Make Your Own Folk Saint: A Four Week Online Class with Writer Bob Doto
Time: 7 pm-9 pm Eastern Time
Dates: Thursdays, February 3, 10, 17, and 24
PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
Taught via Zoom by Bob Doto.

In this class, participants will learn about the varying ways in which people define a saint, the differences between "folk saints” and canonical (Church-approved) saints, and how saints are worked within a magical context. We will also look at saints as patrons of the natural and material world, and explore how they are venerated by their followers. 

Over the course of this four-week class students will create their own patron folk saint, and as a final project, present their creation to the class in the form of prayer cards, illustrations, figurines, talismans, devotional candles. booklets, recorded rituals, etc.

WEEK 1: SAINTS, FOLK SAINTS, AND SAINTS FAR FROM HOME

What is a saint? How do saints become saints? Where do they stand in relation to the Church? Who are some of the more well-known saints and folk saints? What are the varying religious contexts saints find themselves in? 

WEEK 2: PATRONS OF THE NATURAL AND MATERIAL WORLD

How and why do saints become “patron” saints? What are feast days? What magical elements are involved with saints?

WEEK 3: VENERATION + RITUAL

What do devotees of saints do, and for what reason? What common offerings are given, and how does ritual feature in saint veneration?

WEEK 4: PRESENTATIONS

Students will present their patron folk saint to the class.

Bob Doto is a writer and speaker on the intersection of spiritual margins and society, and is a practicing “folk Catholic." He is the author of the book Sitting with Spirits, is the host of the Wild Christianity Salon, the creator of the anarcho-folkcath zine, Babylon Begone, and teaches the 8-week online course, “Engaging the Christ Tradition: A course for Radicals, Mystics, and Church-a-Phobes.” Between 2005-2010 he was the Managing Editor of internationally acclaimed journal of esoteric studies, Parabola. He is a founding member of renegade yoga blog, The Babarazzi, and wrote on the margins of spirituality in NYC on his blog Not New York. Bob is the owner and director of the Ditmas Park Yoga Society in Brooklyn, where he teaches and practices Ashtanga yoga and Tui Na bodywork, and is a faculty member at the Pacific College of Health and Science in Manhattan. His books Press Here: Acupressure for Beginners and The Power of Stretching are available from Quarto Press. Find Bob on Instagram @newoldtraditions.

Image: Santo Niño Cieguito of Mexico, by Joanna Ebenstein.