Heavenly reports

For All Saints' Day, seventh- and eighth-grade faith formation students at Sacred Heart parish in Stamford wrote about saints who inspire them. Ellen Marando, director of religious education for the parish, shared some:

• from Brigid Wenner: "St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest who volunteered his life to share another's in a concentration camp in Auschwitz. He and 10 others were taken to a building to starve and dehydrate to death. Usually, when people are taken to these buildings, all that was heard was moaning and lamenting. But from where Maximilian was, all that was heard was prayer and singing!"

• From Chris Thompson: "St. Michael the archangel is an inspiration to me because he is the patron saint of soldiers and I want to join the military. He is also the chief opponent of Satan."

• From Brianna Laing: "St. Bernadette was born in January 1844 in France. She had visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I was inspired by Bernadette because she was so humble and determined. When others doubted her, she never backed down and she always believed in her visions. She never wanted any attention because of her visions of the Blessed Mother. She was in very poor health herself, yet she spent most of her life helping others."[[In-content Ad]]