Kate Wicker

Storyteller & Speaker

Saintly Fun (& a Giveaway, Too!)

We hosted an All Saints’ Day party at our house today. We had a wonderful turnout, and a miscellany of saints were represented from Saint Ignatius to Saint Zita. We invited each child to come forward and share a few facts about their saint and his/her life. Then the children guessed which saint the child was portraying. What I love about these parties is how I always learn something new. For example, two children came dressed as St. Catherine of Alexandria, a saint I knew very little about.

I did my annual saint scavenger hunt. (I’ll try to remember to post the treasure hunt clues before All Saints’ Day next year in case people want to use them. Maybe a reader can remind me in mid-October? Make a note in your iCal now!) Only this year I hid some of my Catholic Folk Toys and Saint Luke’s Brush figures, so the children were actually searching for the saint statues rather than the next clue.

After the scavenger hunt, we enjoyed a delicious potluck lunch. It was a great party (aside from Thomas being uncharacteristically fussy).

Here’s a picture of our pious crowd:

We had a special guest in our midst as well. Sister Bernette was a dear friend of one of the families who came to the party.  Sister was getting ready to leave town to return to the Mother House and spent one of her last days with all of us! She loved seeing all the children in their saintly garb. Can you spot her in the photo below?

(Oh, and is it just me, or is my Madeline, who turns 7 soon, looking awfully tall and old these days? She’s the one in blue on the far right.)

Now here’s a fun challenge for my readers. I’m giving away a copy of Lisa Hendey’s  excellent new book, A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms: 52 Companions for Your Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul. (You really must get your hands on a copy; it’s wonderful!) I’m also giving away an autographed copy of Weightless.

All you have to do to enter to win is to guess which saint each of my child is dressed as. Leave a separate comment for your guess for each child. The good news is you don’t have to be right in order to be entered to win. However, those of you who boast a brilliant saint IQ will gain additional entries for each correct guess. So if you’re right for all four kids, then you’ll be put down for eight entries.

You can also gain entries by visiting the Amazon page of Lisa’s book and “liking” it or by liking my own book, Weightless: Making Peace With Your Body over on Amazon. Leave a separate comment for each action taken (so if you “like” both books, leave two comments – i.e., one comment saying, “I liked Lisa’s book” and another comment saying, “I liked Weightless.”).

Other contest rules:

Sorry, but this contest is open to U.S. residents only, please.

Contest ends on Thursday, November 10th at noon EST. I’ll draw winners that night and will post them some time on Friday, November 11th.

Now for some clues to help you out in guessing my kids’ chosen saints. All the girls’ saints are included in An Alphabet of Catholic Saints. Madeline chose a more obscure saint because everyone has easily guessed her saints in the past (St. Helena of the True Cross and Saint Lucy). This saint was a British princess. She’s the patroness of Catholic school girls, a holy death, and educators among other things. Madeline is holding one of the symbols used to represent her. She and several other maidens were martyred when they wouldn’t deny their faith.

Rachel’s saint helped her family by sewing. One of her symbols is the rose. She had a special devotion to the Infant Jesus. She is the saint of the Americas. This saint was pious from a young age and greatly admired St. Catherine of Siena. When she grew older, she dedicated her life to serving God and performing acts of charity.

Mary Elizabeth is an easy one. Just look at the brown robe, the beard, and the wolf in her arms. ‘Nuff said.

Okay, now for the little man. Thomas represented two different Thomases – one a saint and one a great theologian (but not an official saint). Leave a separate entry for each. (Thomas’s middle name is actually Kemp, which is a family name as well but also a hint for the author of one of the books represented in the picture below.)

Good luck!

UPDATE: It must be fairly obvious that I don’t do contests with much regularity because I realized a few things after I posted this such as the fact that it would become increasingly LESS difficult for people to guess the children’s saint costumes as more people commented, so it may end up that a lot of people get double entries. As I’ve been telling a whole lot of people lately, I’m definitely not in my A-game. Is that even the right expression? Will my cerebral capacity ever be restored to normal? Sleep deprivation does scary things to your mind. I have a very funny anecdote to share about a big mental gaffe, but it will have to wait. I’m going to bed.

Comments

  23. So cute. I’ve already got both books but I just wanted to express my admiration for all your sweet saints. I really need to get my act together next year and round up some saints costumes for my kiddos. Sadly costumes aren’t one of those things that come easy to me.

  24. As a convert to Catholicism from a Protestant denomination, one of the things I’m most interested in learning about is the Saints. That’s one of the many reasons I love the Catholic Church-it doesn’t force each person to attempt to reinvent the wheel, but encourages us all to learn and grow from centuries of Christians who have come before us and struggled with the same issues. Which is a long way of saying, I’d love to win the book, so I’ll play! And since other commenters already uh made it easy, I thought I’d be a nerd and look up all the saints they dressed up as an share another fact about each. Because it seems too easy to just say the names other people already said!

    Madeline is St.Ursula, whose story is debated by historians-she may have been martyred with 11,000 other virgins, 11 virgins, or by herself at age 11 depending on whose analysis you find most compelling (some argue the 11,000 was a mistranslation of the number 11).

  25. Rae is St Rose of Lima, whose parents were disappointed she didn’t just get married like they wanted her to, but who did eventually give her a room of her own to live with them forever.

  28. Ok I liked “Weightless” on Amazon. I should write an Amazon review of it at some point too, because it doesn’t have very many reviews yet and is a great book (I already have it, but if I won this contest, would give a copy of it to a friend who’s been struggling with eating disorders and has been in and out of inpatient therapy programs lately.)

  35. your family is beautiful. I see St. Rose a lima, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton? Your son is St. Thomas A Kempis.

  53. I liked Lisa’s book.

    Thanks for this giveaway. Both books are have been in my Amazon wishlist. Looking forward to reading them!

    One blog I read recently did something similar like your contest, and I believe she just kept all comments disabled until the contest was over…

    Thanks, Kate–I LOVE reading your blog–you are such an inspiration to me!
    Marla Morgan recently posted…Getting Back (Trying Anyway…)My Profile

Trackbacks

“She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick.”

―Flannery O'Connor