From those who have dabbled in crochet to the expert seamstress, there is great comradery among the saints who glorified God through their textile crafts. Hundreds of holy people over the ages have sewed for the poor, knitted shawls, cobbled shoes, embroidered vestments — and more. These saints can serve as an encouragement to invite the Holy Spirit into our ordinary textile tasks, too. 

In the New Testament, two women worked in the textile industry: Lydia and Tabitha. 

Lydia of Thyatira, who is among Christianity’s early converts, is described in the New Testament as “a worshipper of God and a dealer in purple cloth.” Some say that Lydia’s success with purple cloth allowed her to financially support the Church community and St. Paul’s travels. 

As Acts recounts: “[A]nd the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. After she and her household had been baptized, she offered us an invitation, ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home,’ and she prevailed on us” (Acts 16:14-15). 

Tabitha was a seamstress who used her skill to support the widows of the community, using her talents to remind them of their worth and goodness. Widows at the time relied on the support of the Church community for protection and provision because society prevented women from contributing to society if they did not have a man to speak for them. 

Keeping this in mind, it is no surprise that St. Peter arrived to see the faithful grieving Tabitha’s death. “All the widows stood beside him weeping, and showing coats and garments, which Dorcas [Tabitha] made while she was with them” (Acts 9:39 RSVCE). The widows testified to Tabitha’s goodness by the way she supported them and how deeply they relied on her. The Lord was not finished with the work he desired to complete through Tabitha’s hands in lifting up the lowly and clothing those in mourning with a garment of gladness: She was raised from the dead!

Tabitha reminded the widows of their dignity and worth in their grief. She made them beautiful garments to remind them of the Lord’s mercy and faithfulness. Her name signifies her virtue, as the footnote from the New American Bible Revised Edition notes: “Tabitha (Dorcas), respectively the Aramaic and Greek words for ‘gazelle,’ exemplifies the right attitude toward material possessions expressed by Jesus in the Lucan Gospel.” Indeed, Tabitha sought to utilize her material goods and talents for the building up of the Church and to magnify the goodness of God. 

Seamstress Saints Over the Centuries

Tabitha and Lydia were not the only ones who supported the Church community. Spanning over centuries we have saints who supported priests and religious with their craft. St. Elizabeth of the Trinity mended the habits of her fellow sisters in France. In addition, Ukrainian Blessed Josaphata Hordashevska designed and sewed a habit for her new community, along with vestments for priests. 

St. Bernadette Soubirous and St. Clare of Assisi embroidered altar cloths and priest vestments in France and Italy, respectively. 

There are also saints who sewed to care for the poor. St. Teresa of the Andes mended clothes for the needy, and St. Rose of Lima used her needlework to support the disadvantaged. 

Some saints went a step further and began groups to provide clothing for the poor; Hungarian Blessed Mária Magdolna Bódi organized a sewing club for girls, and St. Mary Mazzarello started a sewing workshop to teach impoverished girls how to sew while she shared the Gospel with them. 

Trained in Textiles

Many saints were trained in a textile craft for their family’s livelihood and sought the Lord in the monotonous spinning, stitching and tying. Swiss St. Marguerite Bays was praised for her high-quality work as a seamstress. She spent long days going house to house mending and sewing but enjoyed her little breaks in the day when she shared the Gospel with the local children. 

Lebanese St. Rafqa knitted for the glory of God even after she lost her sight. “Her face was spared and remained shining to the end. Her hands stayed intact; and she used them to knit socks and make clothing. She thanked God for the use of her hands while also thanking Him for permitting her a share in His Son’s suffering,” a biography on the website of St. Raymond Maronite Cathedral in St. Louis explains. 

Ecuadoran St. Narcisa de Jesús was a well-known seamstress, sewing for the lowest class to the highest echelons in society, always completing her work with great humility. 

In France, St. Zélie Martin supported her family with her intricate lace work and even taught her little daughter St. Thérèse of Lisieux how to patiently practice needlework and embroidery. Italian St. Gemma Galgani is noted for having the skill to professionally work as a seamstress, but she preferred darning and knitting for leisure. 

St. Teresa of Ávila was trained in the family business of spinning wool, as her autobiography, Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, notes: “She was much better employed, she herself thought, at the spinning-wheel, and it irked her to leave such a profitable occupation as spinning to take up her pen. ‘For the love of God,’ she once exclaimed, when importuned to write, ‘let me work at my spinning wheel and go to choir and perform the duties of the religious life, like the other sisters.’”

The Spanish saint who produced a significant canon surprisingly added: “I am not meant to write: I have neither the health nor the intelligence for it.”

Call upon these saints for support the next time that you take up your knitting needles, sit down at your sewing machine, or simply find yourself wearied by the work of the day. Saints of handicrafts, pray for us!