OUR PATRON SAINTS
These are the patron saints of Youth 2000. We encourage you to get to know them, and ask them to pray for you and for the mission of Youth 2000. You’ll find some information about each saint here, but we encourage you to go deeper - many of these saints have written extensively and there’s so much to learn from them! Whether it’s through a 33 day consecration to Jesus through Mary or by reading Mother Teresa’s I Thirst, or through a homily from Pope John Paul II - we invite you to explore in faith and with prayer.
St Joseph
The husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Joseph is among the most venerated Saints of the Church. A carpenter in Nazareth, he raised the child Jesus. The Bible records his presence at different stages in Jesus’s childhood but no words of his are written down. He is a patron saint of fathers and a powerful intercessor especially for young men.
St Mary Magdalene
St Mary Magdalene was the first person to see the Risen Christ. One of the most mentioned followers of Jesus in the Gospels, she was possessed by demons until Jesus drove them out. She is one of the Marys mentioned in the Gospels, not to be confused with others such as Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus and Martha.
St John Bosco
An Italian priest who dedicated his life to helping and educating disadvantaged children in Turin, St John Bosco is a patron saint of young people. He died in 1888.
St Maximilian Kolbe
St Maximilian was a Polish Franciscan who had a particular devotion to Mary. He was arrested during World War 2 and imprisoned at Auschwitz. When 10 prisoners were starved to death in retribution for an escaped prisoner, Kolbe volunteered himself to replace one of them. Kolbe outlived the other nine, praying with them as they died. After two weeks without food or water he was still alive so he was killed by lethal injection. He was declared a saint in 1982.
St Thérèse of Lisieux
St Thérèse was a young French Carmelite who died of Tuberculosis aged just 24. And yet, she is one of the most widely venerated Saints of the Church. Her “Little Way” to heaven - simply put, doing even the smallest of things with great love - has become an inspiration to many other Saints. Her life story is told in her autobiography “Story of a Soul.”
St Pio of Pietrelcina
St Pio, known as Padre Pio, was an Italian Franciscan priest. With an unusually deep spiritual life even as a very small child, Padre Pio was ordained a priest aged just 23 and was known to have received many spiritual gifts including bilocation. Working long days ministering to God’s children and eating miraculously little, he lived until the age of 81, dying in 1968.
Pope St John Paul II
Karol Józef Wojtyła, later Pope John Paul II, was from Poland. Gifted in academia and in theatre, a great philosopher and theologian, he began his training for the priesthood in a seminary that operated in secret against the wishes of the occupying Nazi forces in Poland at the time. Among many, many other things, he is known for initiating World Youth Day in 1985.
St Teresa of Calcutta
Better known as Mother Teresa, St Teresa is best known for establishing the Missionaries of Charity, a religious order devoted to helping the poorest of the poor. Mother Teresa is also known for her profound spirituality, growing incredibly close to Christ while also experiencing profound spiritual suffering in her interior life. She took her religious name Teresa from St Thérèse of Lisieux.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
Blessed Pier Giorgio was a young man from Turin, Italy. He was from a relatively wealthy family and his father owned a newspaper. However, he gave up the majority of his money to those poorer than himself. A lover of nature, he saw the beauty of God in His creation. He devoted much of his time to the evangelisation of his friends and to helping the poor and sick. Upon his early death aged 24 from a sickness he had caught from someone he was helping, his family were surprised when thousands of mourners appeared in the streets, having been touched or brought closer to God by his life.