Catholic Saints
Who the saints are, how the Church recognises them, and the men and women of our own time whose holiness is being recognised now.
What is a Catholic saint?
A saint is a person the Church declares, with confidence, to be in heaven — someone whose life so clearly reflected Christ that they can be held up for imitation and asked for prayers. Catholics do not worship saints; they ask them to intercede, in the same way you would ask a friend to pray for you.
Saints are not a separate species of Christian. Many of the people on this site were students, nurses, programmers, musicians and volunteers. They became saints not by becoming someone else but by becoming, entirely, who God called them to be.
Each saint is normally given a feast day, usually the anniversary of their death. You can meet the saint remembered today on our saint of the day page.
The stages of canonization
A cause moves through four recognised steps. Below each step you will find the saints and candidates on this site who are at that stage.
Keep exploring
- Patron saints by cause — the full patronage index, cause by cause.
- Catholic prayers — prayers to pray with the saints, including novenas.
- Saint of the day — today's feast and the feast days coming next.
- Full list of saints next door — every profile on the site.
- Modern day martyrs — Christians killed for the faith in our own lifetime.
- Eucharistic miracles — the exhibition catalogued by Saint Carlo Acutis.
- Browse by theme — saints, martyrs and articles grouped by topic.