Feast Day Celebrations: St. Francis of Assisi

We love learning about the saints with our kids!  Celebrating their feast days with food, activities, and fun are a great way to teach the kids about these holy men and women's beautiful lives for Christ.   

And October 4th is St. Francis of Assisi's feast day!

Francis was born in 1181 in Assisi, Italy to a cloth merchant.  He lived a life of luxury and loved to spend money.  One day as a young man heading off to war, everything changed.  He was taken captive and became ill.  He was imprisoned for over a year and during this time he realized that the glory of battle was nothing compared to the glory of Christ.

After returning home, he visited an old, dilapidated church.  He heard Jesus on the Crucifix say to him, "Francis, go and repair my house, which you see is falling down."  He quickly went about doing this in any way he could (which got him in a lot of trouble with his family).  He rebuilt the physical church but came to realize that it was not just the physical church that Jesus asked him to help rebuild.  He was called to care for the spiritual well being of the people of His Church.

Over the next several years, he began living an austere life, following Matthew 10 as an example.  He took care of lepers, was a true friend of animals, preached repentance and the Gospel, was a writer and stigmatist (he was given the Wounds of the Crucified Christ), and lived in complete simplicity and poverty.  His way of life began to spread and many men joined him then and still do today.

I have completely glossed over this incredible saint's life - he is amazing and this blog post would be way too long if I included everything!  So I hope you'll read more about St. Francis of Assisi here or here.

Ok, on to the celebration of his holy life! 

Here are some fun and simple ideas to celebrate the feast day of St. Francis with your family:

St. Francis and Franciscan brothers have a very different hairstyle, which is called a tonsure.  Franciscans have tonsures as a sign of religious devotion and humility.  So we'll be eating tonsures today in the form of donuts!

Below I have posted affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on that link. Please see the disclosure page for more info!

To learn a little about the life of St. Francis of Assisi, we'll watch our CCC of America animated movie Francis: The Knight of Assisi.  It is a really fun one, especially for little boys.  I think it really shows the adventure of living a life for Christ.

We'll also read The Song of St. Francis by Tomie dePaola.  We just love his books, especially the ones on the saints.  They are so colorful and beautifully written!

Moving on to some fun little activities!  Here are two that we're going to do: this coloring page...

...and this St. Francis Peace Prayer activity.

Another important aspect of St. Francis's life was his love for animals!

He was a true friend of animals - he had a tremendous love for all of God's creation in nature.  There are many stories of how he loved and was able to talk to animals.  It's very common practice in and around his feast day for there to be a blessing of animals and pets.

Well, we don't have any pets, so we are going to say the blessing for our stuffed animals instead!

Some other fun ideas for celebrating St. Francis's love of animals:

Go to the zoo, take a hike in the woods, or wear clothes with animals on them (even Mickey counts!).

And make bird seed cakes - these were so fun to make with the kids!

Bird Seed Cakes
(adapted from Living My Life on Purpose)

Ingredients and Materials:

3 cups bird seed
1 cup boiling water
2 packets unflavored gelatin
Muffin tin or mold
Yarn or string
Straws (cut into 2-3 inch pieces)

Directions:

1.  Boil 1 cup of water.

2.  Add packets of gelatin slowly and stir until (mostly) dissolved.

3.  Add bird seed and stir until seed is covered.  It will be pretty wet.

4.  Spoon bird seed mixture evenly into your greased mold or muffin tin.  (I used cooking spray to grease the pan.)

5.  Place a straw an inch down from the top.  Let the cakes set overnight.

6.  When the bird seed cakes are hardened the following day, pull out the straw and string yarn through the hole.  Tie the yarn and then it's ready to hang up for our feathered friends!

Notes:  A donut mold would be perfect for this!  Then you wouldn't need the straws and you could just string your yarn through the donut hole!

Also, I made these bird seed cakes for the first time yesterday - so I'll let you know how they hold up!

We have really loved learning more about the lives of the saints this year through celebrating their lives as a family.  Their words and actions point directly to Christ!

Happy Feast of St. Francis of Assisi!  Like this amazing saint, may we live lives of generosity and simplicity and may we always build up His Church in the world and within our own home in everything we say and do.
 

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Feast Day Celebrations: St. Patrick's Day

We love celebrating saint's feast days with fun and simple crafts, food, and activities.  And the next one is a big one: St. Patrick's Day on March 17th! 

St. Patrick's Life Story

St. Patrick was kidnapped from his home in the British Isles as a youth and was then sold into slavery in Ireland.  He worked as a shepherd for his master, and during his long days alone with his sheep, he grew deeper in his relationship with God through prayer.

