Saints of Recent Decades: An Introduction
In our forthcoming blog posts, we will be focusing our attention on saints who have lived in recent decades. (We will use the term "recent" somewhat loosely, as some of them lived more than a hundred years ago, which most children consider to be very, very old.) Our intent is to provide a resource for you that can be used to introduce your Sunday Church School students to saints who they can see in icons but also (at least in most cases) in actual photographs as well. Seeing the photos can help the children to better grasp the reality of the saints' existence, that they are real people who actually lived and struggled just like we do to live an Orthodox Christian life. It is our goal that along the way, all of us will "meet" new friends as we learn about these saints who have walked the earth more recently.
Each post will focus on a recent saint, offering a brief retelling of his/her story. It will also offer ideas of ways to teach your Sunday Church School students about that saint's life. We hope that you will interact with these posts, leaving comments of other ideas or resources on each saint that you have to share with the community, as well.
Of course, it is up to you if and how you put these blog posts to use in your classroom. Perhaps you could share the saint's story while the children snack (if your Sunday Church School class takes place after Divine Liturgy), before you begin your main lesson. You could adapt the ideas to your class' needs and teach a full lesson on each saint. Or you could just offer an occasional lesson on one of the saints, working them in around your usual lessons. However you apply these posts, we hope you find them encouraging and challenging, and that they will cause you to want to strive harder to be the man/woman of God that He has created you to be. May we challenge our Sunday Church School students to do likewise!
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Through the prayers of the Holy Saints, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us!
Here are some ideas and links that you may find helpful:
- What is the definition of a saint, and how does a person become one? Did you know that there are different categories of saints? What exactly is theosis? Why do we ask the saints to pray for us? These questions and more are answered in this blog, which is important background information for us as we prepare to teach our Sunday Church School children about the saints. Older children could read this blog together and discuss its application to their life. After all, sainthood should be our aim, for living a life of great godliness is the ultimate goal for every sincere Christian!
- One idea that could help your Sunday Church School students retain the information that you teach them about saints over the course of this year would be for you to have them create a "trading card" of sorts about the saint. It could feature a copied icon of the saint, a sketch that they make, or a photograph (if it is a recent saint) that is then attached to a 3x5 or 4x6 index card. Each student could then write a short description of the saint beneath the illustration (or on the back), or copy the troparion to the saint in that space. Perhaps something like this (only student-made). Students could accumulate their "trading cards" in your classroom and have a whole set to take home at the end of the year, to remind them of these "new" friends that they met in your Sunday Church School class.
- There are so many men who have become saints. But there are also many women! We will feature both in our "recent" saint blogs this fall. If you want to see a list of women saints, here is one.
- Find a listing of each day's saints, as well as links to more information about most of them here. This page is an excellent resource for a Sunday Church School study of the saints: students can look up their own patron saint, find out more about saints whose name day is on a date significant to the student, or use the page to "meet" new friends each time they visit the web page!
- "...What does a holy life look like in the twenty-first century? We tell ourselves, 'Sure, people could live holy lives in the fourth century...there was no TV, internet, or any of the other temptations of our day!' We doubt there are any saints who could have understood the struggles that we face." Read on in this blog post about finding friends among the recent saints who are examples to us and can intercede for us. (Spoiler alert: we will be learning about many of the saints mentioned here, in the weeks ahead!)
