Young Saints to Remember

Sometimes, we may feel like we don't have much influence in our world. But these eleven young saints shook their world with their incredible witness to Christ.

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

1. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati - From a very early age, he had a strong faith in God. He was always helping the needy and trying to share his faith. He loved the poor and spent time with them, helping them. He loved art and music, and he enjoyed climbing mountains. When he was 24 years old, he contracted polio and died. 
2. Blessed Chiara Badano - Chiara was the long-awaited daughter of Ruggero and Teresa

   

   Blessed Chiara Badano

   Badano. She was always thinking of others from a very early age. She liked to listen to music, sing, dance, hike, swim, and was very devoted to tennis. When she was 17, she got cancer, and she had to go to the hospital. Her treatments were very painful, but she offered everything to Jesus. She spent her time in the hospital cheering up the other patients until her death in 1990, at the age of 18. 



Saint Stanislaus Kostka

3. Saint Stanislaus Kostka - Stanislaus' family was very well off, but Stanislaus left all the riches he could have had to serve Jesus. His older brother Paul was not kind to him, and he wanted him to enjoy worldly things more than his faith. One day, Stanislaus got very sick and thought he was going to die, but Mary came to him and told him to become a Jesuit, and so he did. Nine months into being a Jesuit, Stanislaus fell ill with malaria and died at the age of 17. 



Saint Clelia Barbieri

4. Saint Clelia Barbieri - Clelia was always focused on God, as her family taught her. She was very pious and holy. Her father died when she was eight, so Clelia had to do many things to help her mother in their home. She founded a new religious order in her early twenties - The Little Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows. They taught the Catholic faith, helped the sick and the poor, and sewed. When she was twenty, she fell critically ill with tuberculosis. She recovered long enough to actually set her order up and get it running. When she was 23, she died of tuberculosis. Saint Clelia lives on miraculously to this day - religious communities, specifically the first one she started, can hear her singing along with them in their prayers from heaven. 



Saint Dominic Savio

5. Saint Dominic Savio - Dominic was born in Italy and always had a close relationship with Jesus. He was a very peaceful person, and he was always the peacemaker at school. He also knew another saint - John Bosco - very well. Saint John Bosco was amazed at Dominic's piety. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 14. 



Saint Philomena

6. Saint Philomena -  Not much is known about Philomena, but she is a saint anyway. Everything we know about this courageous young saint comes from visions Philomena granted to Sister Maria Luisa de Gesu. Philomena was the daughter of a Greek king who converted to Christianity with his daughter. When she was 13, Philomena promised herself to Jesus, and decided never to get married. Because she was so beautiful, the infamous Emperor Diocletian fell in love with her. When Philomena refused him and was tortured. She was whipped, drowned, and shot with arrows, but each time she was tortured, the angels came to her rescue and healed her. The emperor had her decapitated when she was still only 13. 



Saint Dymphna

7. Saint Dymphna - Dymphna was born to a pagan father and a Christian mother. When she was 14, her mother died, and her father wanted to remarry. However, he wanted his new wife to look exactly like his past wife. His advisors told him to marry his daughter, because no woman as beautiful as his wife could be found. When Dymphna heard of this, she and her priest fled to what is now Belgium. Her father followed her and, when he saw he couldn't persuade his daughter to marry him, cut off her head. Dymphna was only 14. 



Blessed Jose Sanchez del Rio

8. Blessed Jose Sanchez del Rio - Jose was a very joyful young man who loved Jesus very much. He asked Jesus to allow him to become a martyr. He joined the Cristeros, a group of people working to defend freedom of religion. Jose was captured. They tried to convince him to give up his faith, but he said no. Jose was martyred at the age of 14. 



Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto

9. Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto - Francisco and Jacinta Marto lived in Portugal. Their job was to herd their family's sheep. They often played with their cousin Lucia while she herded her sheep too. One day, Mary came to visit the three children. They were told to pray the rosary every day, and to pray also for the conversion of Russia, which was facing communism. They returned to the place where Mary had come every thirteenth day from May 13th to October 13th, and every time more people showed up. In the final apparition, Mary made the sun "dance" in the sky. Less than two years later, Francisco died of influenza at the age of 10. Jacinta died one year later of influenza when she was 9. Their cousin Lucia became a Carmelite nun and died in 2005. She is not yet a saint, but she is a blessed.



Saint Agnes of Rome

10. Saint Agnes of Rome - Agnes was a very beautiful girl, and from a very young age, all the boys in her town wanted to marry her. Agnes refused all of them, because she had made a promise to God that she would never get married, she would only love Jesus. When the governor's son was refused by Agnes, he went and told his father that she was a Christian. She was brought before the governor, and he tried to promise her wonderful things, but Agnes refused. He put her in chains and sentenced her to death. She was beheaded in 304, when she was only 12 or 13 years old. Because the story of Saint Agnes was so long ago, there are many different versions. But a few things always stay the same: she is always remembered in the stories for her purity, youth, and joy. 



Saint Pedro Calungsod

11. Saint Pedro Calungsod - Pedro was a young catechist who assisted missionaries. He was especially close to Padre Diego. He went from the Philippines to the Ladrones Islands in the Western Pacific, teaching the natives about Jesus. The missionaries became popular on the islands. One native got angry at the popularity of the missionaries, and he spread some rumors. Some people began to believe him because of random coincidences. Pedro and Padre Diego gathered some children and adults to teach them the truths of the Catholic faith. Pedro and the Padre Diego decided to baptize a baby with the mother's consent. When the father found out, he began throwing spears at them. Pedro could have easily left, but he wanted to stay with the Padre Diego. A spear was caught in his heart. Padre Diego gave him final absolution before he died. 

These eleven saints can inspire us to be sacrificial, joyful, pure, and holy in our everyday lives. God bless you!