Everyday Saints: A Catholic Podcast

In this episode of Everyday Saints, a Catholic podcast telling real saint stories in plain, everyday language, we tell the true story of St. Genesius of Rome — an actor who built his career mocking Christians on stage for the Emperor Diocletian, during the worst persecution in Roman history. One night, in the middle of performing a comedy sketch making fun of Christian baptism, Genesius said the words as a joke — and fo...

In this episode of Everyday Saints, a Catholic podcast telling real saint stories in plain, everyday language, we tell the true story behind the man you already think you know: St. Nicholas of Myra. Before he was Santa Claus, he was an orphan who gave away a fortune in secret, dropping gold through windows in the dead of night so three sisters wouldn't be sold into slavery. Before that generosity ever made it into a Christmas poem,...

In this episode of Everyday Saints, a Catholic podcast about the real lives of the saints, we tell the story of St. Mary of Egypt — one of the most extraordinary and least-known figures in Christian history. At 12 she ran away to Alexandria. For 17 years she lived entirely for herself. Then, on a whim, she joined a boat of pilgrims to Jerusalem — and at the door of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, something she couldn'...

In this episode of Everyday Saints, a Catholic podcast about the real lives of the saints, host John O'Connor tells the story of St. Thomas the Apostle — one of the most misunderstood figures in the entire New Testament.

You know him as Doubting Thomas. Here is what you do not know.

Before he ever demanded proof, he was the only disciple willing to say out loud what following Jesus might actually cost. And after the moment hist...

In this episode of Everyday Saints, a Catholic podcast about the real lives of the saints, host John O'Connor tells the story of St. Moses the Black — a former slave, murderer, and leader of a violent gang of seventy-five men who terrorized the Nile Valley in fourth century Egypt.

He once swam a river at night with a sword in his teeth to settle a score over a barking dog.

He died thirty-five years later with his hands open &md...

In this episode of Everyday Saints, a Catholic podcast about the real lives of the saints, host John O'Connor tells the story of St. Paul — one of the most recognizable names in all of Christianity, and one of the most misunderstood.

Before he wrote half the New Testament, he was dragging Christians out of their homes and throwing them in prison. He stood and watched the first Christian martyr get stoned to death — and a...

In this episode of Everyday Saints, a Catholic podcast about the real lives of the saints, host John O'Connor tells the story of St. Margaret of Castello — one of the newest saints in the Catholic Church, canonized by Pope Francis in 2021, and one of the most overlooked.

She was born blind, severely disabled, and a dwarf. Her own wealthy parents were so ashamed of her that they sealed her into a small room beside a chapel when...

In this episode of Everyday Saints, a Catholic podcast about the real lives of the saints, host John O'Connor tells the story of St. Thomas Aquinas — and it is nothing like what you learned in school.

His own brothers kidnapped him. His family locked him in a tower for a year to stop him from becoming a friar. They sent a woman into his cell to break his vows. And none of it worked.

The man who came out the other side wrote one...

In this episode of Everyday Saints, a Catholic podcast about the saints, host John O'Connor tells the story of St. Perpetua of Carthage — a young Roman mother who wrote her own prison diary in the year 203 AD, knowing she would die for her faith. It is one of the oldest surviving documents written by a woman in the ancient world.

The sand is hot beneath her feet. She is twenty-two years old. She has a baby she will never hold ...

A man is lying under a fig tree in a garden in Milan. Weeping. Uncontrollably. He is thirty-two years old — one of the most brilliant minds in the Roman Empire.

And he has been running from this moment for fifteen years.

In this episode of Everyday Saints, host John O'Connor tells the real story of St. Augustine of Hippo — one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Western civilization, and one of the most rel...

A man is being beaten in an asylum.

He is not there because he hurt someone. He is not there because he is dangerous.

He is there because he gave too much away.

That is where this story begins. And by the time it ends — this same man will have built something that is still saving lives in fifty-two countries today.

In this episode of Everyday Saints, host John O'Connor tells the real story of St. John of God — o...

He was the most popular young man in his town. Wealthy, charming, magnetic — the kind of guy everyone wanted to be around. He dreamed of glory, went to war, and ended up in a dungeon for a year.

He came out completely different.

In this episode of Everyday Saints, host John O'Connor tells the real story of St. Francis of Assisi — not the bird bath in the garden, not the gentle friar in the brown robe. The real one. The ra...

She was kidnapped at age seven. Sold into slavery over a dozen times. Tortured with 114 cuts carved into her skin. And if she ever met the people who did it — she said she would kneel down and kiss their hands.

This week on Everyday Saints, host John O'Connor tells the real story of St. Josephine Bakhita — a Sudanese woman whose life was marked by unimaginable suffering, and whose response to that suffering is one of the...

He was loud, impulsive, hot-tempered, and working-class. He denied knowing Jesus Christ three times in a single night. And Jesus still built the entire Church on him.

In the first episode of Everyday Saints, host John O'Connor tells the real story of St. Peter — not the stained-glass version, but the fisherman with a temper, a complicated faith journey, and a track record of spectacular failure.

If you've ever felt like you've ...