As a woman, I often tend to turn to female saints when I need some help and inspiration, but I have my favorite male saints as well. What would I do without St. Anthony to help me when I lose something or St. Jude when I have a hopeless case to pray about? Pope Francis recently dedicated this liturgical year to St. Joseph. That makes it the perfect time to learn more about the men in the canon of saints. Brotherhood of Saints: Daily Guidance and Inspiration by Melanie Rigney is a great way to do just that.
Rigney, also the author of Sisterhood of Saints, highlights one male saint for each day of the year in a one-page entry. She offers a short summary of the saint’s life; a relevant quote from Scripture, the saint, or another spiritual source; and a challenge for our own lives based on the saint’s example.
All the big-name saints that you would expect are in these pages, but as is often the case in saint books, I appreciate learning about the lesser-known saints. Rigney has taken great care to include saints from all different cultures, time periods, and walks of life. One of the great things we can learn from reading the lives of the saints is that God calls us all to serve Him in unique ways based on our own talents and circumstances. There is a wonderful variety in the lives of the saints and we, too, are called to join their number in heaven!
Some of the lesser-known saints I was introduced to in these pages included Joseph Cafasso (January 15th) who was a spiritual director to St. John Bosco, Giovanni Antonio Farina (March 5th) who established a free school for girls and founded a community of teaching women religious (a radical idea at the time), Hugh of Cluny (April 29th) who served as a counselor to nine popes, Ephrem (June 9th) who is the only male Doctor of the Church not to be a priest or bishop, Peter Faber (August 3rd) who was a college roommate of Saints Francis Xavier and Ignatius of Loyola and was one of the first Jesuits, and Giuseppe Moscati who was an Italian physician whose research helped lead to the use of insulin in treating diabetes. One of the beauties of a book like this is that it makes you want to research more about the saints that interest you. With so many saints to choose from, there are sure to be some that speak to you and circumstances more than others.
Brotherhood of Saints is a wonderful introduction to some of our brothers in heaven. They each have an example to offer us in what it means to live our lives for God. Spending a few minutes each day reading and reflecting on one of these pages is a great way to learn something new and advance on your own unique spiritual journey. It would also be a great family activity to use during morning or evening prayers.
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