Feast Days from Monday 23rd November to Sunday 29th

The main feast days are this week:

23rd - St Columban

23rd - Bl Miguel Austin Pro

25th - St Catherine of Alexandria

26th - St John Berchmans

27th - Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

28th - St Catherine Laboure

23rd of November - ST COLUMBAN

A biography of St Columban for children. HT: Intercessories Family Ministry

Here is a lovely image of St Columban and the Loch Ness Monster that can be used as a colouring page for children follow the link above and you can read the story as well. HT: Tugatnature

Another lovely line drawing that could be used by older children to colour in, it has come from Fr Mark's blog, Vultus Christi.




I highly recommend this lovely picture book, Across a Dark and Wild Sea on the life of St Columban, one of my favourites!



Here is an image of the Catharch of St Columban, a page from the very book that St Columban and St Finnian fought over. This story is well told for children in the book Across a Dark and Wild Sea (see above.)







A close up of a decorated initial Q from the Cathach of St. Columba

23rd of November - BL MIGUEL AUSTIN PRO

The life of Bl Miguel Austin Pro HT: Catholic Culture

Blessed Miguel Pro Paper Doll HT: Paper Dali

A play for children on the life of Bl Miguel, called "Charity, Laughter, Suffering and Sacrifice" click here for the script. HT: Puffin.Creighton.edu

To see how this play has been acted by children, click here for some lovely photos!

A mexican meal would be the order of the day for celebrating this Mexican blessed.

25th of November - ST CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA

A biography of the life of St Catherine of Alexandria for children. HT: Intercessories Family Ministry

A biography of St Catherine for older children. HT: Magnificat

Why not try these great pasta wheels in a pasta dish for her feast day? HT: Catholic Cuisine

I hope to be back later with some St Catherine Wheel cookies!

26th of November - ST JOHN BERCHMANS

A biography on the life of St John Berchmans for children. HT: Intercessories Family Ministry

A biography of St John Berchmans for older children. HT: Magnificat

27th of November - OUR LADY OF THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL

A biography for children about the story of the Miraculous Medal. HT: Magnificat

Here is a unit study for children on the Miraculous Medal. HT: Velocity.net




Here is my all time favourite craft that we have done with our family AND the most practical. Click over to my blog to see how this can be done very easily! It is called, The Miraculous Medal Prayer Petition Mobile.







Here is a fantastic colouring page for the back and front of the Miraculous Medal, the artwork is really beautiful! HT: Jenn GM at Family in Feast and Feria




Here is a colouring book on the Miraculous Medal, the story is written by Mary Fabyan Windeatt ~ Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.




This is one of my favourite children's reading novel about the Miraculous Medal, by Mary Fabyan Windeatt ~ The Miraculous Medal.












Another great reading novel by Vision books ~ St Catherine Laboure and the Miraculous Medal.

28th of November - ST CATHERINE LABOURE

St Catherine Laboure is the visionary who was given the miraculous medal by Our Lady, her feast follows straight after the Miraculous Medal feast day, so it's another day to continue on any miraculous medal crafts and reading!

A biography of the life of St Catherine Laboure for children. HT: Intercessories Family Ministry

A biography of St Catherine Laboure for older children. HT: Magnificat

Here is a very colourful and beautiful webpage dedicated to St Catherine Laboure, full of photos, pictures, prayers and a detailed biography. HT: Mary Pages

Here is an online copy of the book written by Father Joseph Dirvin called, St Catherine Laboure of the Miraculous Medal. HT: EWTN

Feast Days from Monday 16th November to Sunday 22nd

The main feast days are this week:

16th - St Margaret of Scotland

17th - St Elizabeth of Hungary

19th - Our Lady of Divine Providence

21st - Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

22nd - St Cecilia

16th of November - ST MARGARET OF SCOTLAND

A biography of St Margaret of Scotland for children. HT: Intercessories Family Ministry

Here is the link to the online story of St Margaret of Scotland from the beautiful Catholic children's book, Book of Saints and Heros. It has a beautiful black & white image of St Margaret that could be printed up and coloured in. HT: The Baldwin Project

A colouring page of St Margaret of Scotland HT: Charlotte from Waltzing Matilda

This next link is to a picture slide show of the life of St Margaret of Scotland, not to be missed with the family, just beautiful!! HT: St Margaret's in the UK

A St Margaret of Scotland Paper Doll HT: Paper Dali

Here is a lovely crown cake over at Catholic Cuisine that could be used for this day. I made that cake earlier this year and it was enjoyed by the whole family. Also, the crown cake mentioned below for St Elizabth of Hungary is also suitable.

