Calendar

The year according to the collection — feast days of people who knew how to stop. The gold star marks the next one.

January

2Seraphim of SarovSaid nothing at all for three years, then spent his last decade calling every stranger his joy.17Anthony the GreatGave away everything and shut the door for twenty years to find out what was left of him.

April

23George of LyddaA name, a date and a grave — everything else was added by people who could not leave the blank alone.

May

8Julian of NorwichHad herself walled into a room for life, then used the window to become the person everyone in Norwich came to talk to.

July

3Thomas the ApostleRefused to take the largest claim ever made on somebody else's word.11Benedict of NursiaWrote the rule that made the day itself a form of prayer.31Ignatius of LoyolaTurned the end of the day into fifteen minutes of looking honestly at where your attention went.

August

28Augustine of HippoSpent thirty years restless before he could write the sentence everyone quotes.

September

5Teresa of CalcuttaKept praying through fifty years of silence and told almost no one.

October

1Thérèse of LisieuxDied at twenty-four in a provincial convent, having reduced the whole spiritual life to something you can attempt during a bad afternoon.4Francis of AssisiEveryone remembers the birds; almost nobody remembers that he wrote a rota for who gets to stay silent.5Faustina KowalskaFilled six notebooks in the minutes nobody else wanted, then reduced it all to five words.12Carlo AcutisEveryone is born an original, he said, and many die as photocopies. He died an original, at fifteen.15Teresa of ÁvilaDefined prayer as time alone with someone you know loves you, then admitted it bored her for eighteen years.

December

14John of the CrossNamed the stretch where prayer stops working, and argued it was not a reason to stop.