Sainthood In The Roman Catholic Church

[rug]

by The Associated Press
July 05, 2013 2:57 PM

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The faithful pray for the saints' intercession when particularly desperate. Cities around the world are christened after them. Even non-believers admire those with the "patience of a saint."

The notion of sainthood varies for many people. With Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII cleared Friday to become saints, here is a quick look at sainthood in the world of Roman Catholicism.

THE LONG ROAD TO SAINTHOOD

For hundreds of years in the church's early history, saints were chosen by public acclaim. Pope John XV led the first canonization in 993, making Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg a saint. Ulrich made daily visits to a hospital in Augsburg to wash the feet of poor people.

The Catholic church eventually developed a complicated and usually long process, sometimes spanning centuries, to determine who deserves to be honored as a saint. The Catholic church first formalized its rules for naming saints after the 16th-century Council of Trent.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=199086697

A primer. Here's a more detailed description.

http://www.dioslc.org/images/tribunal/THE%20PROCESS%20OF%20CANONIZATION%20OF%20SAINTS.pdf

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

1. Whenever I hear the term "patience of a saint", I think of St Cyril of Alexandria

He can be accused of a great many things, but "patient" is not one of them. He was also a howling bigot, driving Jews out of his diocese, and inciting the mob who literally tore to pieces Hypatia, the head of the Platonist school in Alexandria. (Many historians believe that the only reason Cyril was not charged in that case is that the civil authorities knew it would cause another riot.) As a young man, Cyril participated in the railroading of St John Chrysostom.

Speaking of John Chyrsostom, he was another bigot who preached some violently anti-Semitic sermons. Orthodox apologists try to claim that he was not, but their claims are simply not creditable.

St Jerome, the man who wrote the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, was intensely misogynistic. He flatly disagreed with Augustine's Contra Mendacium -- "Against Lying" -- in which Augustine considered the question "Is it morally permissible to lie in furtherance of a good cause?" Augustine said no, citing Romans 3:8, "Shall we do evil that good may come of it? Of course not!" and the practical objection that when those who have been lied to discover the lie, they will doubt the goodness of the cause. This put Jerome in the interesting position of saying that lying can be moral. (Jerome once accused Augustine of refusing to respond to one of his letters, refusing to admit that Augustine's response had been lost in the mail.)

No, there have been some remarkably unsaintly people who have been canonized.

[No Vested Interest]

2. Were those of which you write- Cyril, John Chrysostom, Jerome-

canonized or acclaimed?

I can understand "sainthood" by acclamation occurring during the early centuries. It's more a "squeaky wheel gets the oil" type of thing, and because the institutional Church was still forming, those matters were not yet codified.

I also think many of those called "saint" had less than perfect temperaments. I even wonder about Paul, considered one of the great saints of Christendom, whose words are so revered that they're included in our liturgies.

So, when all is said and done, many of the "saints" were characters of a sort, so to speak, and we are left to accept them as they were- imperfect humans likely doing the best they could under their circumstances, just as most of us strive to do today.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. "Acclaimed", but none of the acclamations have been recinded.

Not like, say, Philomena, evidence for whom consisted solely of a single inscription on a tombstone; Christopher, who was a legend; Miles, who was a copyist's error; and my favorite, Expeditious, who came about because a group of 18th century French nuns ordered some saint's relics, and got a box of bones without the accompanying paperwork, but only the word "expedite" on the box.

All three: Cyril, John Chyrsostom, and Jerome are, in fact, Doctors of the Church. In their personal lives, Cyril especially was not "saintly". The correct term for him is, in fact, arsehole; he was a bigot of the sort that whose hatreds led to people being killed.

[No Vested Interest]

4. Those who were rescinded were not historically proven;

those unworthy (and I don't disagree with you on that point) were historically recognized.

Have any historically known "saints" been rescinded?

The beautiful thing is we are not personally forced to honor any specific saint; we can pick & choose among the thousands, or choose none.

[47of74]

6. We had a St. Philomena's Church here in Asbury (Dubuque).

When they moved to larger quarters a few decades back the Archdiocese renamed the parish the Church of the Resurrection as they weren't sure there was a St. Philomena.

[IrishAyes]

5. I often think of the unsung saints

of everyday ordinary life, laboring in the shadows but no less saintly even so.

[tjwmason]

7. It's always valuable to remember that the canonised Saints are but a small selection

of the whole.

Everybody in heaven is a Saint, so every dead person could be a Saint. The Church investigates a tiny proportion of these people to hold them up as particular models and intercessors.

It is utterly right and proper for us to hold up our own examples, and to seek their prayers.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

8. In his Rule, St Benedict of Nursia wrote

"It is better to be a saint than to be called a saint."

[No Vested Interest]

9. I Like that quote!