Petitioning, Praying, and Working with Saints: Ask Chaotic Witch Aunt Column

Introducing our newest section of our blog - the Ask Chaotic Witch Aunt column. This column is bi-monthly, providing a space for our followers and supporters to engage conversation around particular topics. 

For April and May, we chose conversations on folk Catholicism, dual faith, and working with Saints in folk magic. If you find that your question isn't answered here, fear not! I will be teaching a virtual class entitled "Introduction to Saintwork in Folk Magic" this month where we will be talking more about basics, theory, and practical methods of embodying Saint-work in your practice. 

My Experiences with the Saints

To begin our conversation around Saints and working with them, I think it's important to define what Saints are in my practice and experience.

Saints are spirits, sometimes Catholic spirits, that performed miracles either in life or after death. They can be canonized or not, leading to the distinction between canonized Catholic Saints, of which there are around 11,000, and folk Saints, those that are elected by and venerated by the people as miraculous figures. Saints are often human, but not always, and are most commonly associated with the Catholic Church, however are not in all cases Catholic. They are often syncretized with other spirits or entities in a variety of traditions and histories, including Italian folk magic.

Saints are Catholic - this we know - but Saints are also energetic signatures, faces, and holy beings that can get things done. Folk magic, and especially Italian-American folk magic, meets between the sacred and the profane. By the standards of Anglo-Protestant Christians, many elements of Catholicism are heretical, even more so in doing workings that the Church looks down upon or disagrees with, such as divination with household items, exorcism and hearings not performed by the Church, and more.

To understand folk Catholicism and specifically, my relationship with Saints as a folk practitioner, we have to decenter a few things. One, our understanding of the Church through the lens of an Anglo-Protestant view. Another being our understanding of Saints as beings through sources that are not the people practicing folk magic. 

I recently had the chance to go on the Diaries of a Witch Podcast with Angelica Scresci, and during this I said something that rings true.

Many times, people look at our practices through their understandings of what it is - by what they see of it, their biases, and their experiences with spirits and institutions we may hold space with. In order to truly understand the experience I share with you, you have to decenter your ideas of what is okay and not okay in a folk magic and witchcraft practice and view it through the eyes of the person talking about it. We have to, for a moment, decenter our experiences and step into the shoes of another. In my opinion, this is not something we can ever truly do, as our experiences inform us and our beliefs, but when approaching a topic we maybe hold tension or confusion around, we have to look through another person's eyes.

There are a variety of things that can assist with this - cultural context, listening, or learning under someone from their experience and viewpoint of how the world works and why what they do works. 

My approach to Saints is informed by a few things, one being my identity as an Italian-American folk practitioner and what I've learned from my teachers, and another being the time I've spent experimenting with petitioning and working with Saints, seeing what works, and what doesn't. I was baptized, but I was not raised in the Church, so my framework of approaching Saints very often occurs outside the institution and is informed by the people of my community rather than the officials of the Catholic religion. It centers the home altar, the Saints as beings and intermediaries, and rarely, if ever, calls on God or Jesus to get things done. 

I, like the modern Catholic, believe in miracles. I believe Saints can and do do miracles. Whether this is the power of God through them or just because Saints possess a particular power doesn't often concern me - rather, I am concerned with what is needed for myself and my community, and the best pathways to get things done. My Saints are part of my spiritual court, but they are also my allies, my teachers, and members of my household that are called upon, fed, and tended to like I would tend to the plants, the animals, or even myself.

Unlike a modern Catholic, I consider myself a heretic before I consider myself a folk Catholic. I've gotten into trouble numerous times with the traditional Catholic and Christian community for my views on Saints, including a video of mine being used by a Evangelical YouTuber to push the idea that Saints are demonic. Making posts on dual-faith practices often gets an incredible pushback from both the Christian and the neopagan community. I do many things that the Church would disapprove of, and by the standards of what a "good Catholic" is, I'm a terrible one. I don't believe in the concept of sin. I believe that people, when they die, will go where they want to go - not that those who don't believe in the Christian god will immediately burn forever. I use the rosary as a tool to not only contemplate death, but to invoke specific apparitions of the Virgin Mary to assist in certain endeavors.

I recently wrote a piece for Crossed Crow's Collection of World Magic on Dual Faith Perspectives in Italian-American folk magic. To end this section, I'll provide a quote (and the rest you can get by preordering!), "In Italian-American folk magic and in my practice, especially, I see the Saints not just through the doctrine and the institution of the Church, but through a lens of familial and local culture and belief. Saints are humans who lived – this allows them to understand certain aspects of our human experience that inhuman entities like deities may not – but in Death, many of them have become channels for something older... Folk magic, folk beliefs, and long-standing religions and traditions do not just disappear when a colonizing force asks them too – they adapt. They change. They syncretize. There are many Saints I work with as Catholic entities and people who lived and died. Still, I see different, primordial energies operating through them" (Castanea, 2025).

The Question & Answer

How do I begin working with Saints?

There are a lot of different approaches to Saints and Saint-work. Depending on your culture, tradition, and practice, you may find that there are particular instructions in approaching holy beings. However, my experience was that experimentation was the best way to begin. 

