How to Choose a Patron Saint Medal

There's a date on the calendar — a baptism, a first communion, a confirmation, a graduation, someone's first car or first deployment — and someone has decided a medal is the right gift. Then comes the part nobody prepared for: which saint, what size, what gold, and what exactly is the difference between a cross and a crucifix.

We're Chapel Hills Jewelry, family-owned on Freeport Road in the Aspinwall area of Pittsburgh since 1989. We'll be straightforward about the division of labor here: questions of faith and blessing belong to your parish, not your jeweler. What we can tell you about is gold, construction, and what survives forty years around someone's neck.

What a patron saint medal is

A small medal bearing the image of a saint traditionally associated with a particular circumstance of life — travel, protection, work, illness, a lost thing. It's worn as a devotional item, and it very often ends up doing double duty as a keepsake: the medal a grandfather wore, given to a grandson at his confirmation.

Which saint is usually decided by the occasion or by the person. Below are the ones asked for most often, and the ones you'll find in our religious jewelry collection.

Who's who

St. Christopher — travelers and drivers

The one most people can picture, and by a distance the most requested. Long carried by travelers, and traditionally given to a new driver, someone moving away, or anyone whose work puts them on the road. If you're buying for a sixteenth birthday or a send-off, this is almost always the answer. Ours are in our St. Christopher collection.

St. Anthony of Padua — things and people who are lost

Invoked for lost objects, which has made him the most quietly practical saint in the catalog, and — less lightly — for people who are lost in a larger sense. A common choice for someone going through something difficult.

St. Michael the Archangel — protection

Traditionally associated with protection and with those whose work involves danger, and long carried by police officers, firefighters, paramedics and members of the armed forces. In a city with as many service families as this one, it's a medal we're asked for regularly.

St. Francis of Assisi — animals and the natural world

Associated with animals, and with a plainness of life that appeals to people well outside any strict observance. Frequently chosen for veterinarians, for someone who works outdoors, and as a gift that carries meaning without carrying a lot of weight.

Cross or crucifix?

These are not the same thing, and the words get used interchangeably by people who don't mean to.

• A cross is the plain form, with no figure on it.
• A crucifix bears the corpus — the figure of Christ.

The distinction matters to some families and not at all to others, and it can also be a matter of what's appropriate for the person and occasion. If you're unsure which is expected, ask whoever is closer to the family than you are — it's a two-second question that avoids an awkward gift. We carry both; the plain forms are in our cross collection.

Gold: 14K, 18K, and which color

Our medals are struck in 14K and 18K yellow gold. The practical difference:

• 14K is the harder alloy. It resists the everyday scuffing that a medal worn under a shirt takes for decades.
• 18K holds more gold, so the color is warmer and richer, and it's softer as a result.

Either is a sound choice for something meant to be handed down. If the medal is going to someone who plays sports, works with their hands, or is nine years old, 14K is the sensible pick.

On color: yellow is traditional and it's what most people picture. White gold reads more modern and sits more discreetly under a collar. The rule we'd give is simply to match whatever else is going on that chain — a white gold medal beside a yellow gold cross looks like two decisions rather than one.

Size, and the thing that actually matters more

People shop for medals by diameter. The number that matters more is thickness.

A medal is a struck piece of gold with raised relief — the saint's figure stands slightly proud of the surface. That relief is what wears. A thin medal worn daily goes soft-featured within a generation; a substantial one is still crisp when it's handed to the next person. If you're choosing between a larger thin medal and a smaller solid one for a child who'll wear it for life, take the smaller one.

For a baby or a young child, small and light is also simply more comfortable and less likely to be pulled at. Medals are frequently given at a baptism and grown into later, which is a good tradition and worth planning for: buy the medal for the adult, and let the chain be the thing that changes.

The chain, and the part that breaks first

Almost every lost medal we hear about was lost the same way: not the medal, not the chain, but the bail — the small loop the medal hangs from, or the jump ring joining it to the chain. It's metal moving against metal every day, and it thins from the inside where nobody looks.

So: weight the chain to the medal (a heavy 18K medal on a fine chain wears through the chain), and if you're giving one that's been in the family, have the bail checked before it goes back around someone's neck. Our guide to 14K yellow gold chains covers what holds up to daily wear. The bail check itself takes two minutes on our bench.

Engraving the back

A name and a date on the reverse is what turns a medal into a record of the day. Baptism dates, confirmation names, "from Nonna," a set of initials. We do fiber laser engraving in house — see our engraving page.

Two practical notes. Bring the wording written down, exactly as you want it, spelling and punctuation included — confirmation names in particular are easy to get wrong. And decide before the day rather than after: it's a far simpler job on a medal that hasn't been worn yet.

If you've inherited one

Old medals come in worn smooth, with a broken bail, or off a chain that finally gave out. Repairs, soldering and restoration are done in house by our own benchman, so nothing gets mailed off to a stranger.

One thing we'd ask you not to do: don't have an old medal polished bright. Polishing removes metal, and on a struck medal it takes the relief with it — the face and the lettering are the first things to go, and they don't come back. Clean it, check the bail, and let the wear stay where it is. On a piece somebody carried for fifty years, that wear is the point.

Blessing, and what we don't do

Many families have a medal blessed before it's given. That's a matter for your parish and your priest — a jeweler has no role in it, and we'd never suggest otherwise. Plan the timing with whoever is officiating, and factor in engraving beforehand.

Worn alongside

You'll very often see a saint medal on the same chain as a cross, or beside an Italian horn. The horn is a folk charm rather than a devotional object — a different tradition entirely, and one many Italian families here keep alongside this one. Those are in our Italian horn collection if you're pairing a gift.

Come in and look

Medals are much easier to judge in the hand than on a screen — weight, thickness and how crisp the relief is don't photograph. Browse the religious collection, or come by 503 Freeport Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15215 and we'll put a few side by side for you. Call 412-782-1757 if there's a date coming and you want to be sure of the timing — and if you're bringing something in that's been in the family, bring the chain with it.