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Happy Feast Day to St. Catherine of Siena’s 4,430 families (Central/south of Southern Ave.) and 265 students in south Phoenix! A blessed feast day to St. Catherine parishioners, students and staff worldwide too!

PARISH FACTS:

• Established May 22, 1946. Like St. Mark’s in Phoenix, it was founded three-and-a-half years before the Diocese of Phoenix was born. Also like St. Mark’s the parish converted an old Army barracks building for worship space in its infancy.
• St. Catherine of Siena offers a daily Tridentine Mass Mon-Fri. Liturgies also offered in English and Spanish.
• Parish religious education began in 1948 with the Mother Seton Sisters of Charity. Three of them opened a grades 1-4 school in 1949, building each year to become a K-8.
• Present church dedicated 1958. Building and expansion continued through today including the installation of stained glass windows in 2008.

St. Catherine Feast Day: April 29

SCHOOL FACTS:

• Three Mother Seton Sisters of Charity opened a grades 1-4 school in 1949 with 100 students. The school grew each year to become a K-8.
• A preschool was added in 2006.
• St. Catherine’s crest is on the school uniform.

SAINT FACTS:

• Name  means “pure one.” Youngest child in a large family.
• Third Order Dominican. AmericanCatholic.org has a thorough bio.
• Doctor of the Church. Canonized in 1461.
• Wears a crown of thorns because she received the stigmata of Jesus crucified, according to the school’s website.
• Patronage includes: bodily ills, Europe, fire prevention/firefighters, nurses, (sexual) temptation, sick people, according to a “Saints This Month” webpage from St. Francis Xavier Parish in Enid, Oklahoma.