Statues

Almost every Catholic Church holds statues or paintings of the saints.  Why is this?  Well, a couple reasons:

1) The saints remind us of our own call to holiness, our call to be saints.  

2) The statues of saints remind us to pray for their intercession.

3) In the Eucharist we are in "communion" with the whole Communion of Saints - all those in Heaven, Purgatory, and the Church Militant on Earth.

How do we know who the statue represents?  Sometimes it can be hard to tell without asking the local pastor.  Many saints, however, are depicted with signs that let you know.

St Joseph is usually holding a Lily and the Christ Child:

St. Peter, with keys (Matthew 16:19 "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven" Jesus said to Peter):

St. Michael is obvious, usually crushing Satan under his feet.

Martyrs are often depicted in the form of their martyrdom.  Lucy with eyes on a dish, Sebastian with arrows through him, etc.

If you see four statues together, chances are these are depicting the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  John is always the youngest looking one, often with no beard.