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Saints

Shared Saintly Feasts

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It is not uncommon to find friendships within the Communion of Saints. There are stories of saintly siblings like Sts. Benedict and Scholastica, who spent the night before the latter’s…

It is not uncommon to find friendships within the Communion of Saints. There are stories of saintly siblings like Sts. Benedict and Scholastica, who spent the night before the latter’s death engaged in a conversation of the heart about the things of faith. Or others come to mind, like the spiritual friendship of immigrant American Redemptorists Sts. John Neumann and Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, or the spiritual mentorship of the French bishop St. Francis de Sales and the widowed foundress St. Jane Frances de Chantal. Or there are the examples of saints whose joined forces changed the face of religious life, such as Sts. Francis and Clare of Assisi, or the duo of Church Doctors Sts. John of the Cross and Teresa of Ávila, who, by their Carmelite reforms, taught the world anew on prayer and contemplation.

Despite their shared backgrounds, these and many other saintly counterparts do not share liturgical memorials. Each of the above have their own separate and unique feast days, and yet many saints on the universal calendar are liturgically commemorated together because of their unique relationships.

On the General Roman Calendar there are more than a dozen feasts days that memorialize two saints in the same commemoration. A bit about them and their feasts follows.

Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen
— Jan. 2 —

Of the theological powerhouse known as the Cappadocian Fathers — hailing from the Cappadocia region of Turkey — two are celebrated together Jan. 2. St. Basil the Great (330-79) became bishop of Caesarea, and his close friend and collaborator, St. Gregory Nazianzen (329-89), became Patriarch of Constantinople. Both used their philosophical training to help the Church more fully understand divine revelation and formulate key doctrines of the Faith at early ecumenical councils. Together they were key players in much of our theological understanding, particularly of the Trinity.

Sts. Timothy and Titus
— Jan. 26 —

A respected leader among early Christians in modern-day Turkey, St. Timothy was a companion and one of the closest collaborators of St. Paul. St. Timothy’s mother and grandmother, Lois and Eunice, respectively, are noted in Scripture for their great faith and virtue. Accompanying St. Paul on many of his missionary travels throughout the Gentile world, St. Timothy became one of St. Paul’s most trusted aides, having been assigned important tasks like co-authorship of many of the Pauline epistles. St. Paul sent St. Timothy to the Philippians, boasting of him, “I have no one comparable to him.” He became bishop at Ephesus, and it is reported in an apocryphal text that he was martyred there for putting a halt to a pagan procession by preaching the Gospel.

St. Titus also was a close collaborator of St. Paul, who aided in the mission to the Gentiles. St. Paul put him in charge of the church at Crete, according to Tradition. He is celebrated together with St. Timothy on Jan. 26, both held up as disciples of St. Paul, whose conversion the Church celebrates the previous day.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius
— Feb. 14 —

The Byzantine brothers Constantine (c. 826-69) and Michael (815-85) eventually became monks, along with which came changes in their names, to Cyril and Methodius, respectively. Eventually, St. Methodius became a bishop. Together with their students, the brothers developed the Glagolithic and Cyrrilic alphabets as part of their work in spreading the Gospel among the Slavic peoples. Their creative approach as missionaries, always in union with the pope, is what brought the Faith ultimately to much of Eastern Europe. Feb. 14 marks the date St. Cyril died in Rome, and together they were named among the co-patrons of Europe by Pope St. John Paul II in 1980.

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity
— March 7 —

Martyred together in the north African city of Carthage around 203, Sts. Perpetua and Felicity and their companions were catechumens at the time of their death. The written account of their martyrdom survives as one of the oldest and most popular texts from early Christianity, detailing the story of the noblewoman Perpetua and her slave woman, Felicity. Both pregnant at the time, they were put to death by the Roman Empire, among others, for their conversion to Christianity.

Sts. Philip and James
— May 3 —

What is known about the apostle St. Philip comes from the Gospel of St. John. His name is Greek in origin and he was an intermediary with the Greek Gentiles who sought to meet Jesus. Hailing from Bethsaida, along with Sts. Andrew and Peter, St. Philip is thought to have been a follower of St. John the Baptist.

