You are not praying alone

The Catechism teaches that the Church is one family across heaven, purgatory and earth, and that the saints in heaven pray for the saints on earth (CCC 956). When you pray, you pray with millions. When you struggle, you struggle with friends.

The trouble is, most Catholics never make the friendship personal. We say "the saints" as a group, and they stay a group. The way in is to pick one and walk with them.

Shrewsbury's family

Our diocese is unusually rich in saints. Pick one and let them pray you home.

• Saint Werburgh of Chester, the Anglo-Saxon abbess whose relics shaped the conversion of the north-west. Bishop Davies preached at her cathedral that the relics of Werburgh once awakened in the hearts of our ancestors a longing for conversion and true holiness. She still does this work.
• Saint Winefride at Holywell, the seventh-century Welsh martyr whose well has been a place of pilgrimage for almost 1,400 years and whose relics were translated to Shrewsbury Abbey in 1138. Holywell was elevated to the status of a national shrine in our generation. Walk her path.
• Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the visionary of Lourdes whose relics came to Shrewsbury Cathedral on 13 September 2022 and to St Werburgh's, Chester on 14 September 2022. Bishop Davies welcomed her at Mass.
• Saint John Henry Newman, who specifically named Shrewsbury in his Second Spring sermon, who became a cardinal, and who was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV in November 2025. He is more than a saint. He is now an official teacher of the universal Church.
• Saint Carlo Acutis, the millennial saint who catalogued Eucharistic miracles before he died at fifteen. His heart relic visited the diocese on 21 September 2024. He is the first saint of your phone age.

Bishop Davies on the saints

The saints are the great evangelisers in every time and place and the saints show us the Gospel. They show the authentic face of the Church. That's why turning to the saints is so important.

Bishop Davies, homily welcoming the relics of St Bernadette to St Werburgh's, Chester, 14 September 2022.

The saints are not decoration. They are the Church's evangelists. When the world cannot read a book about Christ, it can still read a saint.

How to walk with one

1. Pick. The one whose name leapt out as you read the list. Or the one whose feast day matches your birthday. Or the one your parents named you for. The choice is rarely accidental.
2. Read. A short biography. Twenty pages, not a thousand. The point is to know them, not to write a thesis.
3. Pray. Speak to them in your own words. Saint Winefride, pray for me today. Add their name to your morning offering.
4. Visit. If you have chosen a Shrewsbury saint, go where they are. Holywell. Chester. The Cathedral. The new altar at Shrewsbury Cathedral now contains relics of Saint Polycarp, Saint John Vianney, and Saint Charles Lwanga and the Martyrs of Uganda. Stand near them. Let them speak.
5. Imitate. One thing. Newman wrote a daily journal. Carlo went to Mass every day. Bernadette spoke to Our Lady as a child speaks to her mother. Pick one and copy it.

What you will notice

Within months, your prayer life will feel less alone. The saint becomes a friend you talk to about ordinary things. They begin to answer in coincidences, in scripture verses that turn up at the right time, in small graces.

The Catechism quotes Saint Therese of Lisieux: I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth. The saints are not retired. They are working. Ask them to work for you.

Scripture's promise

The letter to the Hebrews puts the doctrine in one image: Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1). The cloud is real. They are watching. They want you to win.

Your next step this week

Choose your saint. Then do one small thing.

• If it is Newman, read his short prayer "Lead, Kindly Light."
• If it is Winefride, plan a day trip to Holywell. The shrine is open year-round.
• If it is Bernadette, pray a Rosary today, slowly, with her in mind.
• If it is Carlo Acutis, go to a weekday Mass this week. Carlo went every day.
• If it is Werburgh, visit Chester Cathedral and pray near her shrine site.

Write to info@dioceseofshrewsbury.org if you want to ask about diocesan pilgrimages to any of these places. The saints are waiting. Pick one, and walk.