Communion of Saints, Part 1 – What is a Saint?

The word “saint” derives from the Latin word sanctus, which simply means “holy.” Its current use originated in the New Testament with the use of the Greek word hagios (from άγιος which also means “holy”), where it was used to describe the followers of Jesus. For example, Άγιος Παῦλος, which in Greek is literally “Holy Paul,” will translate into English as “Saint Paul.”

In the Baptist tradition in which I was raised, the “saints” are the members of the Body of Christ here on Earth. Departed Christians might be referred to as “saints” once in a while, but never is there a formal commemoration of the life of a departed saint. Christians from the New Testament era are respected by the Baptist church (although Christians from the post-Apostolic-era up to the Reformation are unknown), but are not recognized as active, living members of the Church who are praying with us and for us. Never do I recall hearing anyone in the church of my youth refer to a departed Christian as “Saint So-and-so,” and the idea of actually asking a departed Christian for their prayers would be seen as being akin to witchcraft. As a Baptist, I never heard about the martyrs or the Early Church Fathers; I had no notion whatsoever of the millions of Christians who had gone before me, who had lived the Faith, and who, in many cases, had suffered and died for it. These people were not examples for me to follow and were certainly not my partners in prayer.

The attitude toward the Saints is a bit different in the Lutheran community, who “remember with thanksgiving those who have gone before us in the sign of faith.” Lutherans “give thanks for the faithful witness that the apostles, martyrs and saints gave to the Christian faith,” and endeavor to “imitate the life and faith of the apostles and martyrs.” (see also Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article 21, Para. 4-6)

So Lutherans do recognize and pay respect to saints, but do not seek their intercessory prayers. In The Smalcald Articles, a summary of Lutheran doctrine written in 1537, Martin Luther acknowledged that “the angels in heaven pray for us (as Christ Himself also does), as also do the saints on earth, and perhaps also in heaven,” but condemned prayer to the saints as “one of the abuses of Antichrist conflicting with the chief article, [that] destroys the knowledge of Christ,” reasoning that, because “in Christ we have everything a thousandfold better,” we have no need of asking the saints in Heaven for their prayer.

The Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, like the Lutherans, also recognize God’s work in the lives of departed Christians and hold them up as examples to Christians still in the flesh. But, while the Lutheran calendar includes thirty or so festivals or feast days commemorating some key figures in the New Testament—like the Apostles, and the Holy Innocents—the calendars of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches are positively bursting with commemorations and celebrations of the lives of departed saints. Every day is a celebration of not one but several saints, Apostles, confessors, martyrs, prophets, ascetics and virgins.

The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches also seek the intercessory prayer of departed saints, but differ in the process of how one comes to be recognized as a “saint.” The process of recognizing a departed Christian officially as a Saint in the Roman Catholic Church is one that involves no fewer than twenty steps, which are listed on the New Advent website. Beatification—permission by the Church to venerate an individual as a saint—precedes Canonization—a decree requiring churchwide recognition of a saint—and both involve inquiries, discussions, meetings, commissions, petitions, expositions, inchoatives, documents, decrees, votes, reports, and evidence of at least two miracles attributed to the intercession of the individual in question.
This process can take just a few years, as in the case of Mother Teresa (just over six years from the date of her death), or hundreds of years, as in the case of Szymon of Lipnicy (525 years after his death). The most recently canonized saint of the Roman Catholic Church is Marie-Eugénie de Jésus, whom Pope Benedict XVI canonized on 3 June 2007.

Canonization within the Orthodox Church is very much a grass-roots process, beginning with those who knew the individual well while they were still alive on Earth. In many cases certain people, like Saint John Maximovitch (left) for example, become so well known during their lifetime for their humility, charity, devotion to the poor, and life of constant prayer and self-denial, that they are widely regarded as saints long before their repose. The local congregation recognizes a departed Christian for their “virtuous life of obvious holiness,” and affirms that the saint’s “writings and preaching [are] ‘fully Orthodox,’ in agreement with the pure faith that we have received from Christ and the Apostles and taught by the Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils.” In time, the diocesan bishop submits a request to the Holy Synod of bishops who decides to number the individual in question among the Church’s canon of saints. There is no requirement within the Orthodox Church for a particular number of miracles.

Both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches insist that in neither body does canonization make someone a saint; it merely recognizes what God has already done.

Okay, so what do we do with all this? What does the Bible say about Saints? And how should we regard them? We'll get to that next week.

In the meantime, read this:
"Our Life in Christ" Program notes, "Prayer to the Saints - Part 1: What is a Saint?