The Gospel needs to be heard today!
Stand with us in this mission.
During his pontificate, Pope Francis always liked to highlight the "saints next door," referring to the universal call to holiness and the reality that holy men and women are around us, even though the majority will never be canonized.
It can be tempting sometimes to think that only priests and religious from faraway countries and distant centuries are called to become saints. Yet, the Church has always stressed that anyone (including you, reading this article) can and should become a saint.
We may not feel up to the task, but with God's grace, we can all fulfill God's plan for our lives and lead lives of heroic holiness.
November celebration of local saints
Pope Francis wrote a letter in 2024 about his desire that every diocese in the world would honor local saints in the month of November:
[I]t seems important to me that all particular Churches commemorate the Saints and Blesseds on a single date, as well as the Venerables and Servants of God of their respective territories. It is not a matter of inserting a new memorial into the liturgical calendar, but of promoting with appropriate initiatives outside the liturgy, or of recalling within it, for example in the homily or at another time deemed appropriate, those figures who have characterized the local Christian path and spirituality. Therefore, I urge the particular Churches, starting from the coming Jubilee of 2025, to remember and honour these figures of holiness, every year on November 9, the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica.
He explained, "This will enable the individual diocesan Communities to rediscover or perpetuate the memory of extraordinary disciples of Christ who have left a living mark of the presence of the Risen Lord and who are still sure guides today in the common path towards God, protecting us and supporting us."
While Pope Francis wrote this letter to all the bishops of the world, there still needs to be some coordination in each diocese to best facilitate this request. The celebration will naturally look different for a diocese in the United States or Nigeria, where there might not be many local saints on the path to canonization, and a diocese in Ireland or France, where there are hundreds of saints from two millennia of Christianity.
But the point is the same: It's a reminder that holiness is not reserved for the few, but is open to all, even those who are or were your neighbors. And this feast can become a great beacon to all Catholics struggling on the journey of life.
