#The new name thing is mostly symbolic too I don't go by Catherine on the daily

[ettawritesnstudies]

What's a confirmation saint? I saw you mentioning it on the notes and I've never heard of that before.

Thanks for asking!

Confirmation is one of the 7 Sacraments in the Catholic church. These are symbolic holy ceremonies that show God's grace that include Baptism and the Eucharist as well. Confirmation is a 1 time thing, usually done when a person is in 8th or 9th grade, and its when you become an adult in the Church, confirming that you intend to follow the faith and take it as your own. Even if you were raised Catholic and your parents took you to church before now, Confirmation is when you take ownership of your own spiritual life and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Anyhow, part of the sacrament is picking an older Catholic person to be your Sponsor/mentor, picking a new name and choosing a Saint to be your personal patron. We don't worship the Saints - they're more like a cool older sibling you can ask for help and advice and look to as a role model. I picked St. Catherine of Alexandria because she had to defend the faith in front of the Emperor and was martyred for her beliefs, but not before she converted 200 members of the royal household. At the time, I was the token Catholic in a very secular and aggressively protestant high school and had to defend my beliefs a whole lot, so she was (and is) a very good person to intercede for me.

She was also one of the holy helpers who appeared in St. Joan of Arc's visions as a mentor. This worked out in a really cool way because one of my younger friends picked St. Joan as her confirmation saint and asked me to be her sponsor. We didn't coordinate that at all and only realized it afterwards at her party. God moment.

#catholic #christian #catholic things #st. catherine of alexandria #st. joan of arc #saints #The new name thing is mostly symbolic too I don't go by Catherine on the daily #although if I ever publish explicitly Catholic kids books or essays or whatever I'll probably make that my secondary pen name