17th of November - ST ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY

A biography on St Elizabeth of Hungary for children. HT: Intercessories Family Ministry

A biography on St Elizabeth of Hungary for older children. HT: Magnificat

Here is the link to the online story of St Elizabeth of Hungary from the beautiful Catholic children's book, Book of Saints and Heros. It has a beautiful black & white image of St Elizabeth that could be printed up and coloured in. HT: The Baldwin Project

A colouring page of St Elizabeth of Hungary. HT: Charlotte from Waltzing Matilda

Charlotte from Waltzing Matilda created a Saints n' Stiches series which included one for St Elizabeth of Hungary, a lovely embroidery craft.

The photo credit is Jessica's over at Shower of Roses, where she did a beautiful job embroidering, using Charlotte's pattern for the Highlights of 'E' Week.

St Elizabeth's Crown Cake HT: Catholic Cuisine

The Vision series book of Saint Elizabeth's Three Crowns for older children.









19th of November - OUR LADY OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE

Information about the origins of this feast. HT: Catholic Media

Father John Hardon writes on this lesser known feast and title, a beautiful read. HT: True Presence

A beautiful webpage dedicated to this title with prayers as well. HT: Pray the Rosary Apostolate

Here is a colouring picture of the tender image of Our Lady of Divine Providence...when I look at the image I see the Child Jesus' posture showing that He is completely reliant on His Blessed Mother for everything...and so too, should we. This is my drawing, so feel free to use, click to enlarge and print.

21st of November - PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

A biography on the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary for older children. HT: Magnificat

22nd of November - ST CECILIA

A biography of St Cecilia for children. HT: Intercessories Family Ministry

A biography of St Cecilia for older children. HT: Magnificat

The Golden Legend story of St Cecilia. HT: Catholic Forum

Click open this image to print up for the children to colour in. HT: UAB

This was a fantastic craft worth checking out over at Dei Gratias, By the Grace of God (Michelle).

Michelle's children made these Paper Mache books inspired originally by Charlotte at Waltzing Matilda.

Feast Days from Monday 9th November to Sunday 15th

The main feast days are this week:

10th November - St Leo the Great

11th November - St Martin of Tours (Martinmas Day)

13th November - St Frances Xavier Cabrini

13th November - St Stanislaus Kostka

15th November - St Albert the Great

10th of November - ST LEO THE GREAT

A biography of St Leo the Great for children. HT: Intercessories Family Ministry

A link to the letters written by St Leo the Great. HT: Crossroads Initiative

Here is a lovely youtube video on the life of St Leo the Great.

When we think of the name 'Leo' we think of lion! So here is some lovely lion cupcakes at Catholic Cuisine that would be fun for the children.

11th of November - ST MARTIN OF TOURS

A biography of St Martin of Tours for children. HT: Intercessories Family Ministry

A biography of St Martin of Tours for older children HT: Magnificat

Jenn GM from Family in Feast and Feria has linked a few lovely online read-alouds on the life of St Martin.

Here is my blog posting about how these two things are connected to St Martin's cloak ~ chaplains and a capella singing. Also I relate many interesting facts about St Martin and the raising of three people back to life.

St Martin's friend Sulpicius Severus, a Roman nobleman in his Bialogues, wrote about a famous biography of St Martin's life, you can read it here online.

The feast day of St Martin of Tours is a big feast day known as Martinmas Day. Evelyn Birge Vitz in her book, A Continual Feast has this to say:

"His feast, called Martinmas, became a major one in Europe, largely no doubt because it took on the character of an in-gathering festival: a thanksgiving celebration. On this day it has been traditonal to eat young goose and to taste the new wine of the season."

