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September 19 across 2,026 years of Catholic history

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Catholic Saints for Kids

Junior Edition · September 19, 2026

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

A Byzantine-style mosaic of a young woman seated on a bench with an open book on her knees, one hand raised as she speaks to four children gathered around her, a baby asleep in a wooden cradle at her feet and a woman with a spindle watching from a doorway.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of Byzantine wall mosaic, from the paper's reference portrait based on Parete palinsesto: Madonna in trono con angelo (500-550 ca.), Annunciazione (590 ca.), Basilio e Giovanni Crisostomo (post 649), Gregorio Nazianzeno e Basilio (705-707) (Anonymous, post 649 AD and 705-707 AD, Santa Maria Antiqua, Roman Forum, Rome) View source artwork.

Start here 3 min read

The big question

Ten children in one house, taught by their big sister

Saint Macrina was the eldest of ten children in one Cappadocian house, and she talked her brother Saint Basil the Great out of the fame he had trained years for.

Children
Ten born, nine grew up
Where
Annesi, the family estate in Pontus
When
The 330s AD to 379 AD
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More from this edition

A walled town gate through which a long mounted column rides, led by a rider in crimson on a grey horse under a black double-headed eagle banner, with mitred bishops, armoured knights and pack animals behind him and townspeople pressed back against the houses; at the left, on the steps of a convent doorway, a small tonsured friar in a white habit and black cloak stands holding a closed book, two friars behind him.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a fifteenth-century panel painting in egg tempera and early oil on gessoed poplar, from the paper's reference portrait based on a scene from the life of St. Vincent Ferrer (Agnolo degli Erri, c. 1470-1490 AD, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) View source artwork.

Story 03 2 min read

How it worked

The friar who spent a month fetching an emperor

Emperor Sigismund had stopped at Narbonne and would not send Benedict XIII one word.

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A painted church interior: a line of nuns in white habits and black veils waits at an altar rail while a priest in a red chasuble holds a chalice, and one nun in a worn, stained habit stands alone against a bare white wall at the left, her head bowed and her hands folded.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a fifteenth-century Netherlandish oil on oak panel, from the paper's reference portrait based on Edelheere Triptych (Descent from the Cross), right wing: Aleydis Cappuyns and her daughters Aleydis and Catharina presented by Saint Aleydis (Unknown Brabantine master, after Rogier van der Weyden, 1443 AD, Sint-Pieterskerk, Leuven, Belgium) View source artwork.

Story 05 3 min read

The big question

At the altar, the cup went to everyone but her

St. Alice of Schaerbeek had leprosy, so she was kept from the Blood of the Lord — and she complained that she had been robbed of something great.

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A dark-skinned boy of about ten in a coarse white shirt, dark breeches and a sash stands barefoot in an adobe doorway holding an empty marketing basket, his mother in a headcloth and shawl behind him with a hand on his shoulder, a small wooden crucifix on the whitewashed wall of the room beyond.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a seventeenth-century viceregal Lima oil painting on canvas, from the paper's reference portrait based on Retrato de San Martín de Porres (Anonymous, Lima school, 17th century, Monasterio de Santa Rosa de las Monjas, Lima) View source artwork.

Story 06 2 min read

Growing up

The university was closed to St. Martin de Porres, ten

Don Juan de Porres was sailing off to govern Panama, and before the ship left he settled three things for his son.

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Today in the Church for kids

Saturday in Ordinary Time — Saint Januarius, a bishop who died for the faith

  • Saint Januarius, a bishop who was killed for his faith

Saint of the day for kids

Saint Januarius

Saint Januarius was the bishop of Benevento, and he was put to death for his faith at Pozzuoli, in the region of Campania, during the persecution ordered by the Emperor Diocletian. His body is honoured at Naples, the city he is the patron of.

On this day in the Church for kids

  • 1415 1415 AD: The Emperor Sigismund rode into Perpignan with the ambassadors of France, Castile and England behind him, to demand that Benedict XIII give up his claim — something St. Vincent Ferrer had spent the whole summer pressing him to do.Our reportSource
  • 1846 1846 AD: The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to two shepherd children, Melanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, on a mountain above the village of La Salette-Fallavaux, near Grenoble.Source
  • 1939 1939 AD: The Gestapo emptied the friary at Niepokalanow and took St. Maximilian Kolbe and more than forty friars away in two trucks to the camp at Lamsdorf.Our reportSource