Students at St. Joseph School in Farmington find inspiration for holiness through All Saints’ Day activities
Dressed in a red polo shirt, khakis and sneakers, first grader Anthony Williams made a perfect miniature of one of the Church’s newest saints: St. Carlo Acutis.
Anthony — who said he shares millennial St. Carlo’s affinity for computers and video games — was one of about a dozen “living saints” telling his story during an All Saints’ Day celebration at St. Joseph School in Farmington.
Next to him was St. Clare of Assisi, portrayed by Sadie Herbst, who shared how she was inspired to become a nun after hearing St. Francis of Assisi preaching. “I am the patron saint of television, because when I was too sick to go to church, I could see Mass on the walls of my room,” she told visitors.
Sadie chose St. Clare “because she kind of looks like me — we look alike in our pictures,” she said. “And I just really liked her as a saint.”
Down the line, St. Rose of Lima, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Gianna Molla and others told fellow students, parents, grandparents and parishioners about their holy lives. Olivia Merseal portrayed the Blessed Virgin Mary, the queen of all saints, in a long white dress, blue shawl and flower crown.
Olivia chose to be Mary because “she is kind, and she cares about God, and she’s sweet,” she said.
The school’s commemoration of All Saints Day, held on Friday, Oct. 31, included contributions from every grade level. In addition to the living saints museum, other grades created saint trivia, slideshow presentations, paper dolls and more.
Eighth graders built and decorated Dia de los Muertos three-tiered ofrenda altars for particular saints. Westley Wilson dedicated his altar to St. Matthew the Apostle, his chosen confirmation saint.
“I very much respect how he had everything that he could possibly imagine, and he dropped everything for Jesus, just to live a life of helpfulness and kindness for Jesus,” Westley said.
Leslie Martin also chose her confirmation saint, St. Lucy, for the project. Leslie has been inspired by St. Lucy’s steadfast faith in God, even through the difficulties she faced in her life, she said.
“She did pray every single day, and I want to just be like her,” she said.
John England’s fifth-grade class combined science and religion lessons to create an electronic saint trivia game. Players touched one wired conductor to the question on the left, then used another wired conductor to touch their answer. If they were correct, a small lightbulb at the top lit up.
Sixth graders put together mock-ups of Instagram profiles for saints, including nine different “posts” with facts about their lives. Every detail in the profile had significance; St. Paul’s 14-million post count sounded appropriate for the prolific epistle-writing saint, for example.
It was another way to make students think creatively about saints as real people, sixth grade teacher Amy Williams said.
“All the kids are into social media, you know, so I thought it would be something that would bring in a little bit more relevant, more today, and they have fun with it,” she said.
Sixth grader John Maloney made St. John the Baptist’s Instagram profile. Through his research, he learned that St. John the Baptist has two feast days: his birthday on June 24 and the day of his death on Aug. 29. And just like the saint whose name he shares, “I can preach the Good News,” John said.
Across the variety of projects, several saints made frequent appearances: St. Joseph, the Blessed Mother, St. Clare and St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Kolkata, St. John Paul II, St. Carlo Acutis. But lesser-known saints were represented, too, including St. Gemma, a 19th-century Italian mystic; St. Anthony the Abbot, an early-Church monk in Egypt; and St. Luigi Scrosoppi, a 19th-century Italian priest who is now the patron saint of soccer.
Learning about saints is a regular part of student life at St. Joseph School, coordinator of religious education Jane Ramos said. Students are organized into “virtue families,” groups of students from all grade levels who meet once a month for a lesson on a particular virtue and saint through games, crafts, skits and food.
School librarian Jodie Berkbigler has a wide selection of books about the lives of the saints that she reads to and shares with students when they visit the library once a week, Ramos said, which has helped them get to know even more saints.
“We are trying to give them role models that they can pattern their life after, and so the more variety that they have, the more saints they can connect with, the more opportunities they have for prayer,” Ramos said.
St. Carlo Acutis, who was just 15 when he died of leukemia in 2006, has become a particularly popular saint among the student body, Ramos said. The school started a countdown last spring to his canonization, originally scheduled for April, then resumed it in the new school year when his new canonization date was set for Sept. 7.
“He’s one of the most asked about saints, because I think the kids can really connect with him,” Ramos said.
Faith-centric activities like this one are designed to give the students “just new appreciation and love of our faith,” she said. “We want them to stay in the Church. We want them to truly feel like this is their church, their parish, so they can take on the role of future leaders, and so this is another way to engage them.”
Father Gerson Parra, parochial administrator of St. Joseph Parish, made his way around the room, listening as students explained their projects and shared the lives of the saints. Father Parra’s favorite saint is the Blessed Mother, he said, but he also has devotions to St. Patrick, St. Jude and St. Ignatius of Loyola.
It’s important for children to get to know the saints from a young age so they know that holiness is for everyone, Father Parra said.
“God calls us to be holy. And they see holiness is possible for people who were normal, like us, normal human beings,” he said. “So when they know Carlo Acutis, who was very young, they see that it’s possible to be with God, and it’s possible to change and to share the Gospel with everyone in town, or wherever they’re going to be.”
