Saint Trivia
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130 free Saint trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
71 free Saint trivia questions with answers. Saints turn up everywhere: on calendars, in city names, on medals in glove compartments and in the reasons we give chocolates in February. This quiz covers the famous ones (Patrick, Nicholas, Valentine, Francis, Joan of Arc, George, Peter and Andrew), the patrons of lost things, throats, firefighters, musicians, the internet and lost causes, and the modern saints from Mother Teresa and Padre Pio to the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis. It also covers how canonisation actually works and which pope made more saints than the previous five centuries put together. The easy questions ask which country St Patrick is patron of and which saint's gift-giving legend became Santa Claus. The hard ones want St Anthony's birthplace, the river where St Florian was drowned, the age at which Thérèse of Lisieux died and the first person born in what became the United States to be canonised. Good for church quiz nights, Catholic school classrooms and pub quizzes with a religion round. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the saints and their feasts, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 130 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which country is Saint Patrick the primary patron saint of?
Ireland
Ireland has Patrick, the fifth-century missionary bishop, as its primary patron saint; Brigid of Kildare and Columba are the island's other two patrons.
Q 02By his own account, how did the teenage Patrick first arrive on the island he evangelised?
As a slave taken by pirates
'As a slave taken by pirates' is his own account: raiders seized him at about sixteen, and he spent six years herding animals before escaping and later returning as a bishop.
Q 03Legend says Patrick used which plant to explain the Trinity?
The shamrock
The shamrock, three leaflets on one stem, is the plant legend says Patrick held up to illustrate the Trinity; the story is not recorded in writing until the 18th century.
Q 04Saint Nicholas, whose gift-giving legend became Santa Claus, was bishop of which city?
Myra
Myra, in Lycia on the coast of modern Turkey, was Nicholas's see; in 1087 Italian sailors carried his relics off to Bari, where they remain in a basilica.
Q 05What did Saint Nicholas famously drop through a poor man's window on three nights?
Sacks of gold coins
Sacks of gold coins, one on each of three nights, paid the dowries so the impoverished man's three daughters would not be forced into prostitution.
Q 06Saint Valentine's feast day has been observed on 14 February since at least which century?
The eighth
The eighth century is when the Gelasian Sacramentary, an early Roman service book, already records a 14 February feast for a martyr named Valentine buried on the Via Flaminia.
Q 07Besides lovers, Saint Valentine is patron of epilepsy sufferers and which trade?
Beekeepers
Beekeepers count Valentine among their patrons, alongside epileptics and plague sufferers; a flower-crowned skull said to be his is displayed in Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome.
Q 08On which Tuscan mountain did Francis of Assisi report receiving the stigmata in 1224?
La Verna
La Verna, a mountain retreat in Tuscany given to Francis by a local count, is where he reported receiving the stigmata in September 1224, two years before his death.
Q 09Francis of Assisi is credited with staging the first what, in 1223?
Live nativity scene
Live nativity scene: at Greccio in 1223 Francis set up a manger with a real ox and ass so villagers could picture Bethlehem, the origin of the Christmas crib tradition.
Q 10Francis of Assisi's feast day, 4 October, is also observed as what?
World Animal Day
World Animal Day falls on 4 October precisely because it is the feast of Francis, patron of animals; many churches hold pet blessings that day.
Q 11Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431 at roughly what age?
Nineteen
Nineteen: born around 1412 at Domrémy, she was burned in Rouen on 30 May 1431 after a trial whose charges included heresy and wearing men's clothes.
Q 12Which pope canonised Joan of Arc?
Benedict XV
Benedict XV canonised Joan of Arc on 16 May 1920 in Rome, nearly five centuries after her death; she was declared a patron of France in 1922.
Q 13Saint George is said to have been a soldier in which emperor's guard?
Diocletian's
Diocletian's: tradition makes George an officer in that emperor's guard, beheaded at Nicomedia in 303 for refusing to renounce his faith; the dragon story came centuries later.
