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September 21 across 2,026 years of Catholic history

Catholic history · Real stories · Every day

Catholic Saints for Kids

Junior Edition · September 21, 2026

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

A young soldier in a belted tunic and heavy wool cloak stands in the snow at an arched stone gate, cutting his cloak in two with his sword while a half-naked kneeling man takes one half from him and townspeople in hooded cloaks look on.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of Italian trecento buon fresco, from the paper's reference portrait based on Fresco cycle with scenes from the life of St. Martin of Tours, scene: St. Martin divides his cloak (Simone Martini, c. 1312-1317, Chapel of St. Martin, Lower Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi) View source artwork.

Start here 3 min read

The big question

St. Martin's half cloak went to war with kings

He cut it in two at a city gate and gave half to a man who had no clothes.

His age
Fifteen when the army took him
Where
The gate of Amiens
When
A hard winter in the fourth century AD
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More from this edition

A manuscript illumination of St. Joan of Arc, short-haired and in a dark doublet and hose, standing on the grass at the left and holding a tall white banner lettered JHESUS MARIA, while behind her men lead horses away, furl a banner, load a cart and strike tents outside a walled town on a river.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a 15th-century French manuscript illumination, from the paper's reference portrait based on Jeanne d'Arc a la porte Saint-Honore lors du siege de Paris (1429) — Les Vigiles de Charles VII, fol. 66v (Anonymous illuminator; manuscript of Martial d'Auvergne, c. 1484, Bibliotheque nationale de France, Departement des Manuscrits, Francais 5054, fol. 66v) View source artwork.

Story 02 3 min read

Who decided

She was seventeen, and the king sent her army home

St. Joan of Arc had ridden at the head of those men for five months, and today she was left with no soldiers at all.

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On a bare limestone crag above a wooded river gorge, three tonsured monks in coarse dun wool stand over two earthenware water jars and a wooden bucket set down on the rock, facing an elderly grey-bearded St. Benedict who listens with a plain wooden staff in his hand, a small stone monastery building with a tiled roof behind them.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of Italian buon fresco on lime plaster, from the paper's reference portrait based on Come Benedetto compie la edificazione di dodici monasteri (Life of St Benedict, Scene 11: Benedict Founds Twelve Monasteries) (Il Sodoma (Giovanni Antonio Bazzi), 1505-1508 AD, Great cloister, Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Asciano, Siena) View source artwork.

Story 04 2 min read

A night climb

Water comes out of a mountain that had none

St. Benedict told his thirsty monks no, then climbed their bare rock in the dark and left three stones on it.

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An oil painting of a dark room: a bearded man in a white tunic with a purple stripe sits at a cleared table with a rolled scroll, hands loosely joined, while four other men in plain tunics wait in the shadows near a barred door.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of Spanish Baroque oil on canvas, from the paper's reference portrait based on San Bartolomé (Jusepe de Ribera, circa 1630, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid) View source artwork.

Story 06 3 min read

The big question

Jesus told eleven men to wait, but not how long

They were a long way from home, in the city where Jesus had been put to death a few weeks earlier.

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Today in the Church for kids

Monday in Ordinary Time — the feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle

  • Saint Matthew, one of the twelve Apostles and a Gospel writer

Saint of the day for kids

Saint Matthew

Saint Matthew was a tax collector at Capernaum in Galilee, and Jesus called him away from his customs table to come and follow him. He is one of the twelve Apostles, and the Church honours him as the writer of the first of the four Gospels.

On this day in the Church for kids

  • 1429 Charles VII broke up the royal army at Gien and sent its captains home, ending the campaign St. Joan of Arc had led from the siege of Orleans to the crowning at Reims.Our reportSource
  • 1891 Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan of New York gave seven American women the habit of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini's Institute at Manresa, West Park, making them the first Americans to join it.Our reportSource
  • 1996 Pope John Paul II said Mass on the air base at Tours, 1,600 years after the death of St. Martin of Tours, and prayed that afternoon with sick people at the saint's tomb.Our reportSource