded on July 6, 1535.
San Isidro Labrador
Since he was little, San Isidro worked tilling, cultivating and harvesting fields in Spain.
He married a peasant woman who also became a saint: María de la Cabeza. They had a son who, according to tradition, fell into a well with a basket. They prayed fervently and then the waters began to rise until the little boy appeared unharmed.
On Sunday afternoons he used to walk with his family through the fields. After having raised her son, San Isidro and Santa María de la Cabeza decided to separate to have a life totally dedicated to God. He stayed in Madrid and she left for a hermitage.
Saint Isidro spent the rest of his life tilling the fields and praying. He died on November 30, 1172.
Saint Louis of France
Louis IX was born in 1214 and was crowned king of the French at the age of twelve, under the regency of his mother, who used to say to him: “Son, I would rather see you dead than in God’s disgrace for mortal sin.”
In 1234 he was declared of age and assumed his duties as monarch. He marries the virtuous Margaret of Provence, who would help him achieve sainthood. They had 11 children.
The king was distinguished by his goodness, justice, charity and piety. She raised his children just as his mother did with him.
He participated in two crusades to recover the holy places and stop Muslim invasions. In the second crusade he fell ill with dysentery near Carthage (North Africa). He died in August 1270.
He left a “spiritual will” to the son who would succeed him, the future Philip III, where he gave him instructions to be a wise, just and holy ruler. You can read the full text here.
Saint Stephen of Hungary
Saint Stephen was king of Hungary, husband of Blessed Gisela of Bavaria and father of Saint Emeric.
He had great affection for the Church and tried to be an example of piety for his subjects. He used to dress up to go out at night to distribute aid.
He educated his son with care and left him several pieces of advice on the virtues that a monarch should cultivate. He can read them HERE.
Together they defended the kingdom from the attack of Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor. However, the young man died during a hunt. When he heard the news, Stephen exclaimed: “The Lord gave it to me, the Lord took it from me. Blessed be God.”
The king appointed his nephew Pedro Orseolo as successor. The saint died on August 15, 1038, the day of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, of whom he was a great devotee.
Originally published June 2017. It has been updated for republication
María Ximena Rondón