Can I choose a Confirmation Saint after Confirmation?

[KenaAnn]

I didn’t really know what I was doing when I was being Confirmed at 14.

I chose a Confirmation name because I liked it, not because I had any special Saint on my mind. Now that I’m 22, I realize the importance of a Confirmation Saint.

So… who do I pray to? Can I choose a Saint based off the name? I know my Confirmation is valid… right?

I realize I can pray to any saint, but I feel like something is missing. I feel like, if I had known the meaning of the name, I would have chosen Monica, or even Sophia because that’s my guardian angel’s name (is that allowed??)

The name I chose was Isabel. The meaning is great— “consecrated by God”
but I have no person to base if off. Should I choose an Elizabeth and establish a relationship with one and call her my Confirmation Saint?

Any advice would be great

 

[LaMusicaSenior]

Hello! You can always take St. Elizabeth on as your patron saint!

I chose St. Cecilia as my Confirmation name, because of my love of all things musical, but St. Maria Goretti is my patron saint because her feast day is one day before my birthday, I’m named after her (middle name) and I need strenghthened to stay pure.

You can have devotion to multiple saints - also, take this opporunity to know more about some St. Isabels such as:

newadvent.org/cathen/08179a.htm

saintisabel.org/Who_is.cfm

site.thecatholicgiftshop.com/blog/2009/10/saint-isabella-of-portugal-patron-saint/

God Bless!

Chloe M.
www.timeonthemountaintop.blogspot.com

 

[Della]

I was confirmed as an adult convert who was told that “we don’t choose saints names any more–we just use our baptismal name.” So, I didn’t get to choose a saint, although I would have loved to. So, I have since adopted St. Catherine Laboure (in the spirit of using my baptismal name) because of my devotion to Our Lady, who appeared to St. Catherine in visions, giving us the Miraculous Medal. I also claim St. Jeanne de Arc, St. Bernadette, St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Michael Archangel for various devotional/theological reasons.

 

[LegoGE1947]

I was confirmed as an adult convert who was told that “we don’t choose saints names any more–we just use our baptismal name.” So, I didn’t get to choose a saint, although I would have loved to. So, I have since adopted St. Catherine Laboure (in the spirit of using my baptismal name) because of my devotion to Our Lady, who appeared to St. Catherine in visions, giving us the Miraculous Medal. I also claim St. Jeanne de Arc, St. Bernadette, St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Michael Archangel for various devotional/theological reasons.

I was converted to the Catholic faith as a 53 year old adult. I was told the same thing about not choosing saint’s names. Recently I have chosen St Michael Archangel and Blessed John Paul II. Also I am devoted to Abp Fulton Sheen although he isn’t officially a saint as yet. Is that okay? My devotion to John Paul is because I became Catholic partly through his witness as Pope and Fulton Sheen because he was originally from Illinois and I remember watching him on tv as a child even though I was not Catholic at the time. St Michael because at our parish they close every Mass by reciting the “St Michael Prayer”

 

[GangGreen]

Technically you should just be confirming your baptism. You were given a name at baptism and that’s what you should be confirming. When I got confirmed as an adult, I took my first name while everyone else picked other saint names. My first name is a well known saint so it kind of works anyway .

It’s funny because my parents who grew up in Italy never heard of such a thing until they came here. I’m not sure if it’s done these days, but back in the 50s it wasn’t.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Technically you should just be confirming your baptism. You were given a name at baptism and that’s what you should be confirming. When I got confirmed as an adult, I took my first name while everyone else picked other saint names. My first name is a well known saint so it kind of works anyway .

It’s funny because my parents who grew up in Italy never heard of such a thing until they came here. I’m not sure if it’s done these days, but back in the 50s it wasn’t.

I was baptised in an evangelical church as a 26 year old adult. In evangelical terms any one who is “born again” is a “saint.”

 

[MissRose73]

When I was confirmed in the early 1990’s, we were not asked to pick a saints name. My mother and my aunt were confirmed in the 1950’s and were asked to pick one, my mother recalls she chose Helen, but now doesn’t remember why.

I still consider St Therese a confirmation saint for me as I’ve been drawn to her in some way since I was a child reading her biography in my saints’ book for children I got for my First Communion from my Godfather. Most likely if we were asked to pick one, I may have chosen her.

 

[Phemie]

Technically you should just be confirming your baptism. You were given a name at baptism and that’s what you should be confirming. When I got confirmed as an adult, I took my first name while everyone else picked other saint names. My first name is a well known saint so it kind of works anyway .

It’s funny because my parents who grew up in Italy never heard of such a thing until they came here. I’m not sure if it’s done these days, but back in the 50s it wasn’t.

The practice of picking a Confirmation name appears to be a very cultural thing.

I’d never heard of the practice until I was a catechist for Confirmation and First Communion classes in my present parish in the late 90s. I’d been confirmed in another diocese back in 1960, I’d been a Confirmation sponsor in the mid 80s and my own kids had been prepared for/been confirmed in two different dioceses in the mid 90s and never had this come up, so I was quite surprised by it. But then I noticed that older registers had a section for the Confirmation name while the latest one purchased for the parish didn’t.

The diocesan Catechetical Coordinator at the time I was a catechist told us that this was no longer encouraged, because we were trying to emphasize the link between Baptism and Confirmation, a link that is often not obvious because of the timing of these sacraments.