Saints were real people.
They laughed, lost their tempers, got sick, made mistakes and kept going. Meet fifteen of them, from a deacon in ancient Rome to a teenager who loved computers.
What is Hallows Day?
Hallow is an old English word for a saint: a holy one. So All Hallows’ Day means All Saints’ Day, and this site is named after it.
31 October
Halloween
also called All Hallows’ Eve
The evening before the feast, just as Christmas Eve comes before Christmas Day. People called it All Hallows’ Even (even is an old word for evening). In Scotland that was shortened to Hallowe’en, and then to Halloween.
1 November
All Saints’ Day
also called All Hallows’ Day
The day the Church celebrates every saint in heaven: the famous ones who have days of their own, and the countless others known only to God.
You can still hear the old word in the Our Father: “hallowed be thy name” means “may your name be kept holy”. Learn the Our Father in Latin, word by word.
Sources: Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), “All Saints’ Day”; Wiktionary, “hallow”; Wiktionary, “Halloween”
Saints had struggles too
Nobody is born a saint. Here are a few of the things they had to work on.
Monica sneaked sips of wine from the cellar until a maid called her a drunkard.
Read about St Monica
Augustine stole pears just to be naughty, and kept telling God “not yet”.
Read about St Augustine of Hippo
Thérèse cried about almost everything, even about having cried.
Read about St Thérèse of Lisieux
Thomas More was frightened of pain, and did the right thing anyway.
Read about St Thomas More
Francis de Sales worried so much that he made himself ill.
Read about St Francis de Sales
John Bosco’s first idea for making friends was to use his fists.
Read about St John Bosco
Meet the saints
In the order they lived, from the 200s to today. Choose a saint to read their stories.
The early Church
The 200s to the 400s
Died 258St Lawrenceof RomeA deacon of Rome who said the poor were the Church’s real treasure.
About 316 to 397St Martinof ToursA Roman soldier who shared his cloak with a freezing beggar.
About 327 to 379St Macrinathe YoungerThe big sister who taught a family of saints.
About 331 to 387St MonicaA mother who never stopped praying for her son.
354 to 430St Augustineof HippoA brilliant, restless young man who found what his heart was looking for.The Middle Ages
The 1200s
About 1194 to 1253St Clareof AssisiA girl who ran away from a rich life to follow Jesus with St Francis.New worlds
The 1500s and 1600s
1474 to 1548St Juan DiegoA humble man chosen by Mary to carry her message.
1478 to 1535St Thomas MoreA funny, loving dad who wouldn’t lie, not even for a king.
1567 to 1622St Francis de SalesA gentle bishop who showed that anyone can be holy, anywhere.The 1800s
Factories, railways and missions
1815 to 1888St John BoscoA boy acrobat who grew up to give homeless boys a home.
Louis 1823 to 1894, Zélie 1831 to 1877Sts Louis and Zélie MartinA watchmaker and a lacemaker who made their family a way to heaven.
1840 to 1889St Damienof MolokaiA priest who chose to live with people everyone else was afraid of.
1873 to 1897St Thérèseof LisieuxThe Little Flower, who found a little way to heaven.Our own time
The 1990s and 2000s
1991 to 2006St Carlo AcutisA teenager who loved computers, his friends and Jesus in the Eucharist.
True stories, and a few legends
Every story here comes from somewhere you can check: the saints’ own writings, people who knew them, or the Church’s records. Each page lists its sources at the bottom.
A few stories are much older and may not have happened exactly as told. They’re marked Legend so you always know which is which.