Saints Word Search

This saints word search names the best-known saints and the things that mark them: Peter with his keys, Paul, Francis of Assisi, Patrick and the shamrock, Nicholas, Valentine, Joan of Arc and George with the dragon, and the halo, the feast day and the patron.

In art each saint carries a sign. Peter holds the keys, from the Gospel line about the keys of the kingdom; Paul the sword that killed him; Cecilia an organ, as patron of music; Lucy her eyes on a dish, because she is the patron of eyesight. Francis of Assisi, who died in 1226, is shown with birds and with the wolf of Gubbio that he is said to have tamed. Patrick holds a shamrock, the three-leaved clover he is said to have used to explain the Trinity, and the real Nicholas, a fourth-century bishop in what is now Turkey, became Santa Claus by way of the Dutch Sinterklaas.

A feast day is usually the day a saint died: Stephen, the first martyr, on December 26, Lucy on December 13, Valentine on February 14 and Patrick on March 17. The word martyr is Greek for witness. Until the tenth century saints were named by local bishops; the first saint canonized by a pope was Ulrich of Augsburg, in 993. A patron saint looks after a place, a trade or a need: Christopher for travelers, Anthony of Padua for lost things, Jude for hopeless causes, and Clare of Assisi, since 1958, for television.