You Need to Get To Know These 7 Saints This Year

After a crazy few years, it’s finally a new year! A new year brings new goals, new hurdles to leap through, and new chances. We’re sure it will bring chances to meet someone new through Catholic Singles!

With all of these new possibilities, it’s a great time to get to know some new saints. Saints are invaluable friends along our journey of faith and to sainthood. But they can also be encouraging in your online dating experience.

Here are seven saints to get to know (or get to know in a deeper way!) in the upcoming year.

Saint Raphael the Archangel

St. Raphael the Archangel is often associated with healing, especially from blindness. He healed Tobit’s blindness and delivered Sarah from a demon in the Book of Tobit. But what sometimes goes unnoticed about him is that he also helped Tobiah and Sarah marry and consummate their marriage. That was something Sarah had previously been unable to do. For this reason, he’s also a patron of those looking for their partner.

Now is the perfect time to get to know St. Raphael. If you’re frustrated about still not finding someone, or if or none of your previous relationships working out, he’s your saint. In a relationship and you want clear vision for the future of the relationship? He’ll help you out. If you’re joyfully looking for your significant other, he’ll be by your side!

Saint Margaret of Cortona

St. Margaret was a willful young woman who ran away with her lover. Because they couldn’t get married, she became his mistress instead. She bore a son out of this relationship. Her lover was murdered suddenly. This shocked Margaret so much that she took her son and went to the Franciscans seeking shelter. Eventually she became a Franciscan tertiary. Her son even became a friar!  She served the poor and sick for the rest of her days. But she still struggled with physical temptations of lust.

St. Margaret is a great saint to know this year because she’s experienced it all. Looking for love? She’s been there. Looking for acceptance? She’s been there. Rushing into a relationship? Check. Dealing with sins of the flesh? Double check.

St. Margaret can lead you in a poverty of spirit that will be necessary for entering into any healthy relationship. She’s a comforter and encourager for the harder parts of this journey of Catholic dating.

Saint Agnes

St. Agnes is the patron saint of chastity, which makes her a great intercessor if you’re striving for a chaste relationship this year. St. Agnes chose Christ as her spouse and turned down anyone who would have her reject him. Anyone who wouldn’t help her grow in holiness and closeness with Christ was out! This, of course, led to her martyrdom.

But an important lesson can be learned from her life. As Catholics, we should seek Christ above all things, even a significant other. Friendships and relationships should lead us closer to Christ.  When you’re dating in the new year, St. Agnes offers a fantastic reminder and a helpful tool for evaluating the state of your relationships or potential relationships.

Saint Augustine

St. Augustine of Hippo, though raised Christian, was one heck of a party-goer for much of his life. He was into every vice possible, especially sins of the flesh. He also had a son out of wedlock. Once he made a profound and full reversion, though, there was no stopping him. He gave up everything because he knew he had found something even better than all that he had amassed for himself. Eventually, he even became bishop!

St. Augustine understands what it’s like to be in the world. He knows what temptation feels like and how easy it is to fall into. But he also witnesses to the mercy of God, which is grater than any vice. St. Augustine is well-known for his writings and teachings on the faith. As a single Catholic man or woman, get to know St. Augustine for all of the ways he messed up before finding true love in the Lord. He’s a great companion on this road of Catholic dating and discernment and he likes making new friends.

He’ll be there to cheer you on and pray you out of the rough patches (just like his mother, Saint Monica, did for him).

Saint Thomas Aquinas

When St. Thomas was at university, he rarely spoke. His fellow students nicknamed him “the dumb ox,” a nickname that followed him the rest of his life. But the nickname was a total misnomer.  Since this year is the Year of the Ox, I’ve included him in the list of saints to get to know as a single Catholic man or woman!

St. Thomas always knew who he was and what God desired for him. He never backed down from that, despite family disagreeing and trying to stop him, sexual temptation, and even his classmates making fun of him.

In this new year, get to know St. Thomas so you can learn how to be as self-aware and as steadfast as he was. Yes, he was a great thinker and teacher. But he knew this is what he was called to do. He’ll help you understand yourself, too.

Knowing who you are, what you are made for, and what you’re looking for is so important in Catholic dating. Family life is the missionary field and the battlefield and you can’t enter into a healthy union if you both don’t have a clear vision of yourselves and how your life together will be.

Saint Margaret Clitherow

St. Margaret was married and that should be reason enough for you to get to know her better this year! But what is remarkable about her marriage was that she and her husband where both members of the Church of England, but she converted some time after their wedding. Her husband didn’t convert but he didn’t snitch on her, either. At that time, it was dangerous being Catholic in England. He also didn’t stop her from hiding priests or raising their children Catholic.

She was eventually arrested for hiding priests. Instead of entering into a plea, which might have saved her life but would have made her three children vulnerable to testify and torture, she refused. Margaret was then sentenced to death by pressing. She was laid across a sharp rock and then her own door was laid on her body and loaded with heavy weights until her back broke.

Her sharp discernment in faith and family life is what is really remarkable about her. How she and her husband worked out their joint life though of different faiths is such a hope. We can do hard things, we can do hard things together, we can surmount differences of persons in family life and even live harmoniously and happily!

St. Margaret Clitherow will be a great companion as you look for your significant other this year, especially as you’ll need sharp discernment while online Catholic dating.

Saint Angela of Foligno

St. Angela married young, had many children, and loved a living a high society life. She’s also the patroness of those afflicted by sexual temptations. These things alone are enough to get to know her as you’re on your journey of Catholic dating. She’s lived it and she can help you through it! In this way, she’s sort of akin to St. Augustine except female.

She was steeped in worldly pleasures. When she was forty, she saw a vision of Saint Francis. Then, she dedicated her life to Christ. Soon after, she lost her husband and her children St. Margaret was humble, often acknowledging her past sinfulness but dwelling on the fact that God loved her and that she wanted to be close to him. This is what we should strive for at all times, too.

A phenomenal quote from her that can help you as you try dating and finding your vocation is, “No one can be saved without divine light. Divine light causes us to begin and to make progress, and it leads us to the summit of perfection.”

Want to receive this divine light? Pray more this year. Desiring to make progress in your online dating journey? Turn to the Lord, who desires to help you!

Which saint will you get to know better in the upcoming year? Let us know in the comments below!