--- title: "Saints’ Feast Days in May: Day by Day · Bless" url: https://blessbible.app/saints/may/ description: "Catholic saints’ feast days in May, day by day: Sts. Philip and James (May 3), St. Matthias (May 14) and a saint for every date, with life and patronage." --- Saints by feast day # Saints’ feast days in *May* May has 31 saints in Bless’s calendar, one for each of its 31 days. In 2026–2028 the US calendar keeps the day of 4 of them as a memorial, feast or solemnity at least once, among them Sts. Philip and James and St. Matthias. About these dates Feast days, titles and patronages come from the app’s calendar of saints; “Memorial”, “Feast” and “Solemnity” mark the saints whose day the US calendar keeps (at least once in 2026–2028). ## May 1 ### [St. Peregrine Laziosi](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-peregrine-laziosi/) Religious · died c. 1345 Patron of cancer patients A young radical of Forlì who struck the papal legate Philip Benizi across the face — and, forgiven on the spot, was undone by it. [The life of St. Peregrine Laziosi](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-peregrine-laziosi/) ## May 2 ### [St. Athanasius](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-athanasius/) Bishop and Doctor of the Church · died c. 373 (Memorial) Deacon at Nicaea, then bishop of Alexandria for forty-five years — seventeen of them spent in five exiles for refusing to soften the divinity of Christ. Later ages summed him up as Athanasius against the world — and he won. [The life of St. Athanasius, with 3 quotations](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-athanasius/) ## May 3 ### [Sts. Philip and James](https://blessbible.app/saints/sts-philip-and-james/) Apostles (Feast) Philip of Bethsaida, called by Jesus the day after Peter and Andrew, found Nathanael with the words ‘Come and see.’ [The life of Sts. Philip and James](https://blessbible.app/saints/sts-philip-and-james/) ## May 4 ### [St. Florian](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-florian/) Martyr · died c. 304 Patron of firefighters A veteran Roman officer of Noricum who, hearing of Christians arrested at Lorch, turned himself in, professed the faith, and was scourged and drowned in the river Enns with a millstone at his neck. [The life of St. Florian](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-florian/) ## May 5 ### [St. Hilary of Arles](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-hilary-of-arles/) Bishop · died c. 449 A monk of Lérins made archbishop of Arles at twenty-nine, an ascetic who worked the fields, preached brilliantly, and sold church plate to ransom captives — remembered too for his headstrong clash with Pope Leo, which he bore humbly when overruled. [Upcoming dates for St. Hilary of Arles](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-hilary-of-arles/) ## May 6 ### [St. François de Laval](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-francois-de-laval/) Bishop · died 1708 First bishop of Quebec, shepherd of a diocese stretching from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, who founded the seminary that became Laval University, fought the brandy trade that ruined the Indian nations, and after resigning lived on in poverty, rising at two each morning to open the church. [Upcoming dates for St. François de Laval](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-francois-de-laval/) ## May 7 ### [St. Rose Venerini](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-rose-venerini/) Virgin · died 1728 A doctor’s daughter of Viterbo who discovered, gathering neighborhood women for the rosary, how little they knew of the faith — and gave her life to founding free schools for girls, forty of them, walking into towns whose priests sometimes stoned her teachers, and winning them over. [Upcoming dates for St. Rose Venerini](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-rose-venerini/) ## May 8 ### [St. Peter of Tarentaise](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-peter-of-tarentaise/) Bishop · died c. 1174 A Cistercian made archbishop in the Alps who reformed his diocese, founded hospices on the passes, and once vanished for a year — found serving as a lay brother in a distant abbey until recognized. Each spring he distributed bread and soup before the harvest, a ‘May bread’ continued for centuries. [Upcoming dates for St. Peter of Tarentaise](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-peter-of-tarentaise/) ## May 9 ### [St. Pachomius](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-pachomius/) Abbot · died c. 348 An Egyptian conscript soldier converted by the kindness of Christians who fed the prisoners’ barge, he built at Tabennisi the first monastery of the common life — rule, habit, work, and prayer shared under obedience. At his death nine monasteries of men and two of women followed his rule, which influenced Basil and Benedict alike. [Upcoming dates for St. Pachomius](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-pachomius/) ## May 10 ### [St. Damien of Molokai](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-damien-of-molokai/) Priest · died 1889 Patron of those with leprosy and outcasts A Flemish farmer’s son who volunteered for the Hawaiian mission and then for the one post no one wanted: the leper settlement of Kalaupapa. [The life of St. Damien of