| How
does the Church choose saints?
Canonization, the process
the Church uses to name a saint, has only been used since
the tenth century. For hundreds of years, starting with
the first martyrs of the early Church, saints were chosen
by public acclaim. Though this was a more democratic way
to recognize saints, some saints' stories were distorted
by legend and some never existed. Gradually, the bishops
and finally the Vatican took over authority for approving
saints.
In 1983, Pope John Paul II
made sweeping changes in the canonization procedure. The
process begins after the death of a Catholic whom people
regard as holy. Often, the process starts many years after
death in order give perspective on the candidate. The
local bishop investigates the candidate's life and writings
for heroic virtue (or martyrdom) and orthodoxy of doctrine.
Then a panel of theologians at the Vatican evaluates the
candidate. After approval by the panel and cardinals of
the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the pope proclaims
the candidate "venerable."
The next step, beatification,
requires evidence of one miracle (except in the case of
martyrs). Since miracles are considered proof that the
person is in heaven and can intercede for us, the miracle
must take place after the candidate's death and as a result
of a specific petition to the candidate. When the pope
proclaims the candidate beatified or "blessed," the person
can be venerated by a particular region or group of people
with whom the person holds special importance.
Only after one more miracle
will the pope canonize the saint (this includes martyrs
as well). The title of saint tells us that the person
lived a holy life, is in heaven, and is to be honored
by the universal Church. Canonization does not "make"
a person a saint; it recognizes what God has already done.
Though canonization is infallible
and irrevocable, it takes a long time and a lot of effort.
So while every person who is canonized is a saint, not
every holy person has been canonized. You have probably
known many "saints" in your life, and you are called by
God to be one yourself. (top
of the page)
When
did the Church start honoring saints?
By the year 100 A.D., Christians
were honoring other Christians who had died, and asking
for their intercession. Many people think that honoring
saints was something the Church set up later, but it was
part of Christianity from the very beginning. As a matter
of fact, this practice came from a long-standing tradition
in the Jewish faith of honoring prophets and holy people
with shrines. The first saints were martyrs, people who
had given up their lives for the Faith in the persecution
of Christians. (top
of the page)
Is
keeping statues or pictures of saints idolatry?
Look at the pictures of your
loved ones in your wallet or around your home or office.
Why do you keep these particular pictures? You might answer
that you carry those pictures to remind you of people
you love, to help you feel that they're close to you when
you're not together, or to share with people you meet.
But you probably didn't say you worshipped them. Those
are some of the same reasons we have statues and pictures
of saints. Seeing a statue of Saint Therese of Lisieux
who lost her mother when she was a child might make us
feel less alone when we are grieving. A picture of Saint
Francis of Assisi might remind us of how much he loved
God's creation and make us more aware of our environment.
(top of the page)
Do
Catholics pray TO saints?
We pray with saints, not
to them.
Have you ever asked anyone to pray
for you when you were having a hard time? Why did you
choose to ask that person?
You may have chosen someone
you could trust, or someone who understood your problem,
or someone who was close to God. Those are all reasons
we ask saints to pray for us in times of trouble.
Since saints led holy lives
and are close to God in heaven, we feel that their prayers
are particularly effective. Often we ask particular saints
to pray for us if we feel they have a particular interest
in our problem. For example, many people ask Saint Monica
to pray for them if they have trouble with unanswered
prayers, because Monica prayed for twenty years for her
son to be converted. Finally her prayers were answered
in a way she never dreamed of -- her son, Augustine, became
a canonized saint and a Doctor of the Church. (top
of the page)
Is
there a Feast day for every day of the year?
Well, yes and no. The official
Roman calendar of feast days for celebration by the Universal
Church (in other words, all over the world) does not have
a saint's feast day every day. The Church chooses saints
to be celebrated worldwide very carefully -- they must
have a strong message for the Church as a whole. That
doesn't mean that other saints are somehow less holy --
although some of the saints that have been dropped were
legendary and there is little evidence they existed.
Religious orders, countries,
localities, and individuals are free to celebrate the
feast days of saints not listed on the universal calendar
but which have some importance to them. And there are
indeed feast days for saints every day of the year. As
a matter of fact there are at least three saints for almost
every day.
Butler's Lives of the Saints
has the most complete listing of saints' feast days I
have found, though I advise care in choosing the edition.
Recent changes have been made to the calendar that would
affect feast days. (top
of the page)
"Whatever
happened to St. Christopher?
Is he still a saint?"
Before the 1969 reform of the
Roman calendar, Christopher was listed as a martyr who died
under Decius. Nothing else is known about him. There are
several legends about him including the one in which he
was crossing a river when a child asked to carried across.
When Christopher put the child on his shoulders he found
the child was unbelievably heavy. The child, according to
the legend, was Christ carrying the weight of the whole
world. This was what made Christopher patron saint of travelers.
His former feast day is July 25.
Before the formal canonization
process began in the fifteenth century, many saints were
proclaimed by popular approval. This was a much faster
process but unfortunately many of the saints so named
were based on legends, pagan mythology, or even other
religions -- for example, the story of the Buddha traveled
west to Europe and he was "converted" into a Catholic
saint! In 1969, the Church took a long look at all the
saints on its calendar to see if there was historical
evidence that that saint existed and lived a life of holiness.
In taking that long look, the Church discovered that there
was little proof that many "saints", including some very
popular ones, ever lived. Christopher was one of the names
that was determined to have a basis mostly in legend.
Therefore Christopher (and others) were dropped from the
universal calendar.
Some saints were considered
so legendary that their cult was completely repressed
(including St. Ursula). Christopher's cult was not suppressed
but it is confined to local calendars (those for a diocese,
country, or so forth). (top
of the page)
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