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September 12 across 2,026 years of Catholic history

Catholic history · Real stories · Every day

Catholic Saints for Kids

Junior Edition · September 12, 2026

True stories of the saints for curious readers ages 10–12.

A black-and-white photograph of five Franciscan friars in dark habits, seated outdoors in front of a wooden building; St. Maximilian Kolbe sits in the center wearing glasses and a beard.
Start here 2 min read

How it worked

He got a printing press by promising to teach

Five friars landed in Japan with no money and no Japanese. A month later a magazine came off a press.

His age
Thirty-six
Where
Nagasaki, in Japan
When
1930 AD
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More from this edition

A sepia engraving of a single-room village school: a slight boy in a dark buttoned jacket stands alone in the open floor, head lowered and hands at his sides, while a priest in a black cassock speaks to him across a table at the front and rows of village boys watch from plank benches.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a monochrome relief engraving of the Turin devotional press of the 1850s, from the paper's reference portrait based on Dominic Savio (Pupil of the Ven. Don Bosco) — frontispiece plate to 'The Life of Dominic Savio' by St John Bosco, Salesian Press English edition (unknown engraver, after the likeness first published by St John Bosco at Turin in 1859 AD in a plate signed C. Tomatis, 1915 AD, Internet Archive) View source artwork.

Story 04 3 min read

What he didn't say

One sentence would have cleared him. He never said it.

A schoolmaster told a boy of eleven he deserved to be sent away from school.

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A mosaic of an elderly, gaunt man in a plain dark tunic and heavy cloak sitting at a wooden table in a bare stone room, an oil lamp beside a tied bundle of parchment leaves, an open book under his hand, a travelling cloak and staff against the wall and snow on the rocks outside a shuttered window.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a Byzantine mosaic of glass and stone tesserae, from the paper's reference portrait based on St. John Chrysostom, micromosaic icon (Anonymous Greek workshop, 14th century, Vatopedi Monastery, Mount Athos) View source artwork.

Story 05 3 min read

What he sent

A book from a mountain town with no market

Sent away to a mountain town, St. John Chrysostom wrote a book for a friend in serious trouble.

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A wall painting of an elderly Roman woman in a purple mantle and jewelled headband speaking to masons who are bricking up a window in a great hall, with a closed silver casket and two candlesticks on a draped altar behind her.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a late-Roman fresco of the Constantinian decades, from the paper's reference portrait based on Seated statue of Helena of Constantinople — head (Unknown Roman sculptor; head recut in the Constantinian period on an Antonine body; photograph by Jebulon, body: second half of the 2nd century AD; head: Constantinian, c. 306-337 AD, Musei Capitolini, Rome) View source artwork.

Story 06 2 min read

A room in Rome

She's about eighty, and she just gave her palace away

A piece of the Cross has come from Jerusalem, and St. Helena has given it a hall of her own house.

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Today in the Church for kids

Saturday of the twenty-third week in Ordinary Time

  • The Most Holy Name of Mary

Saint of the day for kids

The Most Holy Name of Mary

Today the Church celebrates the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Church has kept this day ever since the city of Vienna was delivered from the army that had surrounded it.

On this day in the Church for kids

  • 1693 The Portuguese army made St. Anthony of Padua a captain, four hundred and sixty-two years after he died, for his good services and for the miracles he had worked to help its troops.Our reportSource
  • 1924 At Grodno, St. Maximilian Kolbe wrote down what his movement was for: to win the whole world, all hearts and each person one by one, for the Queen of Heaven and Earth.Source
  • 1932 Travelling in China and India to look for ground for a third City of the Immaculata, St. Maximilian Kolbe wrote out a letter by hand to the Blessed Virgin Mary, setting down the dangers of the journey.Our reportSource