Help! Need a Saint For Confimation

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Hi!

My name’s Jolyn, and I’m a sophomore in high school. I’m getting confirmed this coming spring and am trying to find a saint’s name for Confirmation. I’m really interested in women’s rights, and would love to find a saint involved with that, but so far I’ve had no luck. I’d like to choose a saint I’m not familiar with. I know St. Joan of Arc was somewhat involved with women’s rights, but she is my patron saint, and I’d like to choose someone different. I’m not even sure if there are any saints involved in women’s rights, especially within the Catholic Church. If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them. I need to have a saint picked out by Sunday.

Peace of Christ,
Jolyn
 
I really don’t think you’re going to find any saints that are associated with women’s rights. Joan of Arc is probably the closest to that, in my opinion, but I don’t think she’s formally known for it. Mary Magdalene is a patron saint of women in general, though.
 
Some ideas–
St. Teresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Clare, and I’ve always been partial to St. Rita.

I think for their time and their worlds, they were innovative, strong and quite good role models for women. Here’s an article about Women Doctor’s of the Church. It talks about St. Teresa and St. Catherine.

If you dig around, there are some great websites that tell us about the lives of the saints, so you just might find the perfect confirmation saint. (If you need links, I’ll dig them up for you).

My confirmation saint is in honor of St. Teresa. (I had no choice as I was very young when I was confirmed, but I might consider it if I had gotten confirmed at an older age.)
 
How about Mary Magdalen? She was the first one Christ appeared to after His resurrection, I think that speaks volumes of her importance.
 
I chose St. Geneviève for my confirmation. 😃 I even named my daughter after her. She’s the patron saint of Paris. When Atilla the Hun was marching toward Paris, she convinced the citizens to stay and pray and fast instead of evacuating, and Atilla suddenly changed course.

Here’s a (http://www.catholic.org/saints/female.php) of female saints.
 
water said:
I was going to mention St. Rita. 🙂
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I really, really like her. She definitely had an interesting life.

There was another I was going to suggest-- but am now drawing a blank.

I do consider the Blessed Mother as my patron saint, but I have two first names, so St. Felicity is my other.
 
I was gonna say the Blessed Virgin - blessed among all women, how could you go past her as a role model for womankind!
 
LilyM said:
I was gonna say the Blessed Virgin - blessed among all women, how could you go past her as a role model for womankind!
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You really can’t. At Mass earlier in the summer, our priest gave a fabulous homily centered on her as a role model for womankind. It certainly helped me think through some thoughts I’d been working out in my mind and helped to clarify things.
 
Hi Jolyn,

Since it requires “heroic virtue” to become a saint, any woman who becomes one is a great role model. I do recommend that you pray that you find the right saint, then read about many of them and choose the one who most touches your heart. I believe that we don’t choose the saints, the saints choose us, and you will find that your patron is one who wants to become a great friend. I chose Anne rather randomly when I was 11 years old, but years later I find that my prayers to her are always heard.

I also agree that if your middle name is not already a version of Mary, you could not possibly do better than the Blessed Mother! She has many titles that you could use for a Confirmation name.

God bless you as you prepare for your Confirmation. I highly recommend the little booklet, The Holy Ghost, Our Greatest Friend, available from TAN books. It helped me to better understand the role of the Holy Spirit in my life.
 
There’s the Great Martyr Catherine (sometimes spelled with a K) of Alexandria. She was the most learned woman of her time, and publicly disputed with pagan philosophers and priests.
 
This year is the year of St Paul (I love this Saint greatly and he is a close friend of mine).

I know you are a lady, but you can have any Saint you choose. I was torn between St Francis, St Michael and St Elizabeth.

Go for the Saint that often comes to your mind.

I will keep you in my prayers for your confirmation and may you receive all the gifts of the Holy Spirit in great measure.🙂

In the Living Prayer of my life
 
Hi Jolyn, and God Bless you during this special and grace-filled time!