I usually recommend folks to begin to petition and venerate Saints upon necessity, familiarity, or locality.

By necessity; You are in need of selling a house, ASAP. You have a giant medical bill that you just can't shake. You are facing dire circumstances, health issues, or more - so you turn to the Saints. You can easily look up the Patron Saint of eye issues, sore throats, steelworkers, the home, and more for what you need to happen on a day to day basis. From there, you can begin a novena (a nine day prayer that can include a candle with their imagery on it) until your request is fulfilled. I often do these requests (or petitions) and offer something at the end of it if and only if my request is fulfilled. This could be something the Saint is known for liking, like St Expedite and pound cake, public recognition and thanks, or even a rosary dedicated to them. Either way, in my practice you don't need an altar to start working with Saints - just a desired outcome.

By familiarity; There are, like I said earlier, 11,000 Saints canonized by the Church, so picking any old Saint doesn't always work for us. So, we can look to Saints we know. This may be a Saint you know your grandmother prayed to, that is raved about by a friend who is also a practitioner (or a Catholic), or just a Saint you know more about than the others. There may be Saints that are important in your ancestral culture, as well, or even in your diasporic culture that may be able to help you. In the case of bringing in a familiar Saint, I may work with them by using the necessity method, or I may keep their likeness (a prayer card, a candle, a Saint medal) around my altars to venerate them - even if I never ask them for things.

By locality; In Italian American culture, it's known that the Patron Saint of a place can perform miracles. In my ancestor's town, this would be an apparition of a Madonna - but I've never been to my ancestral town. The closest Church/shrines I have to Saints are the Shrine of Frances Xavier Cabrini and a Saint Joseph's church. These are my local Saints. I always encourage folks to look to their physical communities for what Saints may be around us, and then begin a relationship with them. For my ancestors, the local and Patron saints were seen as the most accessible and the most important to petition, as they were not just figures we could rely on, but members of the community.

Do you have any advice for talking to your family about their saints, and the saints your ancestors might've prayed to?

The best way to talk to family about Saints is to ask if there were any special prayers done for when 

Do you have any advice for newcomers on how to see and enter this as a joyful (generally) and loving practice?

Decenter the idea that you have to follow the Church's rules to work with Saints.

This may seem hypocritical, but genuinely - the Church, as an institution, should not be dictating how the people seek help, relationship, prayer, and comfort. Saintwork in folk magic exists in between what the Church tells us is right and how to do things and what is accessible and works for the average practitioner - oftentimes leaning towards the latter. 

In my folk magic practice, the home altar of a Saint is more vital and important to my Saintwork practice than my local Sunday mass. I'm more likely to get a statue of a Saint and perform my own rituals and routines that I know this being likes than go to my local Parish and ask advice from the priest.

To find joy and love in the Saints is not to completely separate them from their original Christian contexts, but rather to see them as spirits we can form a relationship with outside the institution of the Church. In the cultural context I perform my practice through, God and Jesus are not at the top of the hierarchy of power - rather, the Saints are. Especially Patron Saint, San Giuseppe (Saint Joseph), and la Madonna (the Virgin Mary).

The Saints in Italian-American practice are not just holy beings, but divinities that can stand on their own, that have a well-established cult within and outside of Italy, and one that may not make sense in the context of the Anglo-Protestant, Evangelical, or Baptist Church that we so often see dominant in the States.

Overall, to find joy and loving in this practice is to make it your own. To make it comfortable for you. However, I think there is, in some cases, a benefit in leaning into the discomfort - the idea of Christianity is one of discomfort. One that has traumatized, colonized, and caused countless harms across the world - and yet, we still pursue relationships with their spirits.

Why?

In my opinion - to return to Catholicism through the lens not of the institution that has caused the harm, but through the knowledge of the people around me, the ancestors, and the syncretic practices that the Church forced upon Italy and countless other nations is an act of reclamation.

Many folks argue this is appropriation, however my point against this is that to work from a cultural context you are unaware of or uncomfortable with is not appropriation. Many folk Catholics practice from the lens of a culture that was either forced into conversion or colonized and forced out of their indigenous spiritual beliefs due to the Church - so why, now, do the individuals who still believe the institution is good, moral, and right on all fronts get to dictate how those who were forced to be Christians engage with it?

I do believe that fully divorcing anything from it's original context is an act of bastardization, and therefore sometimes appropriation - however, to operate as a folk Catholic and folk practitioner engaging with the Saints in a way that is well documented in a culture as a way of life is not that. To operate as a folk practitioner and folk Catholic in a way that the Church may disagree with, but is well-known as a cultural way of life and widely accepted truth is not that.

You can recognize the Saints as Catholic or Christian beings and also multi-faceted faces for earlier beings, energetic signatures, and spirits who can get sh*t done at once. The duality of many folk magics is that it stands in a liminal space - not quite pagan, and not quite Christian. Rather than centering on a hierarchal way of being (the Priest, the Church, the institution) it focuses on, as my teacher says, a more rhizomatic and decentralized way of being (the people deciding what they need, learning from each other). Folk magic is a network that connects at many places to one stem, not resembling a pyramid, but rather a plant - we all connect, feed each other, move to create with each other.

