Who was the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus? The Bible gives her a handful of scenes. Here's what we know, and what two thousand years added.

In this episode of Everyday Saints, we walk through every scene of the Virgin Mary's story in the New Testament and sort church history from tradition: the Annunciation in Nazareth, her visit to Elizabeth and the song known as the Magnificat, the two accounts of the birth of Jesus in Matthew and Luke, Simeon's warning, the lost boy in the Temple, the wedding at Cana, the cross, and the upper room in the book of Acts.

Then we look at what came after the Bible: the second-century Gospel of James, the council at Ephesus that gave Mary the title Theotokos, and what the Catholic Church teaches about the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption. And in Truth or Legend: Were Mary's parents really named Joachim and Anne? Was she fourteen when Jesus was born? Did she die in Ephesus? And is she really mentioned more in the Quran than in the New Testament?

Plus a Back on the Porch reflection on what Mary shows us about holding on to something you don't understand yet, and callbacks to Joseph (episode 17) and Peter (episode 1).

Everyday Saints tells the true stories of Catholic saints, separating verified church history from centuries of pious legend — one ordinary saint at a time.

New saint episodes every Thursday. Questions or ideas for a future special? Email EverydaySaintsShow@gmail.com or find me on X @EvryDaySaint. More at EverydaySaintsPodcast.com

Is Halloween a pagan holiday the Church stole, or the most Catholic night of the year? The real church history is more interesting than either.

In this special episode of Everyday Saints, we sit on the porch and trace the church history of Halloween: where the name All Hallows' Eve comes from, why the Church celebrates All Saints' Day on November 1st and All Souls' Day on November 2nd, and what the Pantheon in Rome has to do with it. We also ask whether the Church really took over the Celtic festival of Samhain, where soul cakes, guising, and jack-o'-lanterns came from, how the Day of the Dead fits in, and what Martin Luther's 95 Theses have to do with October 31st.

Along the way: a plain-language look at purgatory and why Catholics pray for the dead, the 1890 book behind the popular idea of Samhain as a festival of the dead (James Frazer's The Golden Bough), and a simple challenge for the week. No myth-making in either direction: what we can document, what's a guess, and what nobody knows.

Everyday Saints tells the true stories of Catholic saints, separating verified church history from centuries of pious legend — one ordinary saint at a time.

New saint episodes every Thursday, with occasional Tuesday specials like this one. Questions or ideas for a future special? Email EverydaySaintsShow@gmail.com or find us on X @EvryDaySaint. More at EverydaySaintsPodcast.com

A scarred orphan escaped her Mohawk village and traveled more than 200 miles to practice her faith. She became the first Native American saint.

This episode of church history follows one of the most remarkable lives of the saints, from a Mohawk village hit by smallpox, through a hurt foot that changed everything, to a mission village near Montreal and a 2006 miracle. It also asks what we do when we're defined by something we didn't choose.

Everyday Saints tells the true stories of Catholic saints, separating verified church history from centuries of pious legend — one ordinary saint at a time.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha is the patron of Native Americans, people in exile, and ecology and the environment. Her feast day is July 14.

New saint episodes every Thursday. Questions or ideas for a future episode? Email EverydaySaintsShow@gmail.com or find us on X @EvryDaySaint. More at EverydaySaintsPodcast.com