Molokai](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-damien-of-molokai/) ## May 11 ### [St. Ignatius of Laconi](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-ignatius-of-laconi/) Religious · died 1781 A Sardinian Capuchin brother who begged the friary’s bread through the streets of Cagliari for forty years — refusing alms only at the house of a notorious usurer, until obedience sent him back; the sack, they found, dripped blood. It was, he said, the blood of the poor. [Upcoming dates for St. Ignatius of Laconi](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-ignatius-of-laconi/) ## May 12 ### [Sts. Nereus and Achilleus](https://blessbible.app/saints/sts-nereus-and-achilleus/) Martyrs · died c. 100 Two praetorian soldiers of the first age — their ancient epitaph by Pope Damasus says they threw down shields and bloody weapons at conversion — martyred under Domitian and buried on the estate of Domitilla, in the catacomb that bears her name. [Upcoming dates for Sts. Nereus and Achilleus](https://blessbible.app/saints/sts-nereus-and-achilleus/) ## May 13 ### [St. Andrew Hubert Fournet](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-andrew-hubert-fournet/) Priest · died 1834 A French priest who scrawled in his boyhood schoolbook that he would never be one — then, converted by a simple uncle-priest, ministered through the Revolution in barns and attics under sentence of death, and afterward co-founded the Daughters of the Cross to teach the poor and nurse the sick. [Upcoming dates for St. Andrew Hubert Fournet](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-andrew-hubert-fournet/) ## May 14 ### [St. Matthias](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-matthias/) Apostle (Feast) When Judas’s place among the Twelve stood empty, the hundred and twenty prayed and cast lots between two men who had companied with the Lord ‘beginning from the baptism of John, until the day when he was taken up from us.’ [The life of St. Matthias](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-matthias/) ## May 15 ### [St. Isidore the Farmer](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-isidore-the-farmer/) Layman · died c. 1130 Patron of farmers and rural communities A day laborer outside Madrid all his life, who heard Mass each morning before the plough — angels, his fellow servants grumbled and then swore, did his ploughing meanwhile. [The life of St. Isidore the Farmer](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-isidore-the-farmer/) ## May 16 ### [St. Simon Stock](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-simon-stock/) Religious · died c. 1265 An English hermit — in a hollow tree trunk, the old accounts say — who joined the Carmelites newly arrived from the Holy Land and as general steered the order into the universities and cities of Europe. Carmelite tradition holds that the Virgin gave him the brown scapular, pledge of her protection. [Upcoming dates for St. Simon Stock](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-simon-stock/) ## May 17 ### [St. Paschal Baylon](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-paschal-baylon/) Religious · died 1592 Patron of eucharistic devotion A Spanish shepherd who taught himself to read from a book carried in his sling, became a Franciscan lay brother and porter, and spent his nights before the tabernacle. [The life of St. Paschal Baylon](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-paschal-baylon/) ## May 18 ### [St. John I](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-john-i/) Pope and Martyr · died c. 526 The first pope to travel to Constantinople, sent under duress by the Arian king Theodoric to plead for Arians in the East — received with immense honor, he crowned the emperor at Easter. Theodoric, suspicious of that very honor, imprisoned him at Ravenna on his return, where he died of hardship. [Upcoming dates for St. John I](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-john-i/) ## May 19 ### [St. Celestine V](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-celestine-v/) Pope · died c. 1296 Peter of Morrone, a hermit of the Abruzzi elected pope at nearly eighty after a two-year deadlock — carried to his coronation on a donkey between two kings. Five months of manipulation convinced him a pope could resign; he did, asking pardon, and died his successor’s prisoner, a hermit to the last. [Upcoming dates for St. Celestine V](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-celestine-v/) ## May 20 ### [St. Bernardine of Siena](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-bernardine-of-siena/) Priest · died c. 1444 Patron of advertisers and communications A Sienese noble orphan who nursed plague victims at twenty and entered the Franciscans at twenty-two. [The life of St. Bernardine of Siena](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-bernardine-of-siena/) ## May 21 ### [St. Christopher Magallanes and Companions](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-christopher-magallanes-and-companions/) Martyrs · died 1927 A ranch-born Mexican priest who built schools, a dam, and a clandestine seminary when the government closed the churches. Arrested on his way to Mass in the Cristero years, he gave his belongings to his executioners and absolved them, dying innocent and asking God that his blood serve the unity of his Mexican brethren. Twenty-four companions share his feast. [Upcoming