The Prophet Jonah

No fixed feast day in the calendar

The Prophet Jonah: the back of the card, with its short story, lesson and a QR code that opens it in the Catholic Information app. The full text is below.

Flip the card and scan the QR code on the back to open it in the app

The prophet Jonah, who spent three days in the belly of a fish, then called Nineveh to repent

Who is he?

Jonah was a prophet of the people of Israel, the son of Amittai (cf. Jon 1:1). His story is told in the Book of Jonah, a short book in the Old Testament. Jesus himself spoke of the sign of the prophet Jonah (cf. Mt 12:39).

His story

The Book of Jonah tells that one day, God told him to get up and go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out against it, because its wickedness had come up before him (cf. Jon 1:2). But Nineveh was a city of foreigners, enemies of his people. He did not want to go, so he boarded a ship to flee to Tarshish, in the opposite direction (cf. Jon 1:3).

Out at sea, a great storm arose. Jonah admitted that the storm had come because of him, and told the sailors to throw him into the sea; the sea at once grew calm (cf. Jon 1:4-15). The Lord sent a large fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah stayed in the belly of the fish three days and three nights (cf. Jon 2:1). From the belly of the fish, he prayed to the Lord (cf. Jon 2:2). Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it spat him out onto dry land (cf. Jon 2:11).

God sent him a second time, and this time he obeyed. He went into the city and announced that in forty days Nineveh would be destroyed (cf. Jon 3:4). The people of Nineveh believed God, fasted and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least (cf. Jon 3:5). When God saw that they had turned from their evil ways, he did not punish them (cf. Jon 3:10).

But Jonah was upset that God had spared the city. God gently taught him that he loves everyone, even the people Jonah did not like: should he not care about Nineveh, that great city? (cf. Jon 4:11).

Why does the Church remember him?

Jonah is the prophet who helped a whole city return to God. His three days in the belly of the fish are also a sign pointing to Jesus, as Jesus himself said: just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (cf. Mt 12:40). Jesus died and rose on the third day.

A lesson for you

When God wants you to do something good that you don’t feel like doing, don’t run away as Jonah did at first.
Be glad when a friend corrects a mistake, and don’t wish for anyone to be punished.

Identifying marks

A large fish showing its back and tail among the waves: the Lord sent a large fish to swallow him, then made it spit him out onto dry land (cf. Jon 2:1, 11).
Arms open, eyes raised to heaven: he thanks God for saving him from the depths of the sea.
Sand and breaking waves: the moment he has just been brought safely to shore.
A man with a black beard, a rough cloth robe and a gray cloak: the simple clothing of a Jewish man of long ago.

The text on this page is the card in the Catholic Information app, word for word.