This Week: Activities for the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Religion Teacher | Catholic Religious Education

Catholic Saints Birthday Project

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Have you ever wondered which saints’ feast day is on your birthday? I bet your students haven’t taken the time to do the research. Give them the opportunity to find out as a Catholic saints birthday project.

This could be a fun end-of-the-year project or a great way to start off the school year. One of the biggest long-term benefits of this project is to get young people to continually connect their birthdays with their faith and the life of the Church. Imagine if every year for the rest of their lives they though about a saint on their birthday! They might even develop a small devotion to these saints or even pick them for a Confirmation name!

Catholic Saints Birthday Research Project Ideas

Saints SQPN Website1. First, have students visit the SQPN website and click on their birthdays in the SQPN.com Calendar of Saints.

2. They should find a number of saints, beati, and venerables to chose from. Have them click on all of the saints who have links and skim through each one to find out more information about them.

3. Then, have them select three people to study in more depth. Here are some ideas for Catholic Saints Research Projects from the Ave Maria Press Engaging Faith blog that I created. Use these ideas to customize the projects you want the students to develop.

4. Have each student report their findings on one saint to the class. Or if this project is offered at the beginning the year, have the students present their research on their actual birthdays. (Students with summer birthdays can present on their “half-birthdays” or before breaks.)

If I were a student, my reports would be on St. Agrippina of Rome, Bl. Francis O’Sullivan, and St. Joseph Cafasso. Who would your report be on?

About Jared Dees

Jared Dees is the creator of The Religion Teacher and the author of 31 Days to Becoming a Better Religious Educator, Beatitales, Christ in the Classroom, and The Gospel According to Video Games.

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Comments

  1. Marc Cardaronella

    Hey Jared, this is pretty cool! I like that Saints calendar. I would definitely do mine on St. Irenaeus. He’s awesome.

    I might try this for my RCIA class. Good ideas.

  2. Crystal Caballero

    This was a great way for my boys who are now going to receive all three of thier sacraments this Easter,to pick out a name of a saint pertaining to thier bithday to put on thier baptism record!!