dates for St. Christopher Magallanes and Companions](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-christopher-magallanes-and-companions/) ## May 22 ### [St. Rita of Cascia](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-rita-of-cascia/) Religious · died c. 1457 Patron of impossible causes and troubled marriages An Umbrian peasant girl married against her wishes to a violent man, whose eighteen years of patience and prayer finally gentled him — shortly before he was murdered in a vendetta. [The life of St. Rita of Cascia](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-rita-of-cascia/) ## May 23 ### [St. John Baptist de Rossi](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-john-baptist-de-rossi/) Priest · died 1764 A Roman priest, epileptic and scrupulous, who feared the confessional for years — then discovered in it his life’s work among the drovers, prisoners, and homeless women of the city, hearing confessions from dawn and founding a hospice with everything he had. [Upcoming dates for St. John Baptist de Rossi](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-john-baptist-de-rossi/) ## May 24 ### [St. Vincent of Lérins](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-vincent-of-lerins/) Priest · died c. 445 A monk of the island of Lérins whose Commonitory gave the Church its classic rule for discerning true tradition: that which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all — with genuine development, he added, growing like a body, unchanged in kind. [Upcoming dates for St. Vincent of Lérins](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-vincent-of-lerins/) ## May 25 ### [St. Bede the Venerable](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-bede-the-venerable/) Priest and Doctor of the Church · died c. 735 A monk of Jarrow from the age of seven, who summed up his own life simply: the study of the Scriptures, the discipline of the monastery, the daily singing in church, and the delight of learning, teaching, and writing. [The life of St. Bede the Venerable, with 1 quotation](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-bede-the-venerable/) ## May 26 ### [St. Philip Neri](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-philip-neri/) Priest · died 1595 (Memorial) The ‘Apostle of Rome’ and its merriest saint. He spent nights praying in the catacombs — where his heart was mysteriously enlarged — and days gathering young men for prayer, music, and jokes in what became the Oratory. [The life of St. Philip Neri, with 2 quotations](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-philip-neri/) ## May 27 ### [St. Augustine of Canterbury](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-augustine-of-canterbury/) Bishop · died c. 604 Patron of England Prior of Gregory the Great’s own monastery in Rome, sent by him with forty monks to convert the English — a company so daunted by reports of the islanders that they begged to turn back; Gregory would not have it. [The life of St. Augustine of Canterbury](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-augustine-of-canterbury/) ## May 28 ### [St. Bernard of Menthon](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-bernard-of-menthon/) Priest · died c. 1081 Patron of mountaineers and the Alps Archdeacon of Aosta who spent forty years among the Alpine passes, founding at their summits the hospices — and the community of canons with their great dogs — that rescued snowbound travelers for nine centuries. [The life of St. Bernard of Menthon](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-bernard-of-menthon/) ## May 29 ### [St. Paul VI](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-paul-vi/) Pope · died 1978 Giovanni Battista Montini, the shy Vatican diplomat who inherited the Second Vatican Council, steered it home, and bore the storms that followed — the first pope of the age of flight, embracing the patriarch Athenagoras in Jerusalem, addressing the United Nations, giving away the papal tiara for the poor. He died at Castel Gandolfo on the feast of the Transfiguration. [Upcoming dates for St. Paul VI](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-paul-vi/) ## May 30 ### [St. Joan of Arc](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-joan-of-arc/) Virgin · died c. 1431 Patron of France and soldiers A peasant girl of Domrémy who heard the voices of Michael, Margaret, and Catherine telling her to save France. At seventeen she broke the siege of Orléans and stood beside the Dauphin at his crowning in Reims. [The life of St. Joan of Arc, with 2 quotations](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-joan-of-arc/) ## May 31 ### [St. Petronilla](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-petronilla/) Virgin A Roman maiden of the apostolic age, venerated from earliest times beside the tomb of Peter — ancient tradition made her his daughter, perhaps his convert-daughter in the faith. Her fresco in the catacomb of Domitilla shows her leading a soul into paradise; France took her as its first patroness. [More on St. Petronilla](https://blessbible.app/saints/st-petronilla/) [Previous month Saints of April](https://blessbible.app/saints/april/) [Next month Saints of June](https://blessbible.app/saints/june/) Spotted a mistake in a date, a patronage or a quotation? [Report an error](https://blessbible.app/support/#report) and we’ll fix it in the app and here.