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In Christianity belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term saint depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, and Lutheranism doctrine, all of their faithful deceased in Heaven are considered to be saints, but a selected few are considered worthy of greater honor or emulation. Official ecclesiastical recognition, and veneration, is conferred on some denominational saints through the process of canonization in the Catholic Church or glorification in the Eastern Orthodox Church after their approval. In many Protestant denominations, and following from Pauline usage, saint refers broadly to any holy Christian without special recognition or selection.
While the English word saint (deriving from the Latin sanctus) originated in Christianity, historians of religion tend to use the appellation "in a more general way to refer to the state of special holiness that many religions attribute to certain people", referring to the Jewish Hasid or tzadik, the Islamic walī/fakir, the Hindu rishi, Sikh bhagat or Sikh Guru, the Shintoist kami, the Taoist immortal or zhenren, and the Buddhist arhat or bodhisattva also as saints. Depending on the religion, saints are recognized either by official declaration, as in Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy, or by popular acclamation (see folk saint).
The word sanctus was originally a technical one in ancient Roman religion, but due to its ecumene use in Christianity the modern word saint is now also used as a translation of comparable terms for persons "worthy of veneration for their holiness or sanctity" in other religions.
Many religions also use similar concepts (but different terminology) to venerate persons worthy of some honor. Author John A. Coleman of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, wrote that saints across various cultures and religions have the following family resemblances:Coleman, John A. "Conclusion: After sainthood", in Hawley, John Stratton, ed. Saints and Virtues Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. pp. 214–217.
The anthropologist Lawrence Babb, in an article about Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba, asks the question "Who is a saint?" and responds by saying that in the symbolic infrastructure of some religions, there is the image of a certain extraordinary spiritual person's "miraculous powers", to whom frequently a certain moral presence is attributed. These saintly figures, he asserts, are "the focal points of spiritual force-fields". They exert "powerful attractive influence on followers but touch the inner lives of others in transforming ways as well".Babb, Lawrence A. "Sathya Sai Baba's Saintly Play", in Hawley, John Stratton, ed. Saints and Virtues. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. pp. 168–170. .
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "The patriarchs, prophets, and certain other Old Testament figures have been and always will be honored as saints in all the church's liturgical traditions." Catechism of the Catholic Church Chapter 2, Article 1, 61
In his book Saint of the Day, editor Leonard Foley says that the "Saints' surrender to God's love was so generous an approach to the total surrender of Jesus that the Church recognizes them as heroes and heroines worthy to be held up for our inspiration. They remind us that the Church is holy, can never stop being holy and is called to show the holiness of God by living the life of Christ." Saint of the Day, edited by Leonard Foley, OFM, (Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2003), xvi.
The Catholic Church teaches that it does not make or create saints, but rather recognizes them. Proofs of heroic virtue required in the process of beatification will serve to illustrate in detail the general principles exposed aboveThe Catechism of the Catholic Church , from the Knights of Columbus site upon proof of their holiness or likeness to God.
On 3 January 993, Pope John XV became the first pope to proclaim a person a saint from outside the diocese of Rome: on the petition of the German ruler, he had canonized Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg. Before that time, the popular "cults", or venerations, of saints had been local and spontaneous and were confirmed by the local Catholic bishop.Luscombe, David and Riley-Smith, Jonathan. 2004. New Cambridge Medieval History: c.1024–c.1198, Volume 5. p. 12. Pope John XVIII subsequently permitted a cult of five Polish martyrs. Pope Benedict VIII later declared the Armenian hermit Simeon of Mantua to be a saint, but it was not until the pontificate of Pope Innocent III that the popes reserved to themselves the exclusive authority to canonize saints, so that local bishops needed the confirmation of the Pope. Walter of Pontoise was the last person in Western Europe to be canonized by an authority other than the Pope: Hugh de Boves, the Archbishop of Rouen, canonized him in 1153.William Smith, Samuel Cheetham, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities (Murray, 1875), 283. Thenceforth a decree of Pope Alexander III in 1170 reserved the prerogative of canonization to the Pope, insofar as the Latin Church was concerned.