St. Philip is quoted at the miracle when Jesus fed the 5,000 by multiplying the loaves and fishes, and again at the Last Supper when he beseeched the Lord to “show us the Father” (Jn 14:8). Most Scripture scholars are in agreement that St. Philip the Apostle is not the same person as the deacon St. Philip in the Acts of the Apostles. The noncanonical “Acts of Philip” gives account of his martyrdom as well as his preaching and miracles.

St. James the Less, known as “the son of Alphaeus” in the synoptic Gospels, also is referred to as a relative of the Lord. His mother is named Mary, possibly the same Mary who stood alongside the Blessed Mother, John and Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross. St. Matthew’s father also is named in the Gospel as Alphaeus, so it could be that he was the brother of St. James the Less.

He is not to be confused with St. James “the son of Zebedee,” also referred to as St. James the Greater. The reason for this distinction between the two Jameses is not entirely clear; it could be related to age, size or precedence. It is presumed that the death of James recorded in Acts of the Apostles refers to St. James the Greater.

Authorship of the New Testament Letter of James is attributed to St. James the Less, who also was the first bishop of Jerusalem. He is regarded to have called the Council of Jerusalem in A.D. 50 to address the controversy surrounding the requirement of circumcision debated by Sts. Peter and Paul.

Sts. Philip and James share a liturgical memorial as a vestige of history. There is no reason to think their combined efforts in evangelization post-Pentecost would be the cause for this. Rather, their relics were brought to the same Roman church for veneration sometime in the sixth century, and their feast is set around the date of that church’s dedication. Today the church is known and dedicated as the Church of the Twelve Holy Apostles.

Sts. Nereus and Achilleus
­— May 12 —

While accounts differ on their lives and background, Sts. Nereus and Achilleus are remembered as brothers martyred in early Rome, likely at the end of the first century. An epitaph written for their original tomb by Pope St. Damasus, a few centuries after their death, said the brothers were converted soldiers who gave up their way of life to follow Christ. The pope wrote that the two illustrate “what great deeds can be brought about by Christ’s glory.”

Sts. Marcellinus and Peter
— June 2 —

Two early Roman martyrs, said to have died in 304, Sts. Marcellinus and Peter are mentioned by name in the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I). An early martyrology says St. Marcellinus was a priest and St. Peter was an exorcist. Brought to the wilderness outside Rome for their execution, because the executioners did not want their place of death and burial to become a shrine for the Christians, an account of their martyrdom states they happily cleared the space of its wild vegetation for their death and burial.

Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher
— June 22 —

These martyrs reaped the immediate consequences from King Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church. Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher were imprisoned for treason because they rejected the king as head of the Church in England, which would have been tantamount to rejecting papal supremacy, and refused to acknowledge his illegitimate child as his successor. St. Thomas More had been one of the king’s closest friends and collaborators; at the height of his career he served the king as chancellor. St. John Fisher of Rochester took a stand no other bishop in England would, and he was named a cardinal while in prison. Their deaths were just days apart in 1535. St. John Fisher died June 22, and St. Thomas More died on July 6, reportedly saying, “I die the king’s good servant, and God’s first.”

Sts. Peter and Paul
— June 29 —

Although each has an individual feast connected to him (Conversion of St. Paul on Jan. 25 and Chair of St. Peter on Feb. 22), Sts. Peter and Paul share a feast commemorating them — particularly their martyrdom in Rome — on June 29. Referring to the shared feast for the Prince of the Apostles and the Apostle to the Gentiles, St. Augustine of Hippo said in his Sermon 295 (included in the Office of Readings for the day): “Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on two different days, they were one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood.”

Sts. Joachim and Anne
— July 26 —

Formerly having their own feasts prior to the liturgical revisions following the Second Vatican Council, the saintly parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary now share a feast. What we know about them is from Tradition, particularly the extra-biblical Protoevangelium of St. James. St. Joachim is said to have been known for his charity and generosity just as much for his love of God, and St. Anne’s name — meaning “favor” or “grace” — reflects an identity tied closely to her daughter’s. The barrenness of their marriage caused them great pain, and Mary’s conception brought them untold joy. But it is unknown if they came to see that from the very union of their flesh that the Son of God took on human nature.

