A few years ago online (I wish I could remember where) I read about a Catholic family’s New Year’s tradition to choose a new patron saint for their family each year. I thought this was a great idea!
Choose a saint that you feel would be a good fit for your family– something relative to you. A few years ago, we chose St. Anthony because my family is hopelessly disorganized, and we constantly loose things. I thought the patron saint of lost objects would be fitting for us.
The year after that we chose St. Michael because my husband was becoming a police officer. After that we went with St. Elizabeth Ann Seton when I was trying to get our homeschool on track. Ask your kids and spouse for their input on who it should be. There’s someone for everything!
I like to put a statue of our family’s patron saint by the door in our home. Keeping the statue there reminds me daily of our patron saint of the year.
Here are some ideas for celebrating the yearly patron saint of your family:
- Put a statue of that saint in your home.
- Paint a peg doll of that Saint, and look for a children’s book. Give it to your kids for one of the 12 days of Christmas on New Year’s.
- Give your children holy cards or inexpensive saint medals of the saint.
- Learn about your saint over the year.
- Celebrate your saint’s feast day.
- Don’t miss what Katie did with the patron Saint of her classroom this year. This is so cool!
- Do a quick google search to see if your saint has a prayer you can say together on New Year’s day, and put up somewhere in your home. Include this prayer in your bedtime prayer routine for the year.
- Make crafts and do activities with your children relating to your saint and his or her patronage. Check out my alphabetical Saint directory for ideas.
Just so you know, buying Catholic stuff for your home doesn’t have to break the bank. I like to check out Catholic Deals for money saving ideas, but I’ve also found some good deals around town.
Some of my favorite things about having a new patron saint of our family each year:
- We are exposed to more saints and learn about a new one each year.
- Rather than choosing a New Year’s resolution, we can choose a saint with a positive aspect that we can work towards emulating for the year.
- We have more saints that we feel “close” to, and are special to us. The number grows each year.
- It gives us a new angle to work on ourselves spiritually, taking our new patron saint on as a spiritual inspiration.
- It gives us a reason to celebrate a new saint feast day each year, and learn about the traditions that go along with that saint.
Looking for affordable saint statues? I have routinely found saint statues that stand a foot high at Ross for somewhere around $9 each, which is a great deal! And no, they’re not plastic. They’re not usually labeled, so you need to know who you’re looking at. It’s hit or miss, but worth checking out for sure! If they’re damaged at all, ask for a discount- they’ll always give it to you.
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If you’re lucky enough to have a local Catholic shop, every Catholic store I’ve ever been in has a set of these drawers with cheap saint medals inside. They’re about 0.50 cents each. These are great for kids, and excellent for crafting!
Here’s Julian proudly sporting his St. Anthony medal from last year. He loves it!
PS. Just wanted to make sure you all remember that New Year’s Day is indeed a holy day of obligation, so going to mass should be a part of your New Year’s tradition. 😉 What other traditions does your family have for celebrating the New Year’s?
More Catholic Resources For January
You can find more Saint feast days and fun ways to living the liturgical year in January here.
Check out my new printable liturgical calendar for Catholics! This includes all your major feast days and liturgical seasons along with holy days of obligation, solemnities, liturgical colors, well known Saint feast days, and more! This easy to use and beautiful calendar will be your best friend when planning out your liturgical year at home. There is both a free option and a paid option for downloading this liturgical calendar, so click here to find your options for downloading your own liturgical calendar.
I like the patron saint idea. I think our family will choose St. Gerard this year since we are expecting another little one.
PS. New Years Day falls on Sunday this year. 🙂
I know! I was thinking about that, but like my posts to be “long term” resources, and thought it would be crazy not to mention that it’s a Holy Day. 🙂 St. Gerard is a great idea! I’m expecting, too- maybe we’ll choose him this year. I haven’t decided yet.
Great Idea!
What is Ross?
It’s a discount store with mostly clothing. I think it’s technically called “Ross Dress for Less”. You should google it and see if they have any stores near you! Most of my maternity clothes have come from there. 🙂
We have a fmily patron, and in the beginning of the year, we each draw a personal patron out of a bag (boy bag for boys and girl bag for girls). Then, we celebrate the feast days and with every meal, during prayers beforehand, we go through our personal litany of Saints – each family member calls their Saint’s name, and everyone responds “pray for us.”
Interestingly, Thomas Becket is the 2 year old’s Saint, and today is his feast day.
For those expecting, St Gerard was always a second patron for me…. I figured I counted as 2 people, so I had 2 Saints 🙂 And, in the first 2 years, babies always have St. Brigid – patron Saint of babies 🙂 (until the January comes when they can speak well enough to say a Saint’s name….
God bless!!!
I’m a new subscriber to your blog and I just LOVE all your ideas!! After reading this post yesterday I ran out to our Catholic bookstore to pick a patron saint. They didn’t have a ton of saints to choose from but I was able to find a Saint Christopher statute for $16.00 which I’m excited about. I got four of the saint medals for 60 cents each and then went to Hobby Lobby and got a cheap chain for around $1.50 (they were half off)
I’m so excited for this new tradition! I’m a convert so I’m still learning about the faith and looking for ways to incorporate it into our daily lives. Thanks for all your posts.
What an awesome idea! We’re totally doing this!! Thanks so much for sharing, Lacy!
Our Lady of Penafrancia, our patron saint, pray for us.
I have a link to find your yearly saint: http://jenniferfulwiler.com/saints/
Lacy, did you see that your blog and mine was mentioned for New Year, new saint by the St. Louis Review? http://stlouisreview.com/article/2012-01-12/new-year-new-saint
Thanks for encouraging a companion saint for the year. It is from these heroes that we should be learning.
Wow, I hadn’t seen that! Thanks for sharing the link. 🙂
I love your idea and will follow it.
My husband’s birthday is January 5th. Last year at his birthday party, we had all the guests write a saint’s name on a piece of paper. We then drew saints and have included those saints in our nightly litany. We are having another party this year and plan to repeat, as we liked it so much! I like your ideas of how to incorporate the saints into our lives more. Thanks for all of your posts….we’ve tried a few of your ideas and have loved them.
check out my patron saint blog and email me for a patron saint, a blessed and a fruit and gift of the Holy Spirit!
I think it’s Totus Tuus family homeschool you’re thinking of? If I remember right the mom is generous enough to offer to pick your family’s saints for you. Beautiful idea for the New Year.