With the arrival of summer comes the wedding season. Whether you’re in the wedding party, among the guest list, or even preparing for your own long-awaited walk down the aisle, these months are filled with delightful moments to celebrate the great sacramental mystery of marriage.
Fittingly, the liturgical calendar this time of year is also marked by feasts that pertain to the importance of this Sacrament. The month of July features two prominent holy-spouse Saint couples:Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (July 12), and Saints Anne and Joachim, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary (July 26th). But throughout the summer months we also celebrate five Saints who gave their lives for the value of marriage. Mark your calendars for their feasts!
Martyr for Chastity: Saint Charles Lwanga (June 3)
The feast of Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions heads the month of June. In 1886, twenty-two Ugandan young men were martyred for refusing to renounce their faith and to submit to their king’s immoral designs. Charles Lwanga, aged twenty-six, led their triumphant witness.
Charles was preparing for Baptism when he was appointed head of the pages in the royal court. The reigning king, Mwanga, was less tolerant of Christians than his predecessor and had murdered the steward whom Charles replaced. He also tried to involve the young men of his court in improper sexual conduct. Charles did not bend to the risks of his situation. Once appointed, he sought Baptism immediately and continued to vigilantly defend the younger pages from the king’s advances.
As King Mwanga executed more believers in his court, Charles baptized the other pages in the catechumenate. Very soon, the king challenged the Christians in his household to renounce their faith. When Charles and a score of other pages aged thirteen and older stood steadfast, Mwanga sent them to their deaths on June 3, the feast of the Ascension of the Lord that year. Charles Lwanga and his companions became the first African martyrs to be canonized Saints.
A Lawyer Champions the Sanctity of Matrimony: Saint Thomas More (June 22)
A scholar, statesman, and family man, Saint Thomas More died to defend the indissolubility of the Sacrament of Matrimony. A man of virtuous character, More witnessed to the value of marriage and family in his personal life as a husband and father, led a thriving intellectual life in Renaissance England, and conducted his legal career with integrity and fairness.
Thomas More was appointed Lord Chancellor of the English during the reign of King Henry VIII, who considered him a valued friend. Yet steadfastly refusing to take the oath that recognized King Henry VIII’s usurped headship over the church of England—which permitted divorce and remarriage—placed Thomas More on the wrong side of temporal law and the king’s favor. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London and then beheaded, becoming a martyr for the truth that man cannot undo or dictate otherwise what God joins together.
The Voice of One Crying Out to Herod: Saint John the Baptist (June 24 + August 29)
Saint John the Baptist is honored at both his nativity and his martyrdom, and both of these feasts are during the summer. Christ’s kinsman and forerunner reached the eternal wedding feast in Heaven by giving his life for the sacred identity of marriage between a man and a woman. The Gospels recount how John fearlessly rebuked King Herod for taking his brother’s wife (see Mark 6:17-20).
Although Herod revered John and found his teaching (and even his rebukes) pleasantly mystifying, the complacency of pleasure prevailed over the king. In the overeagerness of his birthday banquet and at Herodias’ sly behest, Herod was forced to behead John the Baptist in order to keep his word (see Mark 6:17-29). Saint John the Baptist shed his blood as a martyr of truth for the integrity of marriage as instituted by God from the beginning.
Defender of Christian Marriage: Blessed Peter To Rot (July 7)
Peter To Rot lived during the early twentieth century and is on his way to becoming Papua New Guinea’s first Saint. A husband and father of three, Peter served his village as a lay catechist. In 1942, during World War II, the Japanese occupied the island and imprisoned all the missionaries. Peter became the main spiritual leader for Catholics in his district, redoubling his catechetical efforts for the work of the Church.
But when the Japanese military police seized power from the local authorities during this time, they began imposing harsh restrictions on Christians. Peter was outspoken for the faith and freedoms that the missionaries had worked to instill in the people of Papua New Guinea. In particular, he stood up for the sanctity of marriage when the Japanese authorities decided that the island should return to its former practice of polygamy. Consequently, Peter was arrested in 1945 and imprisoned for two months. When Peter sensed his death was impending, he asked his wife to bring his best clothes so that he could be ready to meet God. Peter was intentionally murdered by a doctor’s lethal injection, yet the authorities acted surprised, misrepresenting the cause of his death. The church in Papua New Guinea hails Blessed Peter To Rot as a martyr for the faith. The Church cleared his cause for canonization in early 2025.
The Heart of a Father: Saint Maximilian Kolbe (August 14)
Although he is one of our greatest saintly heroes from the past century, you may wonder why exactly he is placed on this list. Saint Maximillian Kolbe gave his life in witness to marriage by taking the place of a man who had a wife and children.
A Franciscan priest whose deep Marian devotion led him to evangelize through printed media, Father Kolbe had been arrested and sent to the brutal Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. One day, ten of his fellow prisoners were selected to die of starvation. When the tenth, a man named Francis Gajowniczek, cried out to be spared because he had a family, the choice was clear in Father Kolbe’s mind: Francis must live for his wife and children. So the priest stepped forward and was led away in Francis’ stead. Saint Maximilian Kolbe ministered to his bunkmates until their last days and entered eternity on the eve of the Solemnity of the Assumption. Meanwhile, Francis Gajowniczek survived the concentration camps and lived to attend Father Kolbe’s beatification and canonization. One father—a father of souls—offered his life so that the father of an earthly family might live.
Through the intercession of these Saints, may we always testify to the sanctity of marriage according to God’s plan for this magnificent Sacrament.
Leila Joy Castillo calls Florida home but left her heart in hill country long ago. An alumna of Ave Maria University, she freelances in Catholic communications and is a published writer, primarily on Blessed is She and Ascension. When not dabbling in the multitudinous Google docs of her articles, Leila delights in music, personalist philosophy, quality time with her younger siblings, and her literary trifecta: Austen, Lewis, and Dante. You can find her on Instagram @leila_joyinthejourney or follow her personal site here.
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