7QT: Seven Ways to Celebrate A Patron Saint Day

Yesterday was the Solemnity of St. Joseph, a special day for the Universal Church, but a very special day for my students at our St. Joseph School.  We try to celebrate well, but it can be hard coming up with new and meaningful ideas each year.  I thought I'd pull together seven of the big concepts we usually work into our celebration that could be general enough for others to use too as you enjoy the feast day of the patron of your family, homeschool, classroom, or parish.

To keep this quick, each idea just has a picture and a short caption.  Click on the pictures to either send you to a more detailed post or to the source of that idea.  I'd love to hear from you about how you have used a concept like these  or other ideas you have for celebrating a patron Saint.

~1~ 

 Make a shrine or art project in honor of the Saint.

For more Saint  crafts I have done before with kiddos, visit the Sharing the Faith Tab and scroll down to the Saints section.

~2~

 Make a big visual display for all to enjoy, 

like this multi-media mural:

Or a stained glass icon poster:

Or a litany poster:

 Or be brave and paint a mural!

~3~

 Make your own Saint cards with a picture and a special prayer:

~4~

 Enjoy a special food:

~5~

Celebrate the people under the patronage of that Saint- the person celebrating a name day, or a whole family, or a parish, or a school.
 You may have seen this activity floating around on Pinterest.  I had each student sit with their back to our white board and the rest of the class wrote kind and encouraging words about that person.  We took a picture and erased the board before they could see it.  I printed the pictures and handed them out at the end of the day on St. Joseph's feast, celebrating that we as part of the St. Joseph School community can build each other up just as St. Joseph builds up the church.

~6~

Read a special book about your Saint:

This one is from Word Among Us Press, and has lovely pictures.

 ~7~

 Pray a novena because they work.

We often will gather all together to either pray a litany, or have a special prayer service, or will pray a novena in the days leading up to the feast.

I hope you had a blessed St. Joseph Day!  I'd love to hear how you celebrate Saint's Feast Days with your groups of kiddos!

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