Q 21In what year was Mother Teresa canonised?
2016
2016: Pope Francis canonised her in St Peter's Square on 4 September 2016, less than two decades after her death in 1997; she had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
Q 22Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170 in which building?
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral, where he was archbishop, was the scene: four knights loyal to Henry II cut him down near the north transept on 29 December 1170.
Q 23Saint Lucy, whose feast falls on 13 December, is patron of people with what?
Eye problems
Eye problems: Lucy is invoked against them because medieval accounts say her eyes were put out before her execution at Syracuse in 304; art shows her holding them on a dish.
Q 14Saint George's Day falls on which date?
23 April
23 April is Saint George's Day, the traditional date of his martyrdom in 303; England, Georgia, Portugal and Ethiopia all count him as a patron.
Q 15Saint Christopher, patron of travellers, legendarily carried whom across a river?
The child Jesus
The child Jesus is the boy Christopher carries across a river in the legend; the child grows impossibly heavy because he bears the weight of the world, hence the name 'Christ-bearer'.
Q 16Anthony of Padua, invoked for lost objects, was born in which city?
Lisbon
Lisbon, where he was born Fernando Martins in 1195, is his birthplace; his fame for recovering lost things stems from a stolen psalter returned to him by a runaway novice.
Q 17What was Saint Peter's original name?
Simon
Simon was his given name; Jesus renamed him Cephas, Aramaic for rock, rendered in Greek as Petros, which became Peter.
Q 18Under which emperor was Saint Peter crucified in Rome?
Nero
Nero: tradition holds Peter was crucified head-down during that emperor's persecution after the fire of 64, on Vatican Hill where the basilica bearing his name later rose.
Q 19Mother Teresa founded which religious congregation in 1950?
The Missionaries of Charity
The Missionaries of Charity, founded in Calcutta in 1950, began with a handful of sisters serving the poorest of the poor and grew into hundreds of houses worldwide.
Q 20Where was Mother Teresa born?
Skopje
Skopje, then an Ottoman city and today the capital of North Macedonia, was her birthplace in 1910; born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, she was ethnically Albanian.
Q 24Saint Andrew is traditionally shown on what shape of cross?
X-shaped
X-shaped: the crux decussata, on which tradition says Andrew was bound rather than nailed, became the saltire, the white diagonal cross on blue that is Scotland's flag.
Q 25Saint David is the patron saint of which country?
Wales
Wales has the sixth-century bishop David as its patron, with 1 March as his day; his best-known miracle raised the ground beneath him at Llanddewi Brefi so a crowd could hear him preach.
Q 26Catherine of Siena helped persuade which pope to move the papacy back from Avignon to Rome?
Gregory XI
Gregory XI returned the papacy from Avignon to Rome in January 1377 after Catherine's letters and a visit urging him; she was named a Doctor of the Church in 1970.
Q 27Thomas Aquinas's best-known work, left unfinished at his death in 1274, is called what?
Summa Theologica
Summa Theologica, his systematic reconciliation of Aristotle with Christian teaching, was left unfinished when the Dominican friar stopped writing in December 1273 and died the next March.
Q 28Augustine of Hippo was baptised in Milan in 387 by which saint?
Ambrose
Ambrose, bishop of Milan, baptised Augustine at the Easter Vigil of 387, the year after the garden conversion described in the Confessions; Hippo Regius lies in modern Algeria.
Q 29Saint Jude is the Catholic patron of what?
Lost causes
Lost causes, or desperate situations, are Jude's patronage, a devotion that spread widely in the 20th century; in art he usually holds a club, the instrument of his martyrdom.
Q 30Saint Cecilia, whose feast is 22 November, is the patron of whom?
Musicians
Musicians have Cecilia as patron because her legend says that as instruments played at her wedding she sang in her heart to God alone; her feast is 22 November.