Saints were spotted strolling among other heroes such as physicians and firefighters, as well as Wonder Woman and Spider-Man at St. Francis International School's "Heroes and Holy People Parade" on Nov. 1, All Saints Day. Students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade marched from the school to St. Camillus Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, while family members cheered and took photographs.
The All Saints Day Mass following the parade was celebrated by Franciscan Father Brian Jordan, the pastor of St. Camillus Church. The opening song for the Mass was “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
During his homily, Father Jordan asked students whether they had heard of "show-and-tell," which he explained was what happened in the day’s Gospel reading from Matthew 5:1-12, when Jesus taught his followers about living the Beatitudes, saying blessed are those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are merciful, those who are clean of heart, and those who are peacemakers.
“Today, we’re showing the story of saints, women and men from all different nations, from all different backgrounds, from all different languages, (from all different) colors of their skin, all who are rich and poor, they became saints,” Father Jordan said. “For some they were witnesses called martyrs, and they suffered.”
Father Jordan asked students to stand up by their costumes, those dressed up as medical staff and first responders, who risk their lives “every day, and unfortunately, some of them die in the service of others.”
The 20 students in the school’s third grade class were all dressed up as saints per their “wax museum” class project.
Third grade teacher Kristie Jones explained that students researched their saints for the month.
“Students selected their own saint to research and find different facts about their feast day, why they became a saint, when they got canonized, just all different facts, this is their project ender, where they dress up as a saint and create a poster about the saint,” Jones said.
Following Mass, students entered the school’s gymnasium to present their saints to students and teachers in other grades.
Jones said students getting know the saints, including St. Francis and St. Camillus, is vital to students learning about their faith.
“The importance is really for [students] to gain better knowledge of saints and to know that the people who sacrificed their lives for Christianity and just becoming a model for us,” Jones said.
Student Hiwot Girma chose St. Elizabeth of Hungary of the 13th century, the patron saint of bakers, nursing homes, brides and beggars.
“She’s really interesting to me, at her grave, some miracles happened, and the bread hidden turned into flowers,” Girma said. “She really cared for the poor and the sick.”
Girma was referring to the account of St. Elizabeth distributing bread to the needy in secret. When her husband questioned her about what she was holding under her cloak, she denied stealing from the palace. Upon revealing her contents, the loaves of bread transformed into flowers.
Rania Chelliah was St. Teresa of Calcutta, who was known for her work establishing the Missionaries of Charity to serve the poorest of the poor around the world.
“She liked helping the poor, and I think that’s nice, she made her own homeless shelter,” Chelliah said.
Faith Belay’s eponymous saint choice was St. Faith, who lived during the Roman Empire's persecution of Christians.
“Her patronage is a pilgrim, a soldier, and a prisoner, she was born in France, and her mother was St. Sophia,” Belay said.
All Saints Day is celebrated on Nov. 1 to commemorate saints throughout history, while on Nov. 2, All Souls Day is celebrated to remember the faithful departed.
