SAINTS
BASIC R.C. BELIEF
Heroic servants of God who have died and are in Heaven. Many have been
canonized) by the Church and are given the inferior veneration of dulia.
There are patron saints for almost every country, vocation, and situation.
Because her house was flown by angels to Italy, Our Lady of Loreto was
proclaimed Patroness of aviators. He levitated while praying, so St. Joseph
of Cupertino is the patron saint of astronauts.
Roman Catholic theologians have theorized as to how a saint hears us, as
they are not omni-present. One idea is that the saint's spirit moves about
the world at the speed of light. Another is that God hears the prayer and
delegates it to a saint to take care of.
Butler's unofficial LIVES OF THE SAINTS (1956) contains 2,565 saints.
Problems about the authenticity of data about St. Christopher and St.
Philomena (whose cult was authorized by Gregory XVI in 1837) caused both to
be demoted - although devotion to them is still authorized.
On 2/14/587, Pope Pius XII proclaimed St. Clare of Assisi Heavenly
Patroness of television. This great saint lay gravely ill on Christmas Eve,
1252. Unable to attend Mass she was granted by God the miraculous vision of
Mass together with the sound of prayers and music in the Bascilica of St.
Francis some distance away.
From Cistercian Abbey magazine, page 17, "legend-encrusted Patrick and half-
mythical Brigid."
Council of Trent, Session 25. "Those persons think impiously who deny that
the saints, who enjoy eternal happiness in Heaven, are to be invoked; who
assert that they do not pray for men; who declare that by asking them to
pray for each of us in particular in idolatry, repugnant to the Word of
God, and opposed to the honor of the one mediator of God and men, Christ
Jesus."
From THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA. "In 1802 an ancient tomb was found.
Inscription was reconstructed and bones accepted as those of a virgin
martyr in the 3rd century. Don Francesco de Lucia, parish priest, put the
relics in a place of honor and wrote the life of St. Philomena based on
dubious visions and imagination. She was canonized in 1855." (Ed: She was
demoted in 1961.)
CHRISTIAN COMMENT
The word is from the Greek hagios which means sacred, morally blameless,
consecrated. From I Corinthians 1:2; 6:1-2; etc. it is plain this means all
Christians. There is no way the scripture could be twisted to teach the
Roman Catholic concept, which has opened the way for both serious and
ridiculous types of veneration of saints.
St. Expedite was named by a New Orleans church because the Italian word for
"rush" was stamped on his container, which bore no other identification. He
is still on the altar of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and, when questioned
about him, the priest said, "The Sicilians used to revere him."
CATHOLIC JOURNALS
From THE SIGN, January 1959. "Q: I have read that St. Gemma's letters to
her spiritual director at Rome were transported and delivered by her
guardian angel. Is this true or not? A: There is no good reason to doubt
the preternatural mail service by St. Gemma's personal guardian angel."
From CATHOLIC DIGEST, 8/80. "The Church accordingly has room for
those...who please God by invoking St. Anthony to keep their letters safe
in the mail and St. Jude for desperate cases because, having a name so like
that of Judas, he has been less frequently asked to intercede for
petitioners than have the other saints and is less likely to be `busy.'"
From THE CATHOLIC VOICE, Oakland, CA "The Making of a Saint by Fr. Francis
X. Murphy. Saints today are a maligned lot. Frequently they are selected by
a strange reason; honored in a bizarre way. Joan of Arc was canonized to
confront political rumpus in twentieth century France; Thomas Aquinas to
vindicate a thirteenth century philosophical system and Pius X to justify a
Roman clique's theological alignment.
"Such considerations had nothing to do with the holiness of these
individuals.
"Joan's sanctity was based on her obedience to the voices of the Spirit.
In the end they got her burned at the stake. Aquinas' virtue was instinct
in his invariable gentleness amid the vastness of his learning and Pius X's
holiness flowed from his simplicity and concern as pastor of souls.
"In each case the devil's advocate had plenty of ammunition with which
to challenge the allegations of sanctity - Joan's unfeminine garb and
military behavior; the repudiation of Aquinas' writings by the bishops of
Paris and Oxford, and the heresy hunt that accompanied Pius's condemnation
of modernists.
"Pressure groups like the French hierarchy, the Dominican order or the
Roman Curia put their weight behind the `propaganda' to have their Joan,
their Thomas or their Pius declared a saint."
From LIGUORIAN, Jan., 1982. "Gerard Majella - the Pro-Life Saint."
SECULAR JOURNALS
From DENVER POST 7/200/86. "A SAINT FOR ALL SEASONS. Sore throat got you
down? Pray to St. Blaise. Did you lose your car keys? St. Anthony of Padua
can help.
"If you're a gravedigger, St. Abbot or St. Anthony are your saints in an
emergency. If you want to make some home brew call on St. Augustine of
Hippo, St. Luke or St. Nicholas of Myra. Should you be possessed by demons,
St. Bruno or St. Denis are standing by.
"No matter what your ailment, your profession or problem, there is a
Roman Catholic saint to whom you can turn. And if you forget which saint is
for what, pray to St. Rita, St. Jude or St. Gregory. They're in charge of
`desperate situations.'
"St. Apollonia was said to have her teeth broken by pincers in then
hands of her persecutors. Predictably, she is the saint for dentists."
RELIGIOUS JOURNALS
From November 1986 newsletter, Mexican Gospel Mission. "According to local
legend, Franciscan friars were passing through Magdalena de Kino, Sonora
centuries ago with a statue of St. Francis loaded on a burro. When the
burro got to the middle of the town, it refused to go on, convincing the
friars that the statue clearly had `chosen' to remain in Magdalena.
"That's why they built a church here, and that is why, each October 4,
the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, Magdalena stages an enormously
popular festival that transforms this town of 14,000 people, as one
resident put it, `from a chameleon to an elephant.'
"It may also be the reason why so many pilgrims who come here October 4
attribute magical powers to the statue of St. Francis that reclines in
wooden silence in a chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Magdalena. It seems
to make no difference to the faithful that the statue they are venerating
is a different St. Francis, one whose feast day is not celebrated until
December 3."
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