married saints – Wide Spread Interests

caffeinatedcatholic:

theresasaintforthat:

St. Joseph, foster father to Jesus, is patron saint of fathers.

St. Augustine had a son before his conversion. He loved his child very much, and the two would be baptized together.

St. Thomas More had four children by his first wife and an adopted stepdaughter by his second wife.

St. Simon of Cyrene’s sons, Rufus and Alexander, were missionaries.

St. Louis Martin and his wife had nine children together, five of whom would survive into adulthood. After Zélie’s death, Louis was left alone to finish raising his beloved daughters.

St. Louis IX was married at twenty to a devoted Christian. They had eleven children together, two of whom passed away in infancy.

St. Joachim had a daughter, Mary, who would herself go on to be mother to God incarnate. Joachim is Jesus’s grandfather!

St. Zachariah and his wife had a son late in life, though Elizabeth was barren. That son would become a prophet and foretold the coming of Jesus, the Messiah.

St. Homobonus and his wife were unable to have children, so Homobonus devoted his resources to caring for abandoned children.

St. Basil the Elder was father to nine or ten children, five of whom are canonized saints.

Bl. Charles of Austria and his wife were deeply in love and raised eight children together. Charles’s last words to his wife were “I love you endlessly”.

I’ve always struggled to find saints to pray to who were married or parents bc the single saints vastly outnumber them, but dang there are so many more than you think. It’s so important to see saints in every vocation and to know that marriage and parenthood is another path to sainthood, not just a fluke for a few holy men and women.