You can disavow and recognize the Church and the harm it's done by engaging with it in a way that centers not the institution that has harmed, but the people of the religion. 

How does modern Catholic practice intersect with that of folk Catholicism?

I think this is an interesting question, and fully depends on how the individual approaches their Catholic practice. This also depends on what you define as "modern Catholic" and "folk Catholicism" - your definition of modern Catholicism may be contingent on believing in certain ideas from Christianity, or reading the Bible, or the belief in God. It may require a confirmation, particular teachings, or maybe just defining yourself as a Catholic.

When I talk about Catholicism in the modern day, I often use a few terms:

Catholics/Christians: Your average individual who may refer to themselves as a Catholic or Christian. I've known many, many Catholics who I love dearly and agree with on a variety of issues - and I've known many who I dislike and disagree with. 

Trad Catholics/Christians: this term blends two together - the idea of "tradition" and Catholicism, a religion. I usually refer to trad Catholics as those who not only are Catholic, but fall into the Traditionalist Catholic movement.

I may also use the term "trad Catholic" to describe someone who falls into the right-wing belief system that currently plagues the States and many other countries - a mix of Catholicism with anti-queer, pro-"traditional" values (which I often view as problematic and misogynistic), and very pro the Church and spiritual bypassing.

Folk Catholics: Folk Catholicism is not an official religion, it does not adhere to the rules of the church and, in fact, often actively goes against such rules and hierarchies, as is broadly documented in the multitude of heretical folk magic practices that have to do with stealing the host, summoning the devil in the churchyard, and many others. 

I also believe folk Catholicism to be a term and an ideology that informs how we engage with Catholicism, not necessarily a practice. I consider folk Catholicism to also be a  worldview that centers the people in Catholicism rather the institution. It asks us to look at how we can form relationships with Saints and holy beings without human intercession. It encourages us to center folk magic and the needs of the people rather than the dictations of those appointed as leaders by an institution. 

I consider myself a folk Catholic because I don’t go to Church except when I need to get some holy water or maybe on important holidays. I don’t utilize the Bible to ensure that I am a good person. I don’t believe you have to atone for sins to get into Heaven if it exists, and I don’t agree with many people’s idea of what sin is. I don’t mission, I don’t preach, and I don’t think that Christianity is for everyone nor should everyone seek out Jesus.

Is a modern Catholic different than this? If so, in what ways? Is a modern Catholic defined by how often they go to Church, their faith in Bible? 

I think that the active practices of a religion always have the potential to intersect in how the people who practice engage with it. In a lot of ways, these terms are only in certain circles, which makes it hard to define a modern Catholic versus a folk Catholic.  There are many folks who would call themselves good Catholics that I would consider Catholics. There are also many individuals who say they are folk Catholics that I would argue are more traditional Catholics.

The topic of modern Catholicism versus folk Catholicism are dependent on our definitions, experiences, and the definitions and experiences of those around us. While this may not be an answer, I hope it highlights some of the nuance in this topic.

How do you petition a Saint?

Petitioning a Saint can be done through several methods. I've successfully petitioned Saints with just a prayer. In other cases, I write out my wants on a piece of paper and put it under the feet of a statue of a Saint. 

A very simple way of petitioning a Saint is as follows:

1. Grab a candle with a color that is associated with the Saint you are petitioning, a seven day candle with a Saint print on it, or whatever you have on hand.
2. Dress the candle with a devotional oil, if you have it. If you're looking for a devotional oil, check the bottom of this blog post for a few recommendations!
3. Place your petition on a piece of paper and put it under the candle OR take a prayer card of the Saint to put near the candle (or both!)
4. Recite the prayer on the back of the prayer card to the Saint, including your requests in the given area, or read out your petition to the Saint while lighting the candle.
5. Read out the prayer or petition and keep lighting the candle for the amount of days that it takes for your petition to be fulfilled.

If these methods don't work for you or you're interested in learning more about Saint petitioning, come to my class, an Introduction to Saintwork in Folk Magic - a virtual class through Ritualcravt School on April 12th, 2-4 pm. We'll talk more about these topics as well as practical methods for approaching, venerating, praying to, and petitioning Saints from the folk magic perspective.

What books do you recommend?

My book recommendations for those interesting in Saintwork are as follows: 

Della Medicina by Lisa Fazio - You can buy it here.

The Magical Powers of the Saints by Reverend Ray T. Malborough (heavier into Conjure & Hoodoo perspectives & practice) - You can buy it here.

The Things we Do: Ways of the Holy Benedetta by Agostino Taumaturgo - You can buy it here. 

Italian-American Folklore by Frances M. Malpezzi and William M. Clements - You can buy it here.

Black Madonnas by Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum - You can buy it here.

Folk Catholicism and working with Saints is dependent on the cultural context you are operating from - whether diasporic or otherwise. Above all, I encourage folks to lean into their diasporic and ancestral cultures and research how and why Saints are approached in that particular context.

Interested in receiving early access to blogs, a ritual walkthroughs, and weekly collective readings? My Patreon receives access to all this, plus more!