Alban Butler published Lives of the Saints in 1756, including a total of 1,486 saints. The latest revision of this book, edited by Herbert Thurston and Donald Attwater, contains the lives of 2,565 saints. Robert Sarno, an official of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints of the Holy See, expressed that it is impossible to give an exact number of saints.
The veneration of saints, in Latin cultus, or the "cult of the Saints", describes a particular popular devotion or entrustment of one's self to a particular saint or group of saints. Although the term worship is sometimes used, it is only used with the older English connotation of honoring or respecting ( veneration) a person. According to the church, divine worship is in the strict sense reserved only to God ( latria) and never to the saints. One is permitted to ask the saints to intercede or pray to God for persons still on Earth, The Intercession of the Saints on Catholic.com just as one can ask someone on Earth to pray for him.
A saint may be designated as a patron saint of a particular cause, profession, church or locale, or invoked as a protector against specific illnesses or disasters, sometimes by popular custom and sometimes by official declarations of the church. from Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) on Wikisource.org Saints are not believed to have power of their own, but only that granted by God. Relics of saints are respected, or venerated, similar to the veneration of holy images and icons. The practice in past centuries of venerating relics of saints with the intention of obtaining healing from God through their intercession is taken from the early Church. Acts of the Apostles, 19: 11–2 For example, an American deacon claimed in 2000 that John Henry Newman (then a Beatification) interceded with God to cure him of a physical illness. The deacon, Jack Sullivan, asserted that after addressing Newman he was cured of spinal stenosis in a matter of hours. In 2009, a panel of theologians concluded that Sullivan's recovery was the result of his prayer to Newman. According to the church, to be deemed a miracle, "a medical recovery must be instantaneous, not attributable to treatment, disappear for good."Jenna Russell, "Marshfield man's prayer an answer in sainthood query", The Boston Globe, 28 April 2009, B1, 4.
Some of the saints have a special iconographic saint symbology by tradition, e.g., Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr, is identified by a gridiron because he is believed to have been burned to death on one. This symbol is found, for instance, in the Canadian heraldry of the office responsible for the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Once a person has been canonized, the deceased body of the saint is considered holy as a relic. The remains of saints are called holy relics and are usually used in churches. Saints' personal belongings may also be used as relics.
If the ecclesiastical review is successful, this is followed by a service of glorification in which the saint is given a day on the liturgical calendar to be celebrated by the entire Church.Frawley J., The Glorification of the Saints in the Orthodox Church at Orthodox Church in America, Syosset, New York This does not, however, make the person a saint; the person already was a saint and the Church ultimately recognized it.
As a general rule, only clergy will touch relics in order to move them or carry them in procession; however, in veneration the faithful will kiss the relic to show love and respect toward the saint. The altar in an Orthodox Church usually contains relics of saints,Hopko T., " The Orthodox Faith" often of . Church interiors are covered with the of saints. When an Orthodox Christian venerates icons of a saint he is venerating the image of God which he sees in the saint.
Because the Church shows no true distinction between the living and the dead, as the saints are considered to be alive in heaven, saints are referred to as if they are still alive, and are venerated, not worshipped. They are believed to be able to intercede for the living for salvation or other requests and help mankind either through direct communion with God or by personal miraculous intervention.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the title , Hosios (f. Ὁσία Hosia) is also used. This is a title attributed to saints who had lived a monastery or Hermit life equivalent to the more usual title of "Saint".
In high-church contexts, such as Anglo-Catholicism, a saint is generally one to whom has been attributed (and who has generally demonstrated) a high level of holiness and sanctity. In this use, a saint is therefore not a belief only, but one who has been transformed by virtue. In Catholicism, a saint is a special sign of God's activity. The veneration of saints is sometimes misunderstood to be worship, in which case it is derisively termed "hagiolatry".
