G’day all.

“Steven Rigoni” <> writes:

> The Pope declares Saints for the Catholic church.

After a long process, of course. You need people to push your “cause”, challenged by the “devil’s advocate” (that’s where the term comes from, BTW), two miracles (or one if you’re a martyr) and so on. It’s all rather confusing, really.

> Do the other Christian faiths then recognise these Saints?

Yes and no.

Some Christians think that anything Roman Catholic is necessarily evil and since to be officially declared as a saint by Rome you effectively need to be a dead Roman Catholic virgin, it follows that all saints declared by Rome are evil.

Most churches understand sainthood as being much broader than those declared “saints”. Often this means “all Christians”, and this appears to accord with Paul’s understanding of the term. Even the Roman Catholic Church understands that there are and have been many more saints than have been officially named as such.

> Do they declare their own Saints?

Most don’t feel the need to, usually because of the understanding noted above that all Christians are “saints”. Many churches have a list of people who they feel are exemplary, and have days on the calendar when it is encouraged to remember their work. In the Uniting Church list, for example, I see names like Caroline Chisholm, Martin Luther King Jr, John Flynn, Karl Barth, Desiderius Erasmus and Isaac Watts.

I know that (many/most/all of) the Orthodox churches do still canonise saints. I heard of one who was canonised last year, Evgeny, who was a soldier who was beheaded by Chechens after refusing to convert to Islam. Fr James is almost certainly the best local authority on how this happens and who gets the title, but I expect that being a martyr would certainly get your foot in the door, so to speak. (In the Roman Catholic Church, it’s grounds for immediate beatification.)

> Do they claim the Saints up to their break with the Catholic church?

At least.

Cheers, Andrew Bromage