Sports lovers and young athletes can hold their spirituality through the saints who were athletes. Catholic Church has many saints who were athletes. But before that, for centuries, Catholic athletes have looked to St. Sebastian as their patron. We know the saint had a burning love for God and he was a Roman soldier who was shot full of arrows and nursed back to health, Sebastian returned to preach the Gospel once more and was martyred for his troubles.
Here are some saints for you to get spiritual inspiration in your sports career.
Blessed Chiara Badano (1971-1990)
Blessed Chiara was a skier, a swimmer, and especially a tennis player. She was known for her enormous smile and also she was a singer and dancer. That radiant smile was undimmed when she got a diagnosis of bone cancer that pulled her off the tennis court and the dance floor and confined her to an oncology ward for the rest of her short life. Throughout her illness, she prayed, “Jesus, if you want it, I want it too.”
Blessed Benedict Daswa (1946-1990)
He was a South African convert to Christianity, a teacher, a principal, a husband, a father of eight, and a soccer player. He had kept young people on track and trained other teachers to coach soccer, volleyball, and hockey as well. When the soccer team he had founded began to try to use witchcraft to win games, Benedict objected. Ultimately he quit the team and founded another, of which he was also the manager. His unshakable stand opposing black magic led him to martyrdom at the hands of his friends and neighbors.
Venerable Teresita Quevedo (1930-1950)
He was the captain of her high school basketball team and a tennis star. She was tremendously talented but never managed to win a championship due to her humility. In her senior year she was favored to win; worried that a victory would inflate her pride, Teresita asked the Blessed Mother not for a victory but for whatever would be most pleasing to Jesus. When she lost, Teresita was able to accept the outcome with such joy that her mother, on seeing Teresita’s face, assumed her daughter must have won.
Pope St. John Paul II (1920-2005)
The Pope who spoke frequently about the power of sports to help in the development of young souls, once said, “Sports contribute to the love of life, and teach sacrifice, respect and responsibility, leading to the full development of every human person.” This was no mere theory, of course. Pope John Paul was an avid skier, an outdoorsman who loved hiking and fishing, and an athlete for whom staying active was so important, he actually had a swimming pool installed at his summer residence so he could stay fit. When some cardinals questioned the expense, he joked that it was cheaper than another conclave.