So far as invocation of the saints is concerned, one of the Church of England's Articles of Religion "Of Purgatory" condemns "the Romish Doctrine concerning ...(the) Invocation of Saints" as "a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God". Anglo-Catholics in Anglican provinces using the Articles often make a distinction between a "Romish" and a "Patristic" doctrine concerning the invocation of saints, permitting the latter in accordance with Article XXII. Indeed, the theologian E. J. Bicknell stated that the Anglican view acknowledges that the term "invocation may mean either of two things: the simple request to a saint for his prayers (intercession), 'ora pro nobis', or a request for some particular benefit. In medieval times the saints had come to be regarded as themselves the authors of blessings. Such a view was condemned but the former was affirmed."
Some Anglicans and Anglican churches, particularly Anglo-Catholics, personally ask prayers of the saints. However, such a practice is seldom found in any official Anglican liturgy. Unusual examples of it are found in The Korean Liturgy 1938, the liturgy of the Diocese of Guiana 1959 and The Melanesian English Prayer Book.
Anglicans believe that the only effective Mediator between the believer and God the Father, in terms of redemption and salvation, is God the Son, Jesus Christ. Historical Anglicanism has drawn a distinction between the intercession of the saints and the invocation of the saints. The former was generally accepted in Anglican doctrine, while the latter was generally rejected. There are some, however, in Anglicanism, who do beseech the saints' intercession. Those who beseech the saints to intercede on their behalf make a distinction between mediator and intercessor, and claim that asking for the prayers of the saints is no different in kind than asking for the prayers of living Christians. Anglo-Catholics understand sainthood in a more Catholic Church or Orthodox way, often praying for intercessions from the saints and celebrating their feast days.
According to the Church of England, a saint is one who is sanctified, as it translates in the Authorized King James Version (1611) 2 Chronicles 6:41:
Now therefore arise, O God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness.
The Lutheran Churches also have liturgical calendars in which they honor individuals as saints.
The intercession of saints was criticized in the Of the Worship of the Saints. This criticism was rebutted by the Catholic side in the Confutatio Augustana, which in turn was rebutted by the Lutheran side in the Apology to the Augsburg Confession. Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Article XXI : Of the Invocation of Saints
The 14th Article of Religion in the United Methodist Book of Discipline states:
The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon, worshiping, and adoration, as well of images as of relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to the Word of God.
Within some Protestant traditions, saint is also used to refer to any born-again Christian. Many emphasize the traditional New Testament meaning of the word, preferring to write "saint" to refer to any believer, in continuity with the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers.
Tibetan Buddhism hold the (reincarnates of deceased eminent practitioners) as living saints on earth.Ray, Reginald A. "Some Aspects of the Tulku Trrdition in Tibet". The Tibet Journal, vol. 11, no. 4, 1986, pp. 35–69. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43300222. Accessed 14 August 2021.
Some Hindu saints are given god-like status, being seen as Avatar of Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, and other aspects of the Divine—this can happen during their lifetimes, or sometimes many years after their deaths. This explains another common name for Hindu saints: godmen, is invention of western Abrahamic media to a Pagan Ideas.
Saints are recognized as having specific traits they can be identified through. These include: floating lights appearing above their tomb, the body not decaying, a pleasant and miraculous odor coming from the body, appearing in the dreams of others who they pray on behalf of, appearing in two places at once, and having normally impossible knowledge.