Sts. Pontian and Hippolytus
— Aug. 13 —

The joint celebration of these saints since 1969 is a lesson in forgiveness and an example of how enemies can become friends. Not only did the Church face threats from the hostile Roman Empire in the third century, but also the internal unity of the Church was threatened by heresy. The theologian St. Hippolytus took things to an extreme when he believed that the bishops of Rome were not strong enough in their defense of the Faith against various heresies. Elected as an alternative bishop of Rome, he became the first antipope, attacking his rivals, popes Urban I and Pontian. When Pope St. Pontian was arrested and sent to a slave camp, St. Hippolytus soon followed the same fate. Before their martyrdom they reconciled, and Pope Fabian brought their relics together in Rome on Aug. 13, 236.

Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian
— Sept. 16 —

Following a persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire in the third century, many Christians died for their faith, yet many lived because they abandoned it and performed pagan acts of worship so that their lives might be spared. Some believed — led by the Roman priest Novatian — that the Christians who apostatized in order to survive could not be welcomed back into the Church unless they repented and were rebaptized. This heresy was forcefully opposed by Pope St. Cornelius and the bishop of Carthage, St. Cyprian. Novatian was elected a rival antipope, and St. Cornelius called a synod to garner support, having Novitian and his followers excommunicated. A defender of Pope St. Cornelius, St. Cyprian suffered much and also was faced with a rival to his own episcopal office in addition to many dissenting priests. Both Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian were martyred, in 253 and 258, respectively.

Sts. Cosmas and Damian
— Sept. 26 —

Said to have been twin brothers, the physicians Sts. Cosmas and Damian were martyred in 287 during the Diocletian persecution at Aegeae in modern-day Turkey. They garnered the Greek nickname “Anargyroi” — meaning “the moneyless” — because, according to Tradition, they accepted no remuneration for the care they gave to the sick. Legends about the martyrs indicate that miracles they performed with the sick brought about many converts. Tradition holds that after many attempts to kill them, from crucifixion to stoning, Sts. Cosmas and Damian eventually were beheaded. Their names are included in the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I).

Sts. Simon and Jude
— Oct. 28 —

St. Jude Thaddeus is not to be confused with the traitor Judas Iscariot. The figures of Jude and Thaddeus in the Gospels both are thought to refer to the same apostle. Not much is known about him other than his purported authorship of the New Testament letter bearing his name. A tradition holds he is the brother of St. James the Less, and his powerful intercession earned him the moniker as patron of hopeless causes. Tradition holds that St. Simon the Apostle, referred to as the “zealot” in the Gospel, was the missionary partner of St. Jude. Both are said to have suffered martyrdom together in modern-day Lebanon around A.D. 65. The relics of these apostles share a tomb in the papal Basilica of St. Peter’s in the Vatican.

Prayerful Pairings

Many of the saints who share liturgical memorials also are commemorated together in the Eucharistic Prayer I (the Roman Canon). These include Sts. Peter and Paul, James and Philip, Simon and Jude, Cornelius and Cyprian,Cosmas and Damian, Marcellinus and Peter, and Felicity and Perpetua.

Largely unchanged since the Council of Trent, there are two separate listings of saints within the prayer. Included are those saints particularly important to the faith of the nascent Church in Rome, such as the apostles, first bishops (popes) and many of the city’s earliest martyrs of the Roman Church. In total there are 41 saints named in the Roman Canon, including the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. These are in addition to the names of three particularly significant Old Testament figures (Abel, Abraham and Melchizedek) who, each in their own way, somehow foreshadow the sacrifice of Christ.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic.  Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael. This article originally appeared in The Priest magazine.

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Saints

St. Peter Chanel: A missionary to Oceania

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When St. Peter Chanel (1803-1841) first applied for his bishop’s permission for missionary work, not long after his 1827 ordination, he was denied and sent to work in a French…

When St. Peter Chanel (1803-1841) first applied for his bishop’s permission for missionary work, not long after his 1827 ordination, he was denied and sent to work in a French country parish. For a priest with his gifts and talents, it was no surprise that he revitalized it in a short amount of time. The people came to love him for his charity and care for them, particularly the marginalized and sick.

St. Peter Chanel did not let his desire for the missions die out, however. He had long been drawn to foreign evangelization since he was a young boy, after reading accounts of American missionaries written by the French missionary Bishop Louis Dubourg, who had authority over much of America’s southern states and territories.

A bright and gifted student, St. Peter won a variety of awards that proved his theological and linguistic prowess, making him an ideal candidate for the missions.

