Squeezible Saints

OC Register:

Superman can fly and Barbie has nice clothes, but Francis tamed wolves, Michael slew a dragon and Joan donned armor to lead a medieval army into battle.

The Catholic saints, as far as Teri O’Toole is concerned, were the world’s first action figures.

There is more to the story. A tragic death, a broken family and a sense of being “lost” caused the single mother of four to re-evaluate her life.

“I really began to question … what do I have to show for my life?” O’Toole says. “I don’t want to meet our Lord and have him ask: ‘What did you do with your life?’ and say ‘Nothing.’”

She sought solace in her family, a Catholic clan of 12 siblings and two parents who “were adamant that we practice our faith.”

In conversation with a sister, the seed of an idea was planted.

“My sister said, ‘There’s not enough positive role models for kids,’” O’Toole recalls. “‘Look at what’s out there, what they play with. Now look at the saints. Why can’t kids have them as role models?’”

O’Toole went home and started reading. To the amusement – and then alarm – of her family, she also started concocting.

“I started experimenting with plastics and dyes and pigments. Everyone made fun of me,” O’Toole says.

The first dolls she created were shiny “like a Barbie doll,” O’Toole says. “I said no, no I want them soft and squishy.”

The point was to make religion “tangible.”