I happen to like St. Monica. She had a rough beginning, something like St. Rita, who was suggested also, and is another great example. The times most of our saints lived in were unlikely to produce someone who stands for “women’s rights” per se. But both Rita and Monica had difficult husbands, some say abusive. Rita’s husband was apparently involved in a “mob” of sorts. Both these women forged ahead in strength, with great faith and prayer. Monica even had to overcome depression and an alcohol habit. Both their husbands converted due to their faithfulness. The impression I get from both their stories is that they were very visible, active, outspoken women, something that was not the norm in their time. I think they speak volumes to women today, whose ideas of women’s rights may be mostly fed by the world instead of the Church. Monica and Rita showed us that it is very possible to be pioneers of sorts, to be outspoken about our faith, to go against the conventions of our times and make a difference in the world for Christ. Had Monica not been so focused, persistent, and dedicated to her son Augustine, we may not have one of our great doctors of the Church.
Rita was not wanted in the convent because of the scandal surrounding her husband(at that point deceased) and sons. But one night God just miraculously put her into that convent where the nuns found her in the morning, knowing she couldn’t have gotten in through th locked doors, and they had to accept her because they saw it was God at work. He so honored her faithfulness to Him throughout her hard life, He intervened.

I think these two women are increduible examples of strong and forward-seeing women who stayed utterly faithful to God.

There is one other I know of, she is from a more modern time,
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. Not canonized yet, but on the way. She was known as Lily of the Mohawks. She also had to stand up under persecution from her own people because of her faith. I would suggest reading her story online, as I don’t know it so well.

Anyways, God Bless you!

Tell us who you finally do choose!
🙂

Peace,

Kelly
 
How about St. Barbara

Beautiful maiden imprisoned in a high tower by her father Dioscorus for disobedience. While there, she was tutored by philosphers, orators and poets. From them she learned to think, and decided that polytheism was nonsense. With the help of Origen and Valentinian, she converted to Christianity.

Her father denounced her to the local authorities for her faith, and they ordered him to kill her. She escaped, but he caught her, dragged her home by her hair, tortured her, and killed her. He was immediately struck by lightning, or according to some sources, fire from heaven.
 
j_kelsch said:
Hi!

My name’s Jolyn, and I’m a sophomore in high school. I’m getting confirmed this coming spring and am trying to find a saint’s name for Confirmation. I’m really interested in women’s rights, and would love to find a saint involved with that, but so far I’ve had no luck. I’d like to choose a saint I’m not familiar with. I know St. Joan of Arc was somewhat involved with women’s rights, but she is my patron saint, and I’d like to choose someone different. I’m not even sure if there are any saints involved in women’s rights, especially within the Catholic Church. If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them. I need to have a saint picked out by Sunday.

Peace of Christ,
Jolyn
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Well, you have one of the most recently canonized saints, St. Edith Stein. She was a Jewish philosopher who was very much for the equality treatment of women and I believe wrote on the subject. She eventually came across the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, which inspired her to convert to Catholicism, and enter the Carmelite Order. She was later arrested by the Nazis and killed in the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Read about her and learn what she was actually about first, and then decide.

God Bless
Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Well, you have one of the most recently canonized saints, St. Edith Stein. She was a Jewish philosopher who was very much for the equality treatment of women and I believe wrote on the subject. She eventually came across the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, which inspired her to convert to Catholicism, and enter the Carmelite Order. She was later arrested by the Nazis and killed in the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Read about her and learn what she was actually about first, and then decide.

God Bless
Jim
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RIght! good one, Jim ,I hadn’t thought of her.🙂
 
St. Sebastian is the patron saint of sports if you like sports and so is St. John Bosco I think…
 
I definitely think Edith Stein (Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is her religious name) would be an excellent choice. She herself was a professional woman (a professor of philosophy), and she wrote extensively on women, their education, and their professions.

I love the name Teresa Benedicta, which is the name she took when she entered the Carmelite monastery.

Here is a book of her writings on women:
icspublications.org/bookstore/stein/b_stein02.html

A website with a brief biography:
catholic-forum.com/saints/saintt05.htm

A couple of books on her life:
amazon.com/Edith-Stein-Teresa-Benedicta-Cross/dp/0879738324/ref=sr_1_1/102-0521029-7008937?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192931709&sr=8-1
amazon.com/Meet-Edith-Stein-Concentration-Carmelite/dp/1569552843/ref=sr_1_1/102-0521029-7008937?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192931780&sr=1-1
 
🙂 So it is Sunday, which name did you choose, I am itching to know!

I hope you were greatly blessed today and that you enjoy all of the celebrations.

I am with you in spirit at the Altar.

In the Living Prayer of my life
 
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