We have a shared passion for the lives of the saints. Our small team of volunteers rallies around a vision of making the saints more accessible and visually engaging by bringing them to life online through a social network. Saintnook is more than a website, its a community effort to transmit the presence of heroes and beloved patrons for students and children everywhere. We love Catholicism, and we love our friends the saints.
Saintnook was created in January 2015 by Dominic de Souza, a graphic designer and author passionate about evangelizing with the beauty and inspiration of Catholicism.
Read: ‘Introducing Saintnook: Transforming the Way We Learn About Saints‘
A Social Network for Saints
Social networking has redefined our lives online. For the first time anywhere, the Saints are presented in all their holy, connected glory!
Here you can browse profiles, explore biographies, see whom they were friends with and whom they might have known from their century.
It’s a whole new way of learning about the Saints.
Resources
There are plenty of saints encyclopedias online, such as NewAdvent, CatholicCulture, SPQN, and more. There are loads of materials and resources available. There has yet to be one place where they can be accessed and searched. Until SaintNook.
We’re particularly excited to know that we’re the only place online that brings together so many resources in one, elegant and responsive website.
Why ‘SaintNook’?
Every soul that ever lived is still alive somewhere. Think ‘cloud of witnesses’ (Heb 12:1). Some of them ran the race and made it into the mystery of the Beatific Vision.
While when in the state of grace – God’s life in us uninterrupted by sin – we are all saints ‘if we walk in the light as He is in the light.’ (1 John 7:1) The ‘canonized’ saints are those who can no longer lose that life of grace.
To celebrate their Heavenly check-in, the Catholic Church canonizes them, and elevates the action of God’s grace in their lives, and their response to it, in a way that we can emulate and learn.
Why ‘Nook’?
A nook is defined as ‘a corner or recess, especially one offering seclusion or security.’ Its usually places like these where we place our statues and memorabilia.
Keeping in mind the monastic alcoves packed with statuary and glowing with candlelight, we chose to try and recreate some of that theme as we ‘resurrect’ the saints to life online in this digital continent.
It’s one of our contributions to the New Evangelization. Fun, right? :D
Our Color Scheme
We chose these two colors of muted browns and golds to represent a sense of the monastic and the glorious.
The brown is reminiscent of the warm, homey burlap of a monastic habit.
The soft tan/gold signifies the often hidden life of grace within us, like gilt highlights that hold the world together.
This is a nook where the saints get center stage. We were inspired by those quiet, dark nights in their cells where the saints burned a candle as they prayed.
The Connected ‘O’s
The connected ‘o’s signify our understanding that
- the canonized have entered into the Eternal Wedding Feast, and therefore are interconnected wedding rings.
- all the saints are interconnected in God
- Earth and Heaven are irreparably connected, most constantly and perfectly in the Eucharist, and most beautifully in the lives of those flowing with Sanctifying Grace (the life of God.)