In 1831, St. Peter again sought permission to join the Society of Mary (called the Marists), a missionary congregation founded a few decades earlier in his native France focused on evangelical work in local and foreign missions. Despite joining the congregation, however, St. Peter was unable to fulfill his missionary desires for at least five years, assigned instead to teach in a minor seminary.

In 1836, after the Marists obtained papal approval, the order was asked to send missionaries to various regions of Oceania. St. Peter was assigned as superior of a group who set sail the same year.

A desire to share the Gospel with those who never heard of Christ brought St. Peter to the French controlled island of Futuna. He and his companion, a French lay brother, were in store for a difficult and arduous task in the mission field there. Although St. Peter struggled to learn the language, he went on to master it. And there were the difficulties with a new culture and isolation on a remote island. St. Peter wrote how he believed the local religion was Satan’s work, but he was patient and willing to work slowly for their conversion.

At first, the king of Futuna favorably received St. Peter and his companion. However, there was a miscommunication that the missionaries were only visitors learning the natives’ language and customs. Once their intentions were made clear, combined with the successes of Christian missionaries on nearby islands, the king turned on the missionaries. He perceived and feared the threats they posed to his power. But, for good reason, the Europeans were also feared for their exploitation of Futuna women and general mistreatment of the natives.

The king’s tension with the missionaries reached a boiling point when the king’s own son expressed his desire for baptism. In response, the king sent his brute son-in-law to kill the missionaries.

St. Peter knew well that his life was threatened, writing: “It does not matter whether or not I am killed; the religion has taken root on the island; it will not be destroyed by my death, since it comes not from men but from God.”

While others rushed the saint’s house and vandalized it, the king’s son-in-law clubbed St. Peter to the ground, killing him with an axe. He died, only 37, on April 28, 1841, the protomartyr of Oceania and of his congregation.

Within a year of St. Peter Chanel’s death, the local bishop assigned several other missionaries to Futuna, and most of the island converted to the Faith — including St. Peter’s murderer.

His feast day is April 28.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter at @HeinleinMichael

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Saints

How does the canonization process work?

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It would not be atypical in contemporary parlance to describe a significant friend or other person we know as a “living saint.” What do we mean when calling one a…

It would not be atypical in contemporary parlance to describe a significant friend or other person we know as a “living saint.”

What do we mean when calling one a “saint” and how that person is so recognized by the Church? Catholicism’s 2,000-year history has seen the process for the proclamation of saints develop significantly. Religious historian and journalist Kenneth Woodward, quoting a popular history of the Vatican in his book “Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn’t, and Why” (Touchstone), commented on the mysterious nature of the canonization process: “The mystery of Sainthood and the canonization process, with all its spiritual dimensions of divine intercession, relics and miracles, probably is the Church’s greatest enigma outside the Mass itself.”

Canonization in the Early Years

The concept of honoring Christian men and women and developing cults to their memory started as a direct result of the Roman persecutions perpetrated on the early followers of Jesus. Public veneration of many of these martyrs, generally celebrated on the date of their death, was in evidence as early as the second century. While Christians regarded all the baptized as saints, dying for the faith was particularly noteworthy and was awarded with special veneration. Sanctity and martyrdom were virtually indistinguishable in the Christian consciousness. As Jesus died obedient to the Father, so the saints died for and in obedience to Christ.

Cults to individual saints, almost exclusively local in nature, arose. In this era there were generally no inquiries, tribunals or judgments concerning saints; rather the martyrs were denoted as saints by public acclamation. This was a period of popular canonization, when spontaneous reputation for sanctity could lead to sainthood.

The medieval period of Church history saw a significant centralization of the procedures for declaring martyrs and men and women of heroic virtues as saints. Greater control was deemed necessary in order to eliminate local abuses and move toward some universal standards. Centralization of the canonization process led to greater hierarchical control and, consequently, a more formalized process. The basic procedure began when a cult arose from the people. This was based not only on miracles but holiness of life. The greater the authority of the Church official who performed the rights of elevatio and translatio, the more God was glorified and the more the saint was recognized. This was the initial reason why bishops often requested intervention of the pope to formally proclaim one a saint. In turn, papal confirmation accentuated the pope’s authority.

