October 24: MARTYRS OF NAJRAN: Companions of Martyrs

St. John of Capistrano was a seventy-year-old friar with no sword — and he rode out to help save Europe from an Ottoman siege. A former lawyer who joined the Franciscans after a dream of St. Francis changed his life, John became one of the greatest preachers of his age, drawing tens of thousands wherever he spoke. When Constantinople fell and Belgrade came under siege, he answered the Pope's call to preach the crusade, using fasting and penance to prepare himself before joining the charge that helped save the city. "Courage in the service of God does not require a sword or a title — it requires only a heart that has decided, once and for all, that God is worth everything." John's challenge doesn't have to end when the episode does. Our free Family Pack has a saint calendar, feast-day activity pages, and family discussion questions to keep it going at home — free when you subscribe: https://shop.catholicsprouts.com/pages/every-days-a-feast-day-follow-along

St. John Paul II was shot in St. Peter's Square — and two years later, he sat in a prison cell forgiving the man who tried to kill him. Shaped by devastating loss in his youth and years of secret seminary study under Nazi occupation, Karol Wojtyła became pope and spent twenty-six years telling the world not to be afraid. After surviving an assassination attempt, he entrusted the moment entirely to Mary and personally forgave his attacker face to face, hand in hand. "Be not afraid." Want to keep living John Paul's story after the episode ends? Grab our free Family Pack — a saint calendar with daily challenges, feast-day activities, family discussion questions, and more — free for email subscribers, so your family can follow along together: https://shop.catholicsprouts.com/pages/every-days-a-feast-day-follow-along

St. Laura Montoya left a comfortable teaching career to paddle upriver into the Colombian jungle for children nobody else was looking for. Convinced that the indigenous Chocó people were fully beloved by God even though society had dismissed them, Laura placed her entire mission under Our Lady's protection and set out with a small group of women in 1914. They lived simply among the people they'd come to serve, and Laura went on to become the first person from Colombia ever canonized a saint. "Laura believed they were children of God. She believed that meant they counted completely." Today's challenge is just the start. Grab our free Family Pack — a saint calendar, activity pages, and discussion questions for the whole family, plus more surprises along the way: https://shop.catholicsprouts.com/pages/every-days-a-feast-day-follow-along

St. Paul of the Cross built an entire religious order around one conviction: that gazing at Jesus's suffering teaches us how loved we are. After receiving the rule for his new congregation during forty days of prayer and fasting, Paul spent decades preaching so powerfully about Christ's Passion that hardened sinners wept and returned to confession after years away. Remarkably, he continued preaching that same love for forty-five years while experiencing almost no personal consolation in prayer himself, staying faithful through the driest, darkest stretch imaginable. "You cannot gaze long at what God was willing to endure for you and remain unchanged." Paul's challenge doesn't have to end when the episode does. Our free Family Pack has a saint calendar, feast-day activity pages, and family discussion questions to keep it going at home — free when you subscribe: https://shop.catholicsprouts.com/pages/every-days-a-feast-day-follow-along

St. Isaac Jogues escaped slavery among the Mohawk with broken, tortured hands — and then chose to go back. A Jesuit missionary among the Huron people, Isaac was captured, enslaved, and tortured for over a year, secretly baptizing whoever he could reach even in captivity. After escaping to France, he received special papal permission to say Mass with his ruined hands, then returned to New France as a missionary of peace, ultimately giving his life for the very people who had once held him captive. "It would be unjust that a martyr of Christ not drink the Blood of Christ." Want to keep living Isaac's story after the episode ends? Grab our free Family Pack — a saint calendar with daily challenges, feast-day activities, family discussion questions, and more — free for email subscribers, so your family can follow along together: https://shop.catholicsprouts.com/pages/every-days-a-feast-day-follow-along