How do you choose a patron saint?

A patron saint is a holy person, now in heaven, whom a Christian takes as a particular friend, model and intercessor. Parishes, countries and trades have patrons too, but most Catholics first meet the idea through a name: the one given at Baptism, or the one chosen at Confirmation.

This post explains what the Church actually teaches about the saints and their prayers, where your first patron comes from, and a practical way to choose a saint when the choice is yours.

What is a patron saint?

A patron saint is a saint whom a person, family, parish, place or profession takes as a special protector and model. The patron is asked to pray for those in their care, and their life is held up as an example of what faithfulness to Christ looks like in a particular situation.

The Catechism puts the two roles side by side. When the Church canonises someone, she proposes "the saints to them as models and intercessors" (CCC 828). A patron is a saint in both senses at once: someone to imitate and someone to ask for help.

Patronage grew up naturally. Early Christians built churches over the graves of martyrs and put themselves under the protection of the saint buried there. The Catholic Encyclopedia's entry on patron saints traces how churches, then towns and nations, came to be placed under a saint, and how Pope Urban VIII set rules for choosing patrons of places in 1638. Personal patrons follow the same logic on a smaller scale.

Why do Catholics ask the saints to pray for them?

Because the saints are alive in God and still care for the Church on earth. Asking a saint to pray for you is the same act as asking a friend or a parent to pray for you, directed at someone who now sees God face to face.

Christians have always asked one another for prayer. Saint Paul urged "that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men" (1 Timothy 2:1), and Saint James wrote that "the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects" (James 5:16). Death does not end that practice. The Book of Revelation shows the elders in heaven holding "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Revelation 5:8).

The Catechism is direct about it. The saints "contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth," and "their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world" (CCC 2683).

Protestant Christians often object that this sidelines Christ, since there is "one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). The Church agrees with the verse and answers that the saints pray only through that one mediator. They "do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus" (CCC 956). Worship belongs to God alone. What the saints receive is honour and a request for help.

How does the communion of saints make this possible?

The communion of saints is the belief that all members of Christ, whether on earth, in purgatory or in heaven, form one Church and share one life in him. Because that family is not broken by death, its members can still pray for one another.

The Catechism quotes the Second Vatican Council: "It is not merely by the title of example that we cherish the memory of those in heaven," but so that "the union of the whole Church in the Spirit may be strengthened" (CCC 957). A patron saint, in other words, is not a mascot. The relationship joins you more closely to Christ.

This is the same belief that stands behind November's two great days, which our post on All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day explains in more detail. On the first the Church celebrates everyone in heaven, and on the second she prays for the dead still being purified. Your patron belongs to the first group, and the Letter to the Hebrews counts them among "so great a cloud of witnesses" around us (Hebrews 12:1).

Where does your first patron saint come from?

For most Catholics, from Baptism. The Church asks that the baptised receive a Christian name, often the name of a saint, and that saint becomes their first patron. If you were named after a saint, you already have one, whether or not anyone told you.

The Catechism explains: "In Baptism, the Lord's name sanctifies man, and the Christian receives his name in the Church. This can be the name of a saint... The patron saint provides a model of charity; we are assured of his intercession" (CCC 2156). It adds that the name can also express "a Christian mystery or Christian virtue," which is why names like Grace, Noel or Dolores are used.

Church law sets the lower limit rather than a list. Parents, sponsors and the pastor are to see "that a name foreign to Christian sensibility is not given" (Code of Canon Law, can. 855). A name without an obvious saint is not forbidden. Families in that situation often choose a saint with a related name, or a patron connected with the day of birth or Baptism.

The name matters because it is more than a label. "God calls each one by name," the Catechism says, and "the name one receives is a name for eternity" (CCC 2158–2159). If you want to understand how Baptism fits with the rest of Christian life, our overview of the seven sacraments is a good place to start.

Do you choose a new saint at Confirmation?

In many parishes, yes, by custom. Candidates for Confirmation often choose a saint's name to add to their own, taking that saint as a patron for adult Christian life. Church law does not require it, and keeping your baptismal name is equally valid.

The custom fits the sacrament. Confirmation completes Baptism, and the Catechism notes that it is fitting for the sponsor to be one of the baptismal godparents "to emphasize the unity of the two sacraments" (CCC 1311). For the same reason, some candidates deliberately keep their baptismal saint instead of picking a new one.

If you do choose a new name, the choice is usually made with a catechist or sponsor, and the bishop uses it during the rite. It does not change your legal name. It is a public statement about whose example you intend to follow and whose prayers you are counting on.

How do you choose a patron saint?

Start with a connection: a shared name, birthday, work, place or struggle. Read the lives of two or three candidates, pray about the choice, and pick the saint whose life speaks to where you actually are. There is no wrong answer among the saints in heaven.

These are the most common ways Catholics find a patron:

• Your name. Look up the saints who share your first or middle name. There are often several, from different centuries and countries.
• Your birthday or baptism day. Every day of the Church's calendar has at least one saint. The saint of the day you were born or baptised is a traditional choice.
• Your work or state of life. Nurses often turn to Saint Camillus, students to Saint Thomas Aquinas, parents to Saint Joseph or Saint Monica, soldiers to Saint Michael.
• A struggle you carry. Many saints wrestled with illness, grief, addiction, doubt or a difficult family. A saint who went through what you are going through often becomes the closest companion.
• A virtue you lack. Choose a saint known for exactly the thing you find hardest: patience, courage, purity or humility.
• A saint who keeps turning up. If one name keeps appearing in books, churches or conversations, it is worth paying attention.

Once you have a short list, read a proper biography, not only a one-paragraph summary. Saints were real people with tempers, failures and conversions, and the details are what make them useful as models. Then choose, and do not worry about choosing wrongly. You can always add more patrons later, and every saint in heaven is glad to pray for you.

What is a name day and how do you keep it?

A name day is the feast day of the saint whose name you bear. In many Catholic countries, including Poland, Italy, Spain and parts of Germany, it has long been celebrated like a second birthday, and in some families more warmly than the birthday itself.

Keeping it is simple. Go to Mass that day if you can, since the Church's memorials of the saints are celebrated in the Eucharist, which our post on what the Eucharist is explains. Read something by or about your saint, and ask for their prayers by name. Families often add a small celebration: a favourite meal, a candle at the table, a card for a godchild.

The rest of the year, the relationship is kept in ordinary ways. Add a short line to your morning or night prayers: "Saint N., pray for me." Some people offer one decade of the Rosary each week for their patron's intentions and their own, or keep an image of the saint where they will see it. Over time a patron becomes less an idea and more a familiar presence, which is the whole point.