Married Saints

The wedding of Zita and Charles Habsburg, 21 October 1911

About

Married saints in the Church are far from numerous, and even fewer are venerated for what we might call a “normal” married life. Lists of married saints from the early Church, for example, feature primarily young women martyred, or husband and wife living chastely or entering a religious community. Attention to more kinds of married saints has increased more recently. The list below features a sample of married saints and holy men and women that will, hopefully, serve as models of sanctity.

Married Saints

  • Blessed Karl and Servant of God Zita Habsburg
  • Saints Louis and Zelie Martin
  • Saints Henry II and Cunigunde of Luxembourg
  • Saints Stephen and Giselle of Hungary
  • Saints Elzear of Cabran and Delphine of Glandeves
  • Saint Thomas More
  • Saint Adelaide
  • Saint Matilda
  • Saint Monica
  • Saint Melanie the Younger
  • Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
  • Saint Elizabeth of Portugal
  • Saint Louis of France
  • Saint Bridget of Sweden
  • Saint Frances of Rome
  • Saint Antoine Leclerc de la Forest
  • Blessed Anna Maria Taigi
  • Blessed Peter of Siena

Prominent married Catholic men and women

  • Ludwig Windthorst
  • G. K. and Frances Chesterton
  • Alice Thomas Ellis
  • Dietrich and Alice von Hildebrand

Books on married saints

Bogle, J., and J. Bogle. A Heart for Europe: The Lives of Emperor Charles and Empress Zita of Austria-Hungary. Gracewing Books. Fowler Wright, 1990.

Burton, Doris. Great Catholic Mothers of Yesterday and to-Day. London: Paternoster, 1951.

Delany, S.P. Married Saints. Longmans, Green, 1935.

Ellis, Alice Thomas. Home Life. Royal National Institute of the Blind, 2004.

Ferdinand Holböck, S.T.D. Married Saints and Blesseds: Through the Centuries. Ignatius Press, 2017.

Fink, J.F. Married Saints. Alba House, 1999.

Ford, David C., Mary S. Ford, and Kallistos. Marriage as a Path to Holiness : Lives of Married Saints. 2013.

Neill, T. P. They Lived the Faith: Great Lay Leaders of Modern Times. Literary Licensing, LLC, 2012.

O’Malley, V. J. Saintly Companions: A Cross-Reference of Sainted Relationships. Alba House, 1995.

von Hildebrand, D., A. von Hildebrand, and P. Kreeft. The Art of Living. Hildebrand Project, 2017.

Blog posts on married saints

A Clerk of Oxford, “The Cloud of Witnesses,” 2009, https://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2009/11/cloud-of-witnesses.html