The shift to a more centralized canonization process brought a consequent change in the types of individuals who were canonized. Members of religious orders and royal houses in favor with a particular pope were given priority. Most notably was the obvious diminution of martyrdom as the litmus test for sainthood. Servants of God who combined radical poverty, chastity and obedience, such as Francis of Assisi (canonized only two years after his death), were favored. The learned cleric, such as St. Dominic, canonized in 1234, and Thomas Aquinas, canonized in 1323, was another favored category.

The centralization of the canonization process continued apace throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. During the pontificate of Pope Urban VIII (1623-44) the papacy gained complete control over the declaration of saints. One of Pope Urban’s decrees forbade any form of public veneration, including the publication of books of miracles or revelations attributed to a supposed saint, until the person was beatified or canonized by solemn papal declaration. His one exception was if a cult had existed “from time immemorial” or could be justified on the strength of what the Fathers or saints had written about the individual.

Reforms and Codification

Beginning with the publication of the Code of Canon Law in 1917, the canonization process became codified. Specifically, 143 canons that dealt with beatification and canonization were present in the 1917 code. The aforementioned means to centralize the canonization process was made even more formal through codification. Canonization became known as an act by the Supreme Pontiff to declare in a definitive and solemn way that a Catholic Christian was actually in the glory of heaven, interceding for humanity before God. The two categories of martyrdom and heroic virtue, however, did continue to be the avenues one could traverse to be declared a saint.

The procedures defined by the 1917 Code of Canon Law were utilized until Pope Paul VI modified them in March 1969. In his motu proprio, Sanctitas clarior, the pope simplified the norms for beatification. Instead of repeating the informative process on both episcopal and Roman levels, the pope called for the diocesan bishop to initiate the process once it received approval of the Holy See.

Similarly, there was to be only one process to investigate the Servant of God’s writings, life of virtue or martyrdom and absence of a public cult. The bishop was also allowed to investigate purported miracles once he had received instructions from the Sacred Congregation of Rites on how to proceed. These changes greatly simplified the process.

While the canonization process has seen significant development over time, the work of Pope St. John Paul II (r. 1978-2005) produced not only the most beatified and canonized individuals of any pope in history, but also appropriately was the source of the most recent transformation (streamlining) of the canonization process.

In 1983, a wholly revised and simplified system for the canonization of saints was inaugurated. That year an updated Code of Canon Law was promulgated with only one canon (1403) dealing directly with the process of beatification and canonization. The major change came on Jan. 25, 1983, when Pope St. John Paul issued the apostolic constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister.

While continuity of purpose was maintained, the pope’s 1983 constitution mandated a thorough reform of the entire canonization process inaugurated by Pope Urban VIII in the 17th century and codified in 1917. The goals of this reform were to make the canonization process simpler, faster, less expensive, more collegial and, ultimately, more productive.

The changes were manifested in two fundamental ways: (1) The entire responsibility for gathering evidence in support of the cause was placed in the hands of the local bishop. Instead of two canonical processes, episcopal and the Roman, there would be one, directed by the local bishop. (2) Divinus Perfectionis Magister abolished the entire series of legal dialectics between the postulator and the Promoter of the Faith. A new group of officials, “the college of relators,” supervised the writing of the historical-critical account of the candidate’s life and virtues. The chief sources of information for those reviewing the Servant of God’s cause would be historical, especially a well-documented critical biography. Additionally, the pope said that an updated process was needed as the bishops had asked for a simpler procedure while maintaining “the soundness of the investigation in matters of such great import.”

Divinus Perfectionis Magister created a paradigm shift in how saints were declared. No longer did the process use a courtroom model for determining a truth concerning the saint’s life, but rather it employed the academic model of research and writing. Replacement of the postulator and Promoter of the Faith with the college of relators was arguably the most significant change, because it transformed the process from a trial to an investigation. The criteria for initiation of a cause were also modified. First, the 50-year waiting period was reduced to five years, although even this could be waived by the pope for pastoral reasons. Additionally, the cause was not to be introduced unless there existed a true and widespread acclamation — namely, spontaneous, genuine and broadly held — among the faithful that one was in heaven either through an active martyrdom or because of living life in a heroic manner over and above the actions of upright men and women.