Islam has had a rich history of veneration of saints (often called wali, which literally means 'Friend of'),See John Renard, Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008); Idem., Tales of God Friends: Islamic Hagiography in Translation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009) which has declined in some parts of the Islamic world in the twentieth century due to the influence of the various streams of Salafism. In Sunni Islam, the veneration of saints became a very common form of devotion early on, and saints came to be defined in the eighth-century as a group of "special people chosen by God and endowed with exceptional gifts, such as the ability to work miracles."Radtke, B., "Saint", in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. The classical Sunni scholars came to recognize and honor these individuals as venerable people who were both "loved by God and developed a close relationship of love to Him." "Belief in the miracles of saints ( karāmāt al-awliyāʾ) ... became requirement in Sunni Islam during,"Jonathan A. C. Brown, "Faithful Dissenters: Sunni Skepticism about the Miracles of Saints", Journal of Sufi Studies 1 (2012), p. 123 with even medieval critics of the ubiquitous practice of ziyara like Ibn Taymiyyah emphatically declaring: "The miracles of saints are absolutely true and correct, and acknowledged by all Muslim scholars. The Quran has pointed to it in different places, "A messenger who has instructed them in scripture and wisdom, and sanctify them." (Qur'an 2:129) and the hadith have mentioned it, and whoever denies the miraculous power of saints are innovators or following innovators."Ibn Taymiyyah, Mukhtasar al-Fatawa al-Masriyya (al-Madani Publishing House, 1980), p. 603 The vast majority of saints venerated in the classical Sunni world were the , who were all Sunni mystics who belonged to one of the maddhab.John Renard, Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008)
Veneration of saints eventually became one of the most widespread Sunni practices for more than a millennium, before it was opposed in the twentieth century by the Salafi movement, whose various streams regard it as "being both un-Islamic and backwards ... rather than the integral part of Islam which they were for over a millennium."Juan Eduardo Campo, Encyclopedia of Islam (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009), p. 600 In a manner similar to the Protestant Reformation,See Jonathan A. C. Brown, Misquoting Muhammad (London: Oneworld Publications, 2015), p. 254 the specific traditional practices which Salafism has tried to curtail in both Sunni and Shia contexts include those of wali, ziyara, tawassul, and relics. As Christopher Taylor has remarked: "Throughout a vital dimension of Islamic piety was the veneration of Muslim saints ... Due, certain strains of thought within the Islamic tradition itself, particularly pronounced in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries ... some Muslims have either resisted acknowledging the existence of Muslim saints altogether or have viewed their presence and veneration as unacceptable deviations."Christopher Taylor, In the Vicinity of the Righteous (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 5–6
Despite attempts by the Salafis to minimise the importance of saints in Islam, there are many living saints with huge popularity, often with millions of followers, mainly found in the Sufi orders or Tariqa. They follow the teachings of the Muhammad and are usually direct descendants of him. They are also scholars of the religion. Well-known modern-day saints include Nazim Al-Haqqani, Sheikh Hisham Kabbani, Mehmet Adil of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, Habib Umar bin Hafidz of the Ba'Alawi Tariqat, Sheikh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi of the Shadhili Tariqa.
Famous Islamic saints in history include Rumi, Ibn Arabi and Al-Ghazali.
In Muslim majority countries, particularly Morocco, Jewish saint veneration resembles local Muslim practices. However, the ideas and rituals in this specific context are still thoroughly situated within Judaism. The bodies of the saintly dead are treated like Torah scroll, with their shrines being their ark, and pilgrimages taking on the ritual trappings of a Torah service. Icons of saints also are paralleled to Torah scrolls; both are manifestations of the sacred. They are also given frames made from velvet in the same style as Torah mantles, and are physically handled in similar ways. The stories and poems produced about saints match the conventions of other Rabbinic literature. Saints may be venerated by both Jews and Muslims, and are typically Torah scholars, miracle workers, and divine mediators. The similarities of Moroccan Jewish and Muslim practices, including saint veneration, were used by colonial powers to claim Morocco was unified and consisted of a distinct nation, but were not sufficiently united to resist imperialism. Today, these similarities are used to emphasize and display tolerance of religious minorities.Beyond Exoticism and Syncretism: Situating Moroccan Pilgrimage in Jewish Studies by Oren Kosansky
Sikhs are encouraged to follow the congregation of a Sant (Sadh Sangat) or "The Company of the Holy". Sants grace the Sadh Sangat with knowledge of the Divine God, and how to take greater steps towards obtaining spiritual enlightenment through Naam. Sants are to be distinguished from "Guru" (such as Guru Nanak) who have compiled the path to God enlightenment in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Sikhism states however, that any beings that have become one with God are considered synonymous with God. As such, the fully realized Sant, Guru, and God are considered one.
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