There’s A Saint For Your Birth Month, Here’s What They Reveal About You

The liturgical calendar is intentionally contrarian.

Its origins date back to the first century, when early Christians began organizing their calendar around cycles, seasons, and dates of significance. They not only celebrated feast days to honor saints and martyrs but constructed a symbolically rich calendar designed around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

By the fourth century, the sweeping Roman Empire had become increasingly Christianized, and believers had established the core foundations of the church calendar. They adopted the Roman calendar and gradually added key feast days, like Easter Sunday, into it.

The liturgical year is still a central practice in Catholicism and high-church Protestantism, but its influence is all over post-Christian America. Every St. Patrick’s Day celebration is a callback.

Today, as spiritual seekers increasingly adopt an ethos of slow living, the liturgical calendar is more alluring than ever, offering a steady, consistent alternative to the chaos of modern life.

What’s more, the church calendar is still dynamic. It’s in active transformation every day, guided by history and influenced by cultural change. For modern people trying to understand the complex challenges of the present age and the uncertainty of the future, it can be enlightening to study the lives of the saints.

Their feast days, celebrated during every month of the year, serve as reminders of their suffering and devotion. There are many you may have never heard of—or have only heard of in passing—that represent something much deeper than a name on a calendar.

January: St. Genevieve

The patron saint of Paris, St. Genevieve was born to a peasant family in Nanterre, France. She was consecrated by a bishop when he visited her village at seven years old. She was given a brass medal to wear around her neck and ordered never to wear any other jewelry to avoid falling into vanity.

She considered the religious life at fifteen, and following the death of her parents, she moved to Paris, where she was persecuted for sharing heavenly visions and predictions.

She was known for her generosity and once assisted in finding food for her people during a famine. Later, she encouraged her fellow Parisians to remain in their homes, fast, and pray for safety when Attila’s army descended. She lived a long, inspired life, and died at 89.

Her feast day is celebrated on January 3.

February: St. Valentine

Relics of his life have been found all over the world, and his grave is located on the Via Flaminia north of Rome, but little is known about St. Valentine.

He was likely a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Emperor Claudius II, and he likely married Christian couples under heavy persecution—these are the origins of his association with romantic love. He was likely sentenced to death and executed outside the Flaminian Gate on what is now known as Valentine’s Day.

Nowadays we associate this enigmatic saint with all symbols of love, including sugary-sweet candy, chocolate, and roses, but he’s also the patron saint of epilepsy. In his time he was probably known more as a healer of the “fainting sickness,” which medieval people believed to be a spiritual disorder.

His feast day is celebrated on February 14.

March: St. Benjamin

A deacon in Persia, St. Benjamin lived during a forty-year period of Christian persecution under two separate kings. He was one of many believers who refused to renounce his faith while imprisoned, but his circumstances were unusual in that he was released for a time by the Persian authorities, who offered him a chance to renounce his faith.

He refused, and in fact continued preaching and ministering with increased zeal, which led to his execution. He was sentenced in 424 and died an agonizing death in the public square, after lengthy and exceptionally brutal torture and disembowelment.

His feast day is celebrated on March 31.

April: St. Bernadette

Born into a poor family in Lourdes, France in 1844, St. Bernadette was the first of nine children and suffered from various health problems from the time she was a toddler.

At fourteen, she and her sister went to collect firewood near the family home. In a grotto over a rose bush, Bernadette experienced the first of many visions of the Virgin Mary, who appeared to her before turning the murky water bright and clear.

Her family was embarrassed by her claims, and she received a deluge of questions from the townspeople, many of whom believed she was mentally ill. The Vatican and the French government interviewed her and investigated the site of the visions, finding no explanation for the clear spring water. Our Lady of Lourdes is now a frequent pilgrimage site.

Her feast day is celebrated on April 16.

May: St. Dymphna

She is renowned today as the patron saint of mental illness, but in seventh-century Ireland when she lived, psychological disorders were not well understood and often attributed to spiritual sickness. In her early teens St. Dymphna took a vow of chastity and committed her life to God, but the loss of her mother and subsequent mental breakdown of her father caused her life to go in an unexpected direction.

Destroyed by his grief, her father refused to remarry unless he could find a woman as beautiful as Dymphna’s late mother—and began to set his sights on marrying his own daughter. Dymphna fled to modern-day Geel, Belgium with the help of her local priest, where she built a hospital and pledged to help the sick.

Her life was cut short when her father tracked her down and sent an executor to behead her in Geel. She was fifteen when she died, but the hospital she founded expanded over the centuries and became a sanctuary for those suffering from mental afflictions.

Her feast day is celebrated on May 15.