The Modern Process

Today, as a result of St. John Paul’s changes, the process of canonization proceeds in three phases. It begins with the institution of a diocesan inquiry, which consists of a series of investigations initiated by a competent diocesan bishop who wishes to raise a cause of canonization. This inquiry has as its goal the collection of information concerning the life, heroic virtue, reputation of sanctity or martyrdom of the Servant of God, as well as proof of any possible miracles. Second, after the information has been collected, it is sent to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, presided over by a cardinal prefect, which conducts a study of the case, concluding with the preparation of the positio. Last, the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints discusses and passes judgment on the merits of the cause leading, with the approval of the pope, to beatification or canonization.

In May 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued Sanctorum Mater (Instruction for Conducting Diocesan or Eparchial Inquiries in the Causes of Saints), which clarified the rationale for canonization. Heroic virtue, reputation for holiness and martyrdom were the three principle criteria for investigation of a cause.

The document also provides greater clarity on the role and duties of the postulator, stating that he or she should be an expert in theology, canon law and history, as well as understanding the work of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.

Historical Significance

The celebration of those recognized as saints is an integral part of the Church’s liturgical life. Throughout the liturgical year, a journey that begins with the season of Advent and moves through Christmas, Lent, Easter and Ordinary (ordinal) Time, canonized saints are celebrated. Depending on several factors, including significance of the saint in Church history and tradition, saints have been assigned a certain day that is celebrated as that individual’s “feast” day. A hierarchy of celebrations, moving from greatest to least, is assigned to each saint. Thus the feast days of saints are celebrated as solemnities, feasts, obligatory memorials or optional memorials. In each case, specified prayers pertinent to the saint’s life and work are used in the celebration of Mass and the daily recitation of the Divine Office. In this way the saints become an almost daily example of the qualities one should seek in being a follower of Jesus Christ.

A popular Christian hymn begins, “For all the saints who from their labors rest, who thee by faith, before the world confess.” The lyrics of this song aptly describe the basic foundation upon which Catholicism has built its tradition of sainthood.

Saints, those men and women who have gone before us, marked by the sign of faith and recognized as martyrs or people of heroic virtue, stand as models for people of faith today. The unraveling of this perceived mysterious process, by examination of its historical development, can bring greater appreciation to those who have been so recognized as saints, validity to the whole process, and greater understanding to the Catholic Church, under which the process is conducted. Solving the puzzle of the canonization process and bringing one to greater appreciation of this procedure benefits people of faith, both now and in the future.

Father Richard Gribble is a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross and a professor of religious studies at Stonehill College. He holds a Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America.

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Saints

Two Kinds of Saints?

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While looking through the calendar of saints in the Liturgy of the Hours or the Roman Missal, we may see the diversity of the saints in the Catholic Church, but…

While looking through the calendar of saints in the Liturgy of the Hours or the Roman Missal, we may see the diversity of the saints in the Catholic Church, but there are really only two kinds of saints: martyrs and confessors.

It’s true the saints of the Catholic Church are a diverse group of holy men and women, united with us in prayer and interceding for us with our Father in heaven. They are virgins, wives and mothers, husbands and fathers; founders of religious orders; apostles, evangelists, popes, bishops, priests, monks, friars, brothers, nuns and sisters; teachers, pastors, those who worked with the underprivileged. They represent every age of the Church’s history and every inhabited continent on the Earth. But, ultimately, they are either one of two things: a martyr for the faith or a confessor of the faith. Beyond that, as martyrs or confessors, they share one essential trait: they loved God and His Church more than they loved themselves. The martyrs shed their blood for that love; the confessors did everything but make that ultimate sacrifice.

Martyrs for the Faith

The first martyr was one of the deacons chosen by the apostles to do the practical work in the early Christian communities, St. Stephen. The story of his martyrdom is told in the Acts of the Apostles (chapters 6-8), and features the telling detail that those members of the Sanhedrin who stoned him laid their cloaks at the feet of Saul of Tarsus (see 7:58).

St. James, beheaded by the Sanhedrin, was another apostolic-era martyr mentioned in Acts. Except for St. John, all of Jesus’ apostles were martyred, including St. Matthias, appointed by the remaining 11 apostles after Judas Iscariot’s betrayal and suicide.

