All Saints Day is one of my top five favorite days to be Catholic. When I was little, the Catholic school I attended celebrated the day in style. Everyone dressed as a favorite saint, and there was a school wide celebration where one student from each class would tell us the story of their saint and we would try to guess who they were. We had a pizza party and a parade around the school singing Oh When the Saints. The principal would come into the classrooms in the afternoon and throw candies everywhere so we could take it home with us.
When I became a teacher, I wanted to capture that joy and enthusiasm for the saints and turn it into something more meaningful spiritually to my students. (I think it’s super important to have fun celebrations, but I wanted students to be able to take a deep dive into the lives of the saints.) In talking to my principal, we came up with the idea of reviving an old tradition that my current school had in years past: living saints. The concept is simple and beautiful. On All Saints Day, the 8th graders fill the gyms dresses as “statues” of the saints that come to life and tell their stories when someone drops a coin in their jar. At the end of the day, the class donates the money raised to a charity of their choice.
The logistics of the day are pretty simple. We start about a month ahead, which is why I am posting this in mid September. By October 1st, each student has picked a saint, with a backup so we don’t have repeats. Over the next week they gather information from internet and print sources (my teaching background is ELA) and complete research about their chosen saint. Then they work on gathering that information and beginning to put together a short biography to perform from memory on All Saints.
The templates for the rough drafts and the rubrics for the performances are available on Teachers Pay Teachers or in the resource Oh When the Saints in the shop on this site. The resource also contains some graphic organizers for saint research at any time of year as well as some fun games for All Saints Day.
The drafts follow a very specific format for a few reasons. Because the students are memorizing the stories, they need to have a plan for how to keep it brief. By using the same format, students can help prompt each other during practices if the performer gets lost, and so can I during the performance itself.
Living Saints has become a beautiful tradition that brings our school community together each year. Younger students look forward to the time when they get to perform. 8th graders show up to the first day of religion class with a favorite saint already in mind. We work together to teach and learn the faith and to donate money to a good cause. And of course, there’s always lots of candy to share too.
