What is This Saint of the Year Devotion All About?


This isn't superstition. St. Faustina and her religious order did the same thing!

I would like to explain to you about the practice of picking a saint at random to be your “holy protector and intercessor” for the year. Actually, the saint is the one who chooses us though.The tradition of letting a saint “pick you,”is not a new one. St. Faustina wrote about it in her diary, "Divine Mercy in My Soul".
The excerpt is below. . .

“There is a custom among us of drawing by lot, on New Year's Day, special Patrons for ourselves for the whole year. In the morning, during meditation, there arose within me a secret desire that the Eucharistic Jesus be my special Patron for this year also, as in the past. But, hiding this desire from my Beloved, I spoke to Him about everything else but that. When we came to refectory for breakfast, we blessed ourselves and began drawing our patrons. When I approached the holy cards on which the names of the patrons were written, without hesitation I took one, but I didn't read the name immediately as I wanted to mortify myself for a few minutes. Suddenly, I heard a voice in my soul: ‘I am your patron. Read.’ I looked at once at the inscription and read, ‘Patron for the Year 1935 - the Most Blessed Eucharist.’ My heart leapt with joy, and I slipped quietly away from the sisters and went for a short visit before the Blessed Sacrament,where I poured out my heart. But Jesus sweetly admonished me that I should be at that moment together with the sisters. I went immediately in obedience to the rule.”

Excerpt from "Divine Mercy in My Soul, the Diary of St. Faustina"

Wednesday, January 30, 2013


I mentioned the pilgrimage that I took in 2004 in an earlier post. One of the places that I was priviledged to go to was San Giovanni, the burial place of St. Padre Pio. Our guide, Paulo, who was an elderly man, gave us so much information on St. Pio and his life. You could tell how much Paulo loved St. Pio by the way he was speaking about him and even tearing up at a certain point or two. He proudly mentioned that he was able to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation from St. Pio!

Placed in the church for the thousands of pilgrims to take were information sheets that you could fill out and place at the burial site for St. Pio to pray on for you. I took several of these sheets home with me and have handed them out to people to mail in and now, I have found a website that you can go to and email your prayer requests. The website is

http://www.teleradiopadrepio.it/eng/interna.php?bread=Preghiere&inc=preghiere&t=Send%20your%20prayer%20request

If you prefer, you can also mail in your prayer requests to

Convento Frati Minori Cappuccini
"Santa Maria delle Grazie"
71013 S. Giovanni Rotondo (FG) Italy
C/C postale n. 189712

If you mail in your request, don't forget to put the proper postage on your letter.

St. Padre Pio, pray for us!
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