Saints Are Not Ancient History
When people picture Catholic saints, they tend to imagine medieval figures in strange clothing — monks in caves, nuns in habits, martyrs from the Roman arena. The assumption is that sanctity belongs to another era — that the conditions for holiness existed once but no longer do.
The twentieth century demolished this assumption. It produced saints who navigated the horrors of war, the terrors of totalitarianism, the complexities of modern life, and the challenges of ordinary existence — and did so with a holiness as profound as anything in the Church’s two-thousand-year history.
Here are some you should know.
St Maximilian Kolbe (1894–1941)
A Polish Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Kolbe was a priest, a publisher, and a tireless promoter of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He founded a religious community in Poland and another in Japan. When the Nazis invaded Poland, he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz.
In July 1941, a prisoner escaped from the camp. In retaliation, the SS selected ten men to be starved to death in an underground bunker. When one of the selected men — Franciszek Gajowniczek — cried out that he had a wife and children, Kolbe stepped forward and asked to take his place. The commandant agreed.
Kolbe spent two weeks in the starvation bunker, leading the other condemned men in prayer and hymns. When the guards came to clear the cell, Kolbe was the last man alive. He was killed with an injection of carbolic acid on 14 August 1941.
He was canonised by Pope St John Paul II in 1982. Gajowniczek — the man whose life Kolbe saved — was present at the canonisation Mass. He lived until 1995.
St Teresa of Calcutta (1910–1997)
An Albanian nun who spent nearly fifty years serving the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta — and who did so while experiencing decades of spiritual darkness.
Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje, she joined the Sisters of Loreto at eighteen and was sent to India, where she taught in a girls’ school. In 1946, on a train journey to Darjeeling, she received what she called “a call within a call” — a conviction that she was to leave the convent and serve Christ among the poorest of the poor.
She founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. The order grew to over 4,500 sisters in 133 countries, running hospices, orphanages, schools, and homes for the dying. Her work with the destitute of Calcutta made her one of the most famous people on earth.
What was not known during her lifetime — and was revealed only after her death through her private letters — was that she spent nearly fifty years in profound spiritual darkness. She felt no sense of God’s presence. Her prayer was dry. She experienced what she described as “the terrible pain of loss, of God not wanting me, of God not being God, of God not really existing.” Yet she continued — serving, praying, loving — without consolation, without feeling, sustained by faith alone.
She was canonised by Pope Francis in 2016. Her spiritual darkness, far from diminishing her sanctity, is now recognised as one of the most remarkable testimonies to faith in modern Church history.
St Padre Pio (1887–1968)
An Italian Capuchin friar who bore the stigmata — the wounds of Christ — on his body for fifty years.
Pio of Pietrelcina was a simple, often brusque man who spent his entire priestly life in a small friary in southern Italy. He celebrated Mass with extraordinary intensity — Masses that could last hours. He heard confessions for up to sixteen hours a day. He read souls — knowing people’s sins before they confessed them. He is credited with numerous healings, bilocations, and other supernatural phenomena that were investigated during his lifetime and after his death.
The stigmata appeared on his hands, feet, and side in 1918 and remained until shortly before his death in 1968. They were examined by multiple physicians and never explained medically.
He was canonised by Pope St John Paul II in 2002. His shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo is one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the world, drawing over seven million visitors per year.
St John Paul II (1920–2005)
The Pope who changed the world — a philosopher, an actor, a labourer, a bishop, and the longest-reigning pope of the twentieth century.
Karol Wojtyła grew up in Poland under Nazi occupation and then Communist rule. He studied for the priesthood in secret, was ordained, earned doctorates in philosophy and theology, and became the Archbishop of Kraków before being elected Pope in 1978 — the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.
His pontificate was one of the most consequential in Church history. He played a central role in the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. He travelled to 129 countries — more than all previous popes combined. He canonised more saints than all his predecessors put together. He launched World Youth Day, wrote fourteen encyclicals, and developed the “Theology of the Body” — a sustained reflection on human sexuality, love, and the meaning of the body.
He survived an assassination attempt in 1981 and later visited his would-be assassin in prison to forgive him.
He was canonised by Pope Francis in 2014, just nine years after his death — one of the fastest canonisations in modern history.
St Josephine Bakhita (1869–1947)
A Sudanese woman who was kidnapped as a child, sold into slavery multiple times, beaten and scarred by her owners, and eventually found freedom — and God — in Italy.
Bakhita — the name her slavers gave her, meaning “fortunate” — endured years of brutal treatment. She was sold at least five times. One owner tattooed her body with sixty cuts, rubbing salt into the wounds. She was eventually brought to Italy by an Italian diplomat and placed in the care of the Canossian Sisters in Venice.
With the sisters, Bakhita encountered Christianity for the first time. She was deeply moved — recognising in the God the sisters described the “master” she had felt in her heart since childhood but had never been able to name. She was baptised in 1890, took the name Josephine, and eventually entered the Canossian order.
She spent the remaining forty-five years of her life in the convent — cooking, sewing, answering the door, and telling her story to anyone who would listen. She bore no bitterness toward her former owners. “If I were to meet those who kidnapped me,” she said, “and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. For if these things had not happened, I would not have been a Christian and a religious today.”
She was canonised by Pope St John Paul II in 2000. She is the patron saint of human trafficking survivors.
St Gianna Beretta Molla (1922–1962)
An Italian paediatrician, wife, and mother who refused a life-saving abortion and gave her life for her unborn child.
Gianna was a physician, a member of Catholic Action, a skier, and a lover of music and art. She married Pietro Molla in 1955 and had three children. During her fourth pregnancy, doctors discovered a fibroma on her uterus. They offered three options: a hysterectomy (which would kill the unborn child), an abortion, or removal of the fibroma alone, which carried significant risk.
Gianna chose the third option — knowing the danger to herself, determined to save her child. The surgery was successful, but complications arose during delivery. Gianna died a week after giving birth to her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, on 28 April 1962.
She was canonised by Pope St John Paul II in 2004. Her husband and her daughter — the child whose life she gave hers to save — were present at the canonisation Mass.
Why They Matter
These saints are not distant figures from another era. Kolbe died within living memory. Teresa of Calcutta appeared on television. John Paul II was watched by billions. Gianna Molla’s daughter is alive today.
They show that holiness is not a historical phenomenon that ended with the medieval period. It is ongoing — produced by the same grace, sustained by the same sacraments, available to every person in every century. The conditions of modern life — war, poverty, technology, complexity — do not prevent holiness. They provide new occasions for it.
And they show that holiness takes many forms. A friar who dies in a death camp. A nun who serves the dying. A priest who bears mysterious wounds. A pope who changes history. A former slave who forgives her torturers. A mother who gives her life for her child.
The communion of saints is not a closed society. It is still accepting members. And the invitation is addressed to you.