Painting the Saints

Ever since my reversion to Catholicism back in college, the saints have been my inspiration and my companions. Reading the writings of St. Therese changed my life, and she was the first on an ever-expanding list of my "favorite" saints. I ask for their prayers and try to emulate their lives, and I really feel like they are my true friends. When I started having kids, I wanted to instill in them a love of the saints, but for years I have had no idea how. I can't plunk them down on the couch with a biography of Padre Pio, or guide them through the writings of Pope John Paul II. That day may come, but I don't want them to wait as long as I did to meet all of these great friends. I have tried countless saint stories, videos, paintings, but nothing quite seemed to catch their interest in the way I was hoping.

Then I heard about Saint Peg Dolls. I am not really a crafty person; I love crafts with my kids, but only because the process is more important than the outcome. I am intimidated by "grown-up" crafts, especially if anyone else will ever see them. But for some reason, these dolls kept speaking to me. 

So I joined a Saint Doll Exchange through a friend of mine. Each of us painted 19 wooden pegs in the likeness of a saint of our choosing, then we sent them off to her to organize and send back one of each saint to each participant. I was a little terrified at the prospect of painting something that a bunch of strangers with unknown artistic ability would be seeing, but I did it anyways. I painted 19 St. Lucian of Antioch dolls and mailed them away.

Before Easter a package arrived in the mail. I snuck up to my bedroom to examine the saints I had received, and I was blown away! They were beautiful. There was a wide range of artistic talent, from simple (like mine) to extremely elaborate and complex, but each one was stunning in its own way. It took every ounce of self-control to save them until Easter... but I managed, and the kids each received a group of saints in their baskets. 

It has been amazing. Every day since Easter, they have played with these dolls. They keep bringing them to me to ask about their lives, and even I am learning things I never knew! St. Perpetua is a current favorite; we read all about her life and her martyrdom, and the next thing I knew, there was a duplo arena in our living room with St. Perpetua facing the wild animals. They also love to know which saints knew each other or lived at the same time. We have some great pairs, including John Paul II and Mother Teresa, Francis and Clare, and Edith Stein and Maximilian Kolbe. 

We ended up with a great mix of ancient (St. Joesph, St. Philomena, St. Perpetua, St. Lucian) and modern (Bl. Pier Giorgio, St. Maximilian, St. John Paul), and everything in between. Max has taken to snatching my phone whenever he sees it lying around and snapping pictures of his pals. Now that they have met 19 new friends, we only have about 10,000 more to go! Let's get painting!