Category: Countries & Regions
In Catholic tradition, patron saints are holy men and women whose lives and intercession are considered especially suited to particular needs, groups, or situations. The Church's practice of invoking saints reflects the doctrine of the Communion of Saints — the belief that the faithful departed remain united with the living in the one Body of Christ and can intercede before God on our behalf.
The designation of a patron saint for "Americas" reflects centuries of Catholic popular devotion and, in many cases, formal proclamations by popes or bishops recognizing a saint's particular connection to this intention through the circumstances of their life, death, or documented miracles.
Formally proclaimed patronage — sourced from canonized saints in the Roman Calendar.
Saint Rose of Lima is invoked as patron of the Americas. Saint Rose of Lima was born Isabel Flores de Oliva at Lima, Peru, on April 20, 1586, of a Spanish criollo family of moderate means. The name Rose came from a domestic incident in her infancy and was confirmed by Saint Toribio Mogrovejo, Archbishop of Lima, at her Confirmation. Sources: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/1985/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19850203_lima-rosa.html.
Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions is invoked as patron of the Americas. The eight North American Martyrs were six French Jesuit priests and two lay donnés (lay associates) who served the Huron and Iroquois missions of New France between 1626 and 1649. The principal figures are Saint Jean de Brébeuf, the great evangelist of the Hurons, who composed the first Huron grammar and the celebrated Huron Carol, and Saint Isaac Jogues, who labored among the Mohawks.Jogues was captured by the Mohawks in 1642 with the lay donnés Saint René Goupil (martyred 29 September 1642) and the future Saint Jean de Lalande, savagely tortured, and held as a slave for thirteen months before being rescued by Dutch traders at Fort Orange (Albany). Sources: https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/it/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19281230_rerum-orientalium.html.
Read full biography of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions →
Our Lady of Guadalupe is invoked as patron of the Americas. The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe commemorates the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on the hill of Tepeyac, north of Mexico City, between December 9 and 12, 1531, ten years after the fall of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan to Hernan Cortes. In the four apparitions, Mary - speaking in Nahuatl, dressed as a young pregnant Indigenous noblewoman, with the moon under her feet and rays of the sun behind her - identified herself as the perfect ever-Virgin holy Mary, mother of the very true God by whom one lives, and asked that a church be built on Tepeyac for the consolation of the Indigenous peoples and all who would seek her intercession.On December 12, when Juan Diego brought to Bishop Juan de Zumarraga the Castilian roses gathered on the wintry hill at Mary's instruction, his ayate-fiber tilma was found to bear the image now venerated in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City - the most-visited Marian shrine in the world. Sources: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_22011999_ecclesia-in-america.html.
Saint Rose of Lima is the primary patron saint of americas. Their feast day is August 23.
A patron saint is a holy man or woman canonized by the Church whose life and heavenly intercession are considered especially powerful for particular needs, groups, or situations. Catholics ask patron saints to intercede — to pray to God on their behalf — drawing on the doctrine of the Communion of Saints.
To ask for a patron saint's intercession, Catholics typically pray directly to the saint, saying something like: "Rose of Lima, pray for us." You may also light a candle, attend Mass on their feast day, or make a novena — nine days of consecutive prayer — asking for their help before a particular need.