Oh, please please read about the lives of blessed Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin (St.Therese’s mother who is not canonized yet), as well, St. Bridget of Sweden and at least please read about St. Gianna (amazing story about an amazing mommy).  John Paul II especially recognized us mommies as saints!

Oh and many more too!!!  But Zelie Martin definately has a special place in my heart and our daughter is named after her.  And as a confirmation name I chose St. Anna Marie Taigi - wife and mother.  She is a great saint for mothers to look to, especially if you have a ‘difficult’ husband. 

And there are many splendid documents written by JPII on the wonders of wives and mothers.  The church has not forgotten us or does not see us as ‘lowly’.  Actually, if you ever need a boost on the importance of your vocation as wife and mother, the Catholic church has much to offer to support and validify just how important and special you are!!    peace!!

Thank you for the encouragement. Zelie Martin is wonderful, of course, but she didn’t mother her children for the first year to three of their lives because she was running her business. If we dumped our kids in 24/7 daycare to be entrepreneurs, would our pastors, friends and families think that was the right thing to do? Ditto St. Gianna—she was a full-time physician, and someone else raised her children while she was doing other admirable work.

I don’t know much about St. Bridget, but I hazard to guess she never would have been canonized if she hadn’t also founded a religious order.

St. Anna Marie Taegi is an unfamiliar name, so I look forward to learning more about her. Perhaps she is the St. Mommy I’ve been looking for.

I guess the kind of St. Mommy I’d love to learn about is a woman who did for motherhood what St. Therese did for religious life. St. Therese didn’t do anything extraordinary. It was precisely her littleness and ordinariness that was so inspiring to everyone else. Is there a comparable married saint, canonized not for founding an order or being martyred but simply for loving her husband and children, caring for her home and otherwise fulfilling her vocation in its ordinariness?

JPII did more for marriage and the dignity of woman than the rest of the popes combined, and I’m a huge fan of his writings. Yet it’s difficult to see how his theories work in reality without the example of a saint to emulate.

We’ll all keep plugging away, faithful to our vocations, but I think we should also pray for God to reveal the life of some wonderful, loving mother who grew in holiness in her domestic church so that the Universal Church can honor her and beg her intercession.

(The security word is “waiting”—how often these are apropos!)

Anne, I’m not sure you have the whole picture of St. Zelie Martin?  Have you read Story of a family?  She had to send St. Therese away because she could not nurse her, and eventually she died of what was probably breast cancer.  All of her baby boys died.  She lost I think two other baby girls?  She was absolutely a mother first who suffered quietly in her home.  She may have been a fabulous lace maker but she was a mother first who raised her girls to know love and serve God.  She definately wasn’t canonized because of her lace making but be cause she lived a life of sacrifice and service as a mother and wife.  Gianna also is not noted for being a physican but because she was also a moither who was heroic in her service to her family and to the will of God.  I challenge you to look deeper.  These women may have had to work or part of their vocation but their work is not what defined them but how they loved and cared for their families.  You and I can still learn much from their holiness.  Zelie Martin really is what you are talking about - she didn’t start an order, she wasn’t a martyr, she never wrote a book or was a leader of any sort.  Her holiness was found in the day to day living as a mother and wife and her surrender to God’s will.  Forgive me if I seem a bit defensive about her but I wouldn’t want anyone to dismiss her as not being a ‘mom and wife saint’.  In some ways she is ‘family’ to me.    So I am a bit passionate in defending her I guess!!

You may enjoy reading about spouses, Blessed Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi (1880-1951) & his wife Blessed Maria Corsini (1884-1965).

This, from Pope John Paul II of blessed memory:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/homilies/2001/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20011021_beltrame-quattrocchi_en.html

There’s   Bl. Castora Gabrielli who was noted for the sanctity she brought to her every day work.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was a fine wife and mother as well as everything else.

There are also Saints Nonna,  Monica,  and Macrina the Elder who are best known for being   mothers (or grandmothers) of Saints, as good a recommendation for a St. Mommy as you can get.

(Sts Nonna, Monica and Macrina help me to raise my children in the way they should go.)

Wow! I had no idea. The only book I’d read on Zelie Martin was a little pamphlet about 60 years old that went on and on about how she was a great business woman. And I’ve never heard of so many of he others you all have mentioned. THANK YOU!!!!!

Anne, but there was one mother who is cannonized simply because she was a mother. Because she gave birth, feed her family, was a good wife, and loved God.

Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth

She didn’t get that title for finding any religiouse order, she simply loved her God above all else and then her family.

Hi, Katrina. Thank you, (and everyone else) for your kind words.  Danielle Bean has my contact info - we’re near St. John Vianney, and would love to get together.  Marion

Wow - Patricia, I’m printing your comment out and taping it to my kitchen cabinet - what wonderful insight into motherhood.  I especially love the suggestions for being creative in prayer.  Your comment post is a God-send!

Patricia, that’s really beautiful but I wish you’d linked to the blog where you found it instead of cutting and pasting it. I’d love to know who wrote it and to be able to tell her how much I appreciate her words.

If you had taken these words from my blog, I’d be rather upset that you had taken my thoughts and not given me credit. I know you just wanted to share something that inspired you; but you haven’t considered the feelings of the woman who wrote them.

Not being a blogger, it did not dawn on me to give credit.  I was simply sharing something I had read that moved me.  Thanks for your input.  Here is the blog:

http://evlogia.typepad.com/evlogia/