Category: Health & Illness
St. Francis de Sales, who created a sign language-like system to teach a deaf man the faith, is invoked by the deaf. St. John of Beverly, an 8th-century English bishop who healed a deaf-mute boy according to Bede's Ecclesiastical History, is another patron of the deaf.
The most frequently cited patron of the deaf in contemporary Catholic usage is St. Francis de Sales, whose pastoral creativity in reaching a man who could not hear speech is taken as the basis for his patronage of the deaf and of those who serve the deaf community.
Formally proclaimed patronage — sourced from canonized saints in the Roman Calendar.
Saint Francis de Sales is invoked as patron of the deaf. Francis de Sales was born August 21, 1567, at the Chateau de Sales in the Duchy of Savoy. He studied humanities and law at Paris (the Jesuit College of Clermont) and Padua, taking his doctorate in both laws in 1591. Sources: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/20221228-totum-amoris-est.html.
Saint Francis de Sales is the primary patron saint of deaf. Their feast day is January 24.
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: "Francis de Sales, 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.