Sometimes I joke with hubby about being married to him is my ticket to sainthood. Then, sometimes, as an excuse for him not going to church, hubby will say that he doesn’t have to, “You pray enough for both of us.”
Have you ever noticed, though, that there aren’t as many wives or husbands saints, as there are unmarried? I don’t mean married saints, like Blessed Zelie and Louis Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux. I mean one of the married couple is a saint, and the other not. It seems it would be easier if the couple were on the same wave length, than one be the church goer, and one not.
For example, let’s look at St. Anna-Maria Tiagi. She lived with a demanding husband, (he was a church goer and pious in his own way,) and at times with her parents added to their household, and then her own widowed daughter and her six children. She was that type of person. Some people bring home lost kittens, Anna-Maria brought home lost people.
She was of a spiritual bent and prayed often. She was blessed with visions. In one revelation, the Virgin Mary told her that it was her special vocation to show that holiness was available in every walk of life. She became a Lay Trinitarian and followed their rule.
Anna Maria was known to be a pacifier. She was able to calm her hot tempered husband. She could defuse her mother. In his witness statement for his wife’s canonization, Domenico often spoke of the peace she brought to a busy and crowded household. She managed the family’s budget, but mostly just trusted in God’s Providence. She taught her children, and everyone, for that matter, religion, and all about the corporal works of mercy. Anna Maria brought her children with her to visit the sick.
What can I say? She was a saint.
h/t Father Thomas Kevin Craft, OP
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