Our family plans for celebrating this feast will be a lovely roast chicken dinner (don't have a goose unfortunately) and making a cake with St Martin's cloak being cut with a sword. We hope to set up a fire in our brazier in our back yard and eating our meal around that. After our meal we will light our St Martin lanterns and circle our yard, singing a St Martin lantern song.

In Australia it is also Rememberance Day. It is one of our traditions from our British heritage. But there is obviously a connection between this day when we remember our fallen heros who went to war and St Martin was himself, a solider. We remember our fallen heros, on the 11th of November at 11am for a minute with our heads bowed. Wikipedia has this to say:

"For Anglican and Roman Catholics, there is a coincidental but appropriate overlap of Remembrance Day with the feast of St Martin of Tours, a saint famous for putting aside his life as a soldier and turning to the peace-filled life of a monk. Statues or images associated with St. Martin are for this reason sometimes used as symbols of Remembrance Day in religious contexts (e.g. the Anglican Cathedral of Montreal)."

For some great plans/links for St Martin's Day pop over to Pinewood Castle for some ideas.

Here is a colouring picture of St Martin of Tours. HT: Charlotte from Waltzing Matilda

A great stained glass image of St Martin cutting his cloak for the children to colour in. HT: Kinderschule

An image of St Martin cutting his cloak for the children to colour in. HT: Johnson Ancestory

Another nice image to print up and allow the children to colour in. HT: Wilson's Almanac

Geese are often associated with St Martin due to this lovely legend mentioned at Wikipedia:

"According to legend, Martin was reluctant to become bishop, which is why he hid in a stable filled with geese. The noise made by the geese betrayed his location to the people who were looking for him."

Here is some great, free colouring pages of geese. HT: 123Coloring.com

There are lots of lovely recipes for St Martin's day, here are some from Catholic Cuisine:

Goose with Apple stuffing for Martinmas

Martinshornchecn for St Martin's Day

Horseshoe Cookies for Martinmas

Also a recipe for St Martin Crossiants. HT: About.com

Here is another cake at Catholic Cuisine, our Cloak of St Martin Cake! Pop on over to see how we made it.

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A wonderful European tradition (particularly France and Germany) on Martinmas Day is the parading of lanterns and singing through the streets by children. Such a lovely idea that we hope to keep alive in our family!

To see how to make our St Martin lanterns, pop over to my blog to read how, also in that posting there is the lyrics to a lovely St Martin lantern song as well as youtube rendition of it being sung in English. (I also have the youtube song imbedding further below)



Here is another St Martin lantern we made, out of paper mache, to see how go over for details.

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Left lantern making to the last moment? Don't panic, for the quickest lanterns you'll ever make, pop over to Charlotte's Waltzing Matilda for her beautiful lanterns. We still have a couple of lanterns left to make ourselves, so we will be making the last couple using Charlotte's great ideas.

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Dawn over at By Sun and Candlelight has some great St Martin Lanterns using old jars and coloured tissue paper.

Here is another lady's Martinmas Laterns. HT: In These Hills

Here is a sweet little video of German children doing their St Martin lantern walk and singing. HT: YouTube

We are now working on learning one of the traditional St Martin lantern songs, I found this music sheet here with the lyrics. HT: Pinewood Castle

If you would like to have the St Martin song background music without the singing, click here. HT: YouTube

If you would like to hear the St Martin song with music and singing, click here. HT: YouTube

13th of November - ST FRANCES XAVIER CABRINI

A biography of St Frances Xavier Cabrini for children. HT: Intercessories Family Ministry

A colouring page of St Frances Cabrini HT: Charlotte from Waltzing Matilda

St Frances Cabrini founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, so some of these Sacred Heart recipes would be an appropriate for her feast. HT: Catholic Cuisine

St Frances was Italian, an Italian meal would be in order for the day as well!

Reciting The Little Rosary of St Frances Xavier Cabrini would also be a suitable family devotional today.

One of the lovely Vision books for older children, Mother Cabrini: Missionary to the World.

13th of November - ST STANISLAUS KOSTKA

A biography of St Stanislaus Kostka for older children. HT: Magnificat

A biography for St Albert the Great for children. HT: Intercessories Family Ministry

A biography for St Albert the Great for older children. HT: Magnificat