After many years as a slave, Patrick had a dream that indicated that he would be able to escape.  He fled from his master in Ireland and boarded a ship he found that was heading to Europe.  He was eventually reunited with his family.  But upon returning home, he knew he was being called to return to Ireland to teach them about Christianity because of a message he received in a dream: “We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more.”

Patrick set out to follow this call.  He studied to become a priest and was eventually ordained a bishop.  He was then sent as a missionary to Ireland where over the course of a very difficult 30 years (where his life was constantly threatened), he converted all of Ireland to Christianity.

What an amazing life for Christ that St. Patrick had!  To celebrate and teach the kids more about this amazing saint's life and how he served Christ, here are the fun things you can do easily at home:

Trinity Clover Craft
(This craft takes 15-20 minutes - parent with child assistance)

St. Patrick used a 3 leaf clover to teach the people of Ireland about the Trinity.  One leaf for each of the Three Persons in One God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So we made our own Trinity clovers!  I got the idea from Christianity Cove.  Each leaf is a heart made out of green construction paper (that I traced from a large cookie cutter) and the stem is a popsicle stick.

My 3 kids showing off their Trinity Clovers!

The Heart represents God the Father, the Cross for God the Son, and the Dove for God the Holy Spirit.  (I used a cookie cutter to trace the heart, a ruler to draw a simple Cross, and this free clipart for the dove.)

After everything was cut out, we glued the leaves to the stem and then glued the symbols to each leaf - all the while we talked about the Trinity and what each of the symbols meant!

Since we're Catholic, the kids quickly connected this Trinity Clover craft with the Sign of the Cross.  I just love hands on crafts because they always help them to more easily remember what they've been taught!

Wearing their St. Patrick's Breastplate armor!

St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer & Craft
(This craft takes 15-20 minutes - parent with child assistance)

There is a famous prayer of his called St. Patrick's Breastplate (see below).  So we decided to make our own armor for Christ with his prayer!

For the armor, I cut out the sides of a paper sack and then a hole in the base of the sack for the kids' heads to fit through.  (For more detailed instructions, please click on how we made our St. Juan Diego tilmas - we made them the same way!)

For the prayer, I made up a simple coloring page (above) with St. Patrick's Breastplate prayer written out on a shield with a simple three leaf clover.  Here is the printable version of St. Patrick's Breastplate shield coloring page so you and your kids can make it too!

The kids colored the prayer, we cut it out, and then we glued it to the face of their paper sack armor.  They are now ready to go to battle for Christ!

Christ above me!

St. Patrick's Breastplate Activity

Ok, we didn't really battle.  But we did play a little game with the prayer!

St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer is full of actions.  So the kids grabbed a Crucifix (one that was a craft and the other one was a nice, wooden one), and they acted out each part of the prayer as I read it to them.

Christ when I lie down!

They really loved this game!  It helped them to understand the prayer better and also to really visualize how Christ is with us everywhere & at all times and how we need to be a holy, Christian example to everyone we meet!

Christ in every ear that hears me!

St. Patrick's Day Food

This is really easy.  Just find any food that is green and can be cut or made into a circle or clover: kiwi; pickles; peas; spinach; green M&Ms; pancakes dyed green; cinnamon rolls, cookies, or cupcakes with green icing; etc.  We happened to have kiwi so that's what we used:

So during lunch, we talked about the how St. Patrick used the clover to represent the Trinity and what the Trinity is.  Food is always a great way to help kids learn!  How can you forget a lesson that is so delicious?!

St. Patrick's Day Book and Movie

Below I have posted 2 affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on any of those links. Please see the disclosure page for more info! 

Our two favorites are:

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie DePaola.  He has so many excellent books on different Bible stories, Christ, and the saints.  We especially love his illustrations!

And we love Patrick: Brave Shepherd of the Emerald Isle by CCC of America.  I've said it many times before - we love the movies by this company!  They do a great job of telling and teaching the stories of saints and showing how their lives point us to Christ.  And the story of St. Patrick is not an exception.  You should definitely check it out!

(And from now until Easter, you can get 40% off and free shipping for any of their saint movies with the code EASTER40!)

I can't tell you how much we've grown together as a family through celebrating the saint's feast days over the past few months.  Every holy man and woman of God we've learned about has pointed us to Christ in different and beautiful ways.  I'm excited to continue this tradition with my family!

