My favorite saints

I have a lot of friends who are born-again Christians. They are very good people and some of them have invited me many times over to join their religion. One time, I was almost tempted to embrace their faith. However, I am such a staunch Catholic that I cannot imagine myself not observing its rites and practices, which includes the veneration of saints.

Born-again Christians, of course, encourage us to pray directly to God – which I do. But I don’t find anything wrong with also calling on the Blessed Mother and the other saints in heaven.

Every morning when I wake up and before I turn in at night, I always pray to the Lord, His Mother, the Blessed Virgin and to my favorite saints. It’s a long list. But here are some of the saints from Whom I ask for favors.

St. Joseph of Nazareth – Among the saints, I’ve prayed longest to St. Joseph. It started when I was nine. I think I had a problem then which I no longer recall. (Although when I look back at it now, what problem could a nine-year-old have?) All I remember is that the solution came on March 19, St. Joseph’s feast day. I’ve been a St. Joseph devotee since then.

St. Joseph is the patron saint of the Catholic Church (since 1870), laborers, carpenters, orphans, refugees and those seeking shelter. I also know a lot of people who pray to St. Joseph for a happy death. It was entertainment journalist Ronald Constantino who pointed out the reason why we should pray to St. Joseph for a happy death: "What could be more peaceful than dying with the Lord Jesus and the Blessed Mother by your side?" said Ronald.

St. Clare of Assisi – I think it’s only here in the Philippines where people pray to her to have children (never mind if she died a virgin) and to have clear weather for parties (which is strange because during all those years that she was a nun, I presume they never had parties in the convent). Religious books say that St. Clare is the patron saint of the blind, laundrywomen, embroiderers, gilders, glaziers and glass painters. When I went to Sorsogon in 1994 and visited the monastery of the Poor Clares, I also discovered that St. Clare is also the patron saint of television. She was made patron saint of TV because when she was already very ill, she supposedly had wanted to attend Christmas mass, but was too ill and weak to even get up. What happened next was that she was given a vision of the Christmas mass right in her sickbed. She therefore surprised the other nuns in the convent because she knew exactly every detail that happened during the Christmas mass – as if she had a TV monitor in her room.

St. Sebastian – When I was a kid, my family used to hear the misa de aguinaldo at the San Miguel pro-cathedral every Christmas. But for our New Year’s Day mass, we would often go to the San Sebastian Church near Quiapo. It was here where I started to ask for favors from this martyred saint depicted with his body pierced by arrows. Somehow, the favors I would ask from St. Sebastian were often answered. When I lived in New York for about a month, I was glad the house where I stayed in was very near the parish church which was dedicated to St. Sebastian. I felt then that – away from home – I was being protected by St. Sebastian.

St. Helena – Although the santacruzan is the most popular tradition in this Catholic nation during the month of May, very few know St. Helena, the empress who found the true cross of Jesus Christ around 300 years after the crucifixion at Mt. Calvary. Although the Reina Elena or Emperatriz Elena in the santacruzan is often young and fair, the Empress Helena – when she found the cross of Jesus – was already elderly. And her son, Constantine, was already a grownup ruler that time. And yet, in the santacruzan, the Constantino is always a young boy walking side by side with the Reina Elena.

I came to know about St. Helena because my father comes from a barrio in Bulacan where the patroness is St. Helena. In the church dedicated to her, there is an oil painting of her with Constantine that has been around for more than a century. It is said to be very miraculous. Even painter Al Perez can attest to this. As a child, he became very sick and it was only through the intercession of St. Helena that he recovered. Today, he paints mostly churches and has a very deep devotion to St. Helena.

St. Therese of Lisieux – My devotion to St. Therese is very new. It started only in July of last year when Marichu Maceda gave me as pasalubong: a rosary and a printed prayer to St. Therese. Since then, I’ve been praying to St. Therese for favors.

Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael – When my life was very problematic sometime in 1994, it was a relief for me to have received from a seminarian friend a stampita with the prayer to the archangels at the back. From that time on, I’ve always prayed to these archangels for protection. And now, every time I drive, I whisper this short prayer as soon as I turn on the engine: Lord Jesus, send over Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael and ask them to protect me during this trip. I’ve never met a vehicular accident since then by the grace of God and no doubt, with the guidance and protection of the archangels – except for this one minor car accident, which I would say has shades of little miracles in it and which I’ll be writing about on Holy Thursday.