Five in the morning is a good hour for big ideas, and Maggie Jetty had hers in prayer one December day in 2018. Maggie is a wife, a mom, and a pediatric speech-language pathologist who works in schools. She had been hand-painting little wooden peg saint dolls and selling them online, and the orders came in faster than one person with a paintbrush could keep up. Parents, grandparents, priests, college students, and godparents all wanted them. Her answer was Saintly Heart, a family-owned company that makes faith-based toys to share the stories of Jesus and the saints through play.

Maggie still hand-paints the original art for each toy before it goes into production. The collection has grown to wooden pray and play sets for the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, and the Mass, a church story board, felt busy books, a floating Nativity for the bathtub, and even Jonah and the Whale, ready for bath time.

The quiet sets are the stroke of genius here. A soft felt busy book or a quiet Mass set gives little hands something to hold during a long service, without the clatter of a toy hitting the pew. Kids who need to fidget, kids who learn by touch, and kids who are still working on sitting still all get a gentle way to follow along. Maggie spends her workdays helping children find their words, and her toys make room for every kind of little learner in the family pew.