How do you plan on celebrating St. Patrick's special day this week?  Let me know if you try any of these crafts or activities - I'd love to hear all about it!


Happy Feast of St. Patrick on March 17th!  Like this brave saint, may we cling to God during trials, follow His call for us even when it's difficult, and always strive to lead everyone around us to Christ! 

             

You may also like:

DIY St. Patrick's Day Four Leaf Clover / Shamrock Hair Bow

I'm linking up with these awesome parties!

Feast Day Celebrations: St. Josephine Bakhita

St. Josephine Bakhita is a fairly "new" saint to me.  But when I first read about her life a few years ago, I was instantly drawn to her:

Bakhita was born in Sudan, Africa in 1869.  At a young age, she was kidnapped and sold into slavery.  The trauma of her abduction caused her to forget her name, so her captors named her Bakhita, which means "fortunate" in Arabic.

Over the years, Bakhita was owned by many masters who severely abused and beat her.  One of her masters would even place salt in her open wounds to make sure that they would permanently scar.

After being a slave to several owners in Sudan, Bakhita eventually was sent to work in Italy as a nanny for the colleague of Sudan's Italian consul.  For the first time, she was treated with love and respect by this family. 

While her masters were back in Sudan on business, Bakhita and their daughter were left in the care of the Canossian (religious) Sisters in Italy.  It was here where she first encountered Christ, the One True and Loving Master.  She fell in love with Him and joined the Catholic Church in 1890, taking the name Josephine at her baptism.

When her masters came back for their daughter and Josephine, she refused to leave.  It eventually ended up in the courts, but they decided that she was a free woman since Sudan and Italy did not recognize slavery.  With her freedom, she decided to remain in Italy and become a Canossian sister.

St. Josephine Bakhita was known for her gentleness and holiness in her 50 years as a religious sister.  When asked what she would do if she met her kidnappers, she replied,

"If I were to meet those who kidnapped me, and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands.  For, if these things had not happened, I would not have been a Christian and a religious today".

St. Josephine Bakhita suffered greatly with illnesses the last years of her life, but she always remained cheerful saying, "as the Master desires".  She died on February 8, 1947.  

To celebrate St. Josephine Bakhita's feast day on February 8th, I have a few simple and fun things planned to teach the kids about her remarkable life for Christ:   

1.  They love to color, so I found this beautiful coloring page of St. Josephine Bakhita (and also this one) for the kids.

Below I have posted a few affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking one of those links; please see the disclosure page for more info. 

2.  While they were coloring, I told them her story.  Right away, J recognized that it was similar to the story of St. Patrick.  (They know his story through this animated movie that we love.)  He was also kidnapped and sold into slavery.  That parallel really helped them to better understand St. Josephine's life story.

I also talked about how St. Josephine Bakhita did not know Jesus Christ while she was a slave, but that she still bravely bore all of her sufferings and always longed to know the Creator of the world:  

"Seeing the sun, the moon, and the stars, I said to myself: 'Who could be the Master of these beautiful things?' And I felt a great desire to see Him, to know Him, and to pay Him homage".

3.  St. Josephine saw the One True Master in "the sun, the moon, and the stars" before she came to know Christ.  So for lunch, I planned a meal that represents the things that pulled her heart toward God before she even knew Him. (I got this idea from here.)

The kids really enjoyed their special St. Josephine lunch: apple crescent moons; a clementine sun; and ham, cream cheese, spinach, and cheese star "cracker sandwiches".  While they ate, we talked about St. Josephine and how she first saw God in the beauty of His Creation and how we see God in nature today.

4.  And to continue with that theme, I had the kids tell me what they thought was beautiful outside in nature.  They mentioned the sunrise and the sunset, and it happened to be snowing, so of course, they also said snow!  The next time it is nice outside and we can take a walk, I will once again talk about seeing God's beauty in nature like St. Josephine did.

5.  I also highly recommend the movie Bakhita: From Slave to Saint.  However, this movie is NOT for children.  It does show her abuse.  Also, it is not 100% accurate, but I still love it!  It's so amazing to see everything she went through and how she never lost her gentle, joyful, and forgiving spirit in the middle of so much personal suffering.


Happy Feast of St. Josephine Bakhita!  Like this beautiful saint, may we live lives of joy in the midst of trials, forgive those who mistreat us, and always see God in the beauty of the little and big things of everyday life!

             

I'm linking up with these awesome parties,
especially with The Big White Farmhouse's 5 Favorites,
and 7QT (St. Josephine's Story, 5 Ways to Celebrate, and a Prayer)!