WHAT ARE SAINTS?
From the early days of the Christian church saints have played a key role as intercessors between God and mankind, as a source of protection and of miraculous cures. Today new saints are officially recognised by the Church as much because they have lived out the Christian faith at the highest level or have died in its cause, as for their roles as visionaries or wonderworkers — although miracles remain necessary evidence in the process of canonisation and new cults, often involving miracles of healing, continue to emerge. Many earlier saints are still venerated and valued for their role as patrons and protectors; others, removed from the official calendars of saints in 1969 because they were deemed fictitious, nevertheless still fascinate and intrigue us.
Some saints — most obviously St. Valentine, St. Christopher and St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) — are deeply embedded in the popular culture of the West, and a great number have long been a potent source of inspiration to artists. Knowledge of their cults and legends therefore allows us a better understanding of some of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements.
THE ORIGINS OF SAINTS
The term saint originated in the Latin word sanctus (in Greek hagios) meaning hallowed or consecrated. The early Christians saw themselves as a community of saints or holy people, but even in the first century they showed special reverence for individuals who, in imitation of Christ, had demonstrated outstanding holiness by dying for their faith.
The Acts of the Apostles sets up a direct parallel between Christ’s passion and the death of Stephen —- the first Christian martyr and the first to be honoured individually as a saint — in c. 35, and for almost four centuries many Christians eagerly sought the martyr’s crown. For all this time Christianity remained an outlawed religion in the Roman Empire, which at its greatest extent stretched from Scotland to the River Euphrates in Asia Minor, and from the Straits of Gibraltar to North Africa and the Black Sea.
The memories of the early martyrs were kept vividly alive through their cults. These derived some superficial elements — such as shrines and iconography — from the polytheistic religions of Greece and Rome, but their roots lay in Judaism, with its martyred heroes and prophets, and in the early Christian notions of the rebirth of martyrs even as they died. From the end of the second century, annual celebrations (anniversaries) were held to commemorate the dates of death — known as feast days because death was the beginning of life in heaven — of these witnesses to Christ. Martyrs such as Ignatius of Antioch were invoked to help the living, and their bodily remains or relics were treasured and revered. However, the focus on their role as intercessors for the living, the liturgical celebrations at their tombs, the veneration of their relics and a growing stress on miracles disturbed Greco-Roman society and ironically enough encouraged further persecution, creating more martyrs.
When during the reign of Emperor Constantine (312-337) Christianity emerged as the official religion of the Roman Empire, the heroic age of the persecutions was over. Martyrdom continued to be seen as the most glorious way of achieving sainthood, but the accolade of sanctity was extended also to ascetics, who imitated Christ’s time of fasting and penitence in the desert, and to confessors and virgins. Thus saints could be monks and nuns, teachers, bishops and people from all walks of life who had not necessarily died for their faith but had borne witness to Christ in the holiness of their lives; and their powers to intercede for the living often matched that of the martyrs.
THE MAKING OF SAINTS
Sainthood was — and still is — established by the process of canonisation. In the early churches this was informal, resting largely on popular acclaim, and as a result many early cults of martyrs were founded largely or wholly on the basis of legend. From the fourth century the local bishop would normally approve any new cult, once sanctity had been established by holiness of life or miracles. By the year 1000 papal approval was increasingly being sought out to validate new cults in the Western church, and from the pontificate of Innocent III (1199-1216) all new cults required formal approval by the pope.
Rigorous legal procedures were established to test the validity of the claims of candidates for canonisation; these finally crystallised into a fixed process in 1634. At about the same time, beatification — an alternative form of canonisation initiated by the bishop and a halfway house to full canonisation — was introduced to allow local cults to evolve under the Church’s control. The Eastern churches also developed formal procedures for canonisation. Protestants, on the other hand, although claiming martyrs for their respective causes and in a few cases showing reverence for some existing cults, have created no new saints of their own. This omission is hardly surprising given their theological opposition to the whole concept of saintly intercession between God and mankind.
PATRON SAINTS, RELICS AND CULTS
Throughout the history of the Western church, the veneration of saints has remained an integral and very popular part of religious devotion. This veneration expresses itself in the form of cults — devotion to saints as the servants of God, second only to the higher devotion accorded to Him. (Throughout this page the term cult is used in this technical and positive sense rather than in its broader modern definition, which often has strong negative connotations.)
Since the days of the early Church, relics — the remains of the saints, and in some cases their clothes and even the instruments of their torture — have assumed an almost talismanic significance. The translations of relics (ceremonial reburials, often in different locations) could be the focus of important ceremonies which in turn might result in new miracles, leading to even greater popularity and veneration. The copious offerings of pilgrims seeking help and intercession meanwhile allowed magnificent basilicas to be built and lavishly ornamented.
A key element in all this devotion is the idea that saints can have a special role as patrons, as guardians and protectors of places and people, and as workers of miraculous cures. Proof of their efficacy was traditionally provided by the saints’ 'Lives', accounts of their deeds and miracles; these hagiographical, stylised and frequently fanciful compositions are usually far more an expression of popular devotion than of historical fact. To some scholars and bishops in the early Church, this reliance on miracles and veneration of relics and tombs smacked of idolatry and of a detraction from the worship of God; but their objections were overcome and saints’ cults spread with the Christian faith.
In the later Middle Ages these criticisms resurfaced, and sixteenth-century Renaissance humanists such as Erasmus of Rotterdam, and reformers such as Martin Luther, derided and mocked relics as superstitious practices which were swept away in the fervour of Protestant reform. But in response, the Roman Catholic church of the Counter-Reformation continued to create saints, many in the New World; and in today’s world, the papacy continues to recognise many new saints as exemplars of Christian virtue.
SAINTS IN THE MODERN WORLD
Modem canonisation processes rely heavily on the use of historical evidence, and seek to distinguish between the verifiable and the legendary aspects of saints’ lives and deeds. Very little is known about the real men and women behind some of the more fanciful legends of the early saints. The Bollandists, a society of Jesuit hagiographers which has been working since the 17th century on scholarly editions of the 'Lives' of the saints, pioneered a more critical approach to material which earlier had provided a fertile breeding ground for fantastical fables.
The reform of the Roman calendar in 1969 cut down and standardised feast days; and a core group of saints was selected for universal veneration which represents all periods of history and many different countries of the world. The cults of some saints were restricted to local significance and others — among them Catherine of Alexandria — were quashed altogether on the grounds of lack of evidence. But even as new saints continue to be created, many of the older ones still retain a potent hold on the imagination of people in the late twentieth century.