June: St. Agrippina

Honored mainly in Sicily, St. Agrippina was born into a prestigious, wealthy Roman family during an unfortunate time of Christian persecution under Emperor Valerian. She was one of many martyrs at this time, and while there is not much known about her execution, it is believed that she was either beheaded or scourged.

Her body was then reportedly carried to Sicily by three devout women who believed they were accompanied by angels. Sicilian immigrant communities have revered her for many centuries. They continue to honor her abroad and make pilgrimages to the site of her tomb, invoking her as the patron saint of thunderstorms and leprosy.

While her feast day has been removed from the Catholic calendar, it is still celebrated in the Orthodox tradition on June 23.

July: St. Charbel

Born in 1928 in a rural mountain village in Lebanon, St. Charbel was the youngest of five children and lost his father at a young age. In his adolescence he spent much of his time outdoors, praying to an icon of the Virgin Mary at a nearby grotto where he led the small herd of cows his family owned.

Inspired by the solitary lives of his uncles, he entered the religious life in his twenties and took the name of a second-century hermit. He got permission to live as a hermit himself at the age of 47, only coming out of seclusion to preach passionately to Lebanese Christians and Muslims.

He passed away from a stroke on Christmas Eve at the age of 70. His feast day is celebrated on July 24.

August: St. Monica

A great deal has been written about St. Augustine, whose work Confessions outlines his radical conversion to Christianity after many years of restless spiritual seeking. He is known as one of the most important theologians in the history of the church. But he would likely never have arrived at his conclusions about philosophy, theology, and morality without the guiding hand of his mother.

Born to a Christian family, St. Monica married a hedonistic and wayward Roman pagan who was frequently unfaithful and abusive. Over time he softened, converting to Christianity a year before his death.

It was in this context that Augustine grew up, witnessing his devout mother bearing this terrible burden for years and never losing hope that her husband would come around.

Monica herself accompanied Augustine to Rome and eventually Milan, where he underwent his own profound conversion. She became ill with a fever and passed away shortly after her son was baptized, at the age of 56. Her feast day is celebrated on August 27.

September: St. John Chrysostom

A Church Father who served as the Archbishop of Constantinople, St. John Chrysostom was born in Roman Syria in 347, likely to a pagan family. He studied law, theology, and rhetoric, developing a profound love of Greek literature, which would influence his preaching following his conversion to Christianity.

So highly regarded was his oration that he was given the name Chrysostom, from the Greek chrysostomas, or “golden-tongued.” He was deeply committed to asceticism, practicing such extreme self-denial that he suffered stomach and kidney damage.

He lived as a hermit, spending most of his days studying the Bible, praying, and fasting in the desert, coming out only occasionally to preach controversially against abuse within the Church. He made many enemies with powerful bishops who excommunicated him. He died in exile in 407, and his feast day is celebrated on September 14.

October: St. Thérèse of Lisieux

St. Thérèse became a Carmelite nun in her native France at the age of fifteen. She was a relatively obscure but beloved figure during her life, and following her death of tuberculosis at 24, she became canonized quite quickly.

She has now become one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic Church. Her posthumous autobiography, Story of a Soul, has inspired countless devotees, who often see roses when they pray for her intercession.

Despite having little contact with the outside world, several sisters at Carmel developed tuberculosis. Upon diagnosis, Thérèse fell into a dark night of the soul, doubting God’s existence and grappling with heavy spiritual questions. She committed to writing the manuscript that would become Story of a Soul, spending her final months hard at work.

Her feast day is celebrated on October 1.

November: St. Cecilia

The patron saint of music, St. Cecilia was born in Rome in the third century to a high-ranking noble family. At the time, the city was ruled by Emperor Severus, whose hatred of the Christian religion meant that many believers expected to be martyred at any time.

Cecilia was one of many who embraced death under Roman rule rather than renounce her faith. She was engaged to a pagan nobleman when she underwent her conversion, and was ready to walk away from him to take a vow of chastity, but he was so inspired by her devotion that he was baptized as well. At her wedding she reportedly ignored the instruments and sang directly to God.

Cecilia was arrested and condemned to death. She survived three days after several vicious strikes from a sword. Her feast day is celebrated on November 22, typically with orchestral and musical festivals.

December: St. Adele

Born in Germany in the seventh century, St. Adele was the daughter of King Dagobert II, but she had little passion for wealth and nobility. Her love was for God, and her journey to the religious life was an unconventional one.

She was married and had a son, only to become a widow early in life and change course. She made arrangements for her son to receive an inheritance and then entered the religious life.

Her legacy continued thanks to her grandson, who became canonized as a saint as well, and her immense generosity and piety throughout her life. She founded a convent near Trier, Germany and passed away on Christmas Eve. Her feast day is celebrated on December 24.