the classes' saints
RECEPTION
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Saint Francis of Assisi was born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone and nicknamed Francesco. He was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher who founded the men's Order of Friar Minor, the women's Order of St Clare and the Third Order of St Francis. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history.
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YEAR 1
Marie Bernarde Soubirous, also called Bernadette, was the first born daughter of a miller from Lourdes, France. She is best known for the Marian apparitions of a "small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at the cave-grotto where apparitions are said to have occurred between February and July 1858. Born: 7th January 1844 - Lourdes, France. Died: 16th April 1879 - Nevers, France. Beatified: 14th June 1925. Canonised: 8th December 1933. Feast Day: 16th April. Patronage: Bodily illness. 
YEAR 3
Pio of Pietrelcina, Italy, commonly known as Padre Pio, was a friar, priest, stigmatist and mystic of the Roman Catholic Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. Padre Pio became famous for bearing the stigmata for most of his life. Born: 25th May 1887 - Pietrelcina, Italy. Died: 23nd September 1968 - San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. Beatified: 2nd May 1999. Canonised: 16th June 2002. Feast day: 23nd September. Patronage: Civil Defence Volunteers. 
YEAR 5
St John Bosco, popularly known as Don Bosco, was an Italian Roman Catholic priest of the Latin Church, educator and writer of the 19th Century. In Turin, he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents and other disadvantaged youth. Born: 16th August 1815 - Castelnuovo d'Asti, Sardinia. Died: 31st January 1888 - Turin, Italy. Beatified: 2nd June 1929 Canonised: 1st April 1934 Feast Day: 31st January Patronage: Young People |
YEAR 2
St Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, a native of Mexico, is the first Roman Catholic indigenous saint from the Americas. He is said to have been granted an apparition of the Virgin Mary on four separate occasions in December 1531 at the hill of Tepeyac. Juan Diego's mantle (cloak) is said to have been impressed by miracle with an image of the Virgin. This is the basis of the cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Born: 1474 - Cuauhtitlan, Mexico. Died: 1548 - Tepeyac, Mexico. Beatified: 6th May 1990. Canonised: 31st July 2002. Feast Day: 9th December. Patronage: Indigenous people. 
YEAR 4
Saint Alphonsa was a Syro-Malabar Catholic Franscican nun who is now honoured as a saint. Sister Alphonsa became the first native Indian to be canonised. Her Baptismal name is Anna. Born: 19th August 1910 - Arpookara, India. Died: 28th July 1946 - Bharananganam, India. Beatified: 1986. Canonised: 12th October 2008. Feast Day: 28th July. Patronage: Against Illness. 
YEAR 6
Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe was a Polish Conventual Franscican Friar, who voluntered to die in place of a stranger in the German death camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II. Born: 8th January 1894 - Zdunska, Poland. Died: 14th August 1941 - Auschwitz, Poland. Beatified: 17th October 1971 Canonised: 10th October 1982 Feast Day: 14th August. Patronage: Prisoners of conscience |
