Saints and Seasons
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Why saints’ days?

by Mike Oettle

39 Articles

ADVENT’s arrival marks the beginning of the Church year – a whole month before the secular year opens. Now that’s an anomaly that might make you wonder why we bother to have a special calendar, cluttered with saints’ days. Does it really matter that 4 December is dedicated to John of Damascus (according to Liturgy ’75) or Clement of Alexandria (according to the SA Prayer Book)?

In a way, no. Paul, writing to the church in Rome, says: “One person thinks that a certain day is more important than other days, while someone else thinks that all days are the same. Each one should firmly make up his own mind.” (Romans 14:5)

Certainly there’s no reason to make such a fuss of the saints that virtually every day of the year is given over to praising and thanking God for the blessed martyr so-and-so or the holy virgin whatsername. (“Popish hagiolatry,”[1] someone may mutter.) The Roman Catholic practice of venerating the saints and praying to them to intercede with the Lord for this or that special grace (such as asking St Anthony for help when some­thing is lost) is foreign to the tradition of the Anglican (and forbidden by the 39 Articles).[2]

On the other hand, the radically Protestant rejection of the calendar with its saints and seasons also doesn’t rest entirely easily on the shoulders of Anglicans. We’re uncomfortable with the Puritan approach that the only day that should be special is the Lord’s Day (Sunday), and the rejection of all festivals – remember that in Cromwell’s time people who cele­brat­ed Christmas were treated the way communists deal with “counter-revolu­tionaries”.

It is the teaching of the Church – indeed, thoroughly grounded in Scripture –that all Christians are saints. And the Apostles’ Creed reminds us that we belong to the Communion of Saints – that special bond which links the Church on earth with all those who have died believing in Jesus Christ since Stephen was stoned outside Jerusalem.

Naturally some saints have led more exemplary lives than others – but the ex­am­ples they set for us are of little use when they are no more than names on a list we don’t often look at.

God’s army is indeed mighty. Next I take a look at the martyrs and what they mean to us.


[1]“Hagiolatry” means worship of saints.

[2] The 39 Articles, adopted by the Convocation of the Church of England 1571 and approved by Queen Elizabeth (Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England), are a basic statement of the Protestant Faith as understood in the English Church at the time.

They are traditionally included in Anglican prayerbooks, but their status varies. Since 1865, Church of England clergy have only had to declare that the doctrine in the articles is “agreeable to the Word of God”.

In the Episcopal Church of the United States (the Anglican Church in that country), neither clerics or laymen are required to subscribe to them formally.

The articles can be traced back to 13 articles agreed to in 1538 as the basis of an agreement between King Henry VIII and the German Lutheran princes, and the Forty-Two Articles of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1553 “for the avoiding of controversy in opinions”.

The 42 Articles were abolished by Queen Mary, who reverted to the Roman Catholic Faith. A new statement of faith was needed when Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, and in 1563 the Canterbury Convocation drastically revised the 42 Articles. Further changes were made at the Queen’s request.

On many points the articles are not cut-and-dried statements: the Encyclopædia Britannica states: “They are often studiously ambigious . . . because the Elizabethan government wanted to make the national church as inclusive as possible.”

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  • This article was originally published in the December 1988/January 1989 edition of Western Light, monthly magazine of All Saints’ Parish, Kabega Park, Port Elizabeth, the very first article in this series.

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