MANILA, Philippines–A Catholic youth group has given the makeup transformation craze a religious twist.

A Facebook page called Kabataang Katoliko has launched a social media campaign calling on the youth to turn themselves into their favorite saints in the popular makeup transformations posted online.

“Why look ugly when you can be a saint? And why look like a monster when you are more of a saint?” said the campaign, which was featured on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news site.

Posted on the Kabataang Katoliko Facebook page were photos of youths being “transformed” into saints, with the hashtags #saintify, #saintlytransformation and #iwanttobeasaint.

Some of the saints the young people had chosen included Pedro Calungsod, Dominic Savio, Roche (Roque), Philomena and Lucy.

The campaign gives a new twist to the #MakeupTransformation meme that has gone viral on social media, with people taking on the challenge to look like a celebrity by simply applying makeup.

Posts showed on multi-panel transformations of netizens putting on makeup and turning into the celebrity they want to look like in the fourth and last panel.

Even celebrities joined in the fad to create their own panels.

Others tried to pull off unbelievable transformations, while others just posted their photos as they pretended to apply make-up then post an actual photo of a celebrity for the last panel.

Kabataang Katoliko’s campaign is timely as All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are approaching.

“All of us have a favorite saint and they have shown exemplary lives. So when we try to imitate their [facial expressions] and their looks, we also try to follow their holiness of life,” the CBCP post quoted the Facebook page administrator as saying.

“We hope that through this campaign, we can raise awareness [of] young people on social media to emulate the holiness and lives of the saints,” the administrator added.

Cotabato Auxiliary Bishop Jose Bagaforo earlier appealed to the Catholic faithful, especially the youth, to dress up in costumes emulating the saints and martyrs of the Catholic Church instead of wearing scary costumes and going trick-or-treating or playing pranks on Halloween.