Because of Roman persecution in the first three centuries, all the early saints were martyrs like the apostles, such as St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Polycarp and the saints named in Eucharistic Prayer I — for example, Sts. Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia and Anastasia. The Church did not have a highly developed process for proclaiming saints. The early Christians shared the stories of the martyrs who suffered at the hands of the Romans. They hallowed the sites of their executions, and saved the relics of their human remains. The tradition of placing those martyrs’ relics in the altar began in the third century. All these actions, including prayers for their intercession, signified the development of a cult of devotion to the martyr.

Start of the Confessors

Once Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, tolerating Christians, and Emperor Theodosius later made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire, the opportunity for martyrdom decreased.

Thus the practice of canonizing confessors began, which meant that the Church needed to develop a process for investigating the sanctity of a Catholic who died of natural causes. Sometimes the people would manifestly proclaim the holiness of a bishop or some other leader in the community. There was a chance that this proclamation was in error, so the bishop of the diocese needed to have the authority to supervise what became known as the cause for canonization.

This meant gathering information about the holy person’s life, including anything he or she might have written. The investigators would talk to the people who worked or lived with the holy person. And most important of all, as Catholics prayed for the intercession of someone they believed was a saint in heaven, they would find those who had been miraculously healed and made whole. The miracles were the essential manifestation of the saint’s intercession with God in heaven.

“Soldier of Christ”

The first saint to be canonized as a confessor was St. Martin of Tours, whose feast is celebrated on Nov. 11, which is also Veteran’s Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in many British Commonwealth countries (Great Britain, Australia, Canada, etc.). This fourth-century confessor was a convert from paganism, a soldier in the Roman Army who refused to fight after his baptism — “I am a soldier of Christ,” he said, “I refuse to fight.” He was arrested and escaped execution when the enemy surrendered and the battle was averted. A disciple of St. Hilary of Poitiers, who was a great defender of Catholic teaching against the Arian heresy, St. Martin became a hermit and then a monk. The people of Tours proclaimed him their bishop in 371, and he died in 397, after a life of great charity, miraculous healings and defenses against the devil, as well as dealing with heretics and pagans.

During the Middle Ages, devotion to St. Martin of Tours was widespread. His shrine was on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The crucial event of his conversion, when he offered half of his military cloak to a poor man, is a famous image in Western art. He is the patron saint of soldiers, horses and tailors.

His counterpart among martyrs might be St. Sebastian, also a Roman soldier, executed during the reign of Diocletian in the third century. The first attempt to punish what the emperor regarded as treason failed when St. Sebastian was tied to a tree and shot with arrows, but survived. Sometime around A.D. 288, Diocletian had him clubbed to death when that attempt failed. St. Sebastian tied to a tree with arrows piercing him all over his body is a another great image in Western art, and St. Ambrose of Milan, another confessor and bishop, helped spread devotion to this martyr. Pope St. Damasus I built the church in Rome now called St. Sebastian Outside the Walls to venerate his relics. Both the martyr St. Sebastian and the confessor St. Martin of Tours dedicated their lives to Jesus Christ. As soldiers in the Roman Army, they both stood up to the pagan rulers of their time to assert their higher loyalty to Him. But the image we have of St. Sebastian is of a martyr tied to a pillar, shot through with arrows, while the prevailing image of St. Martin is astride a horse, handing half of his cloak to a poor man. St. Martin’s life after that act of courteous charity led to the medieval period’s great devotion to him.

Stephanie A. Mann is the author of “Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured the English Reformation” (Scepter Publishers, 2009). She resides in Wichita, Kan., and blogs at www.supremacyandsurvival.blogspot.com. 

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Saints

Saintly Exhumations

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The canonization process is comprehensive and exhaustive. No proverbial stone is left unturned when the Church investigates whether someone is in heaven. Canonization is pronounced with divine verification. Part of…

The canonization process is comprehensive and exhaustive. No proverbial stone is left unturned when the Church investigates whether someone is in heaven. Canonization is pronounced with divine verification. Part of the process includes a thorough examination of a person’s writings and statements made about them. A main task of the canonization process is to prove that the candidate lived a life of heroic virtue and to substantiate that miracles can be legitimately attributed to their intercession.

Another part of the canonization process is to exhume the candidate’s mortal remains. This is done for several reasons. Exhumation confirms that the person lived and died. That might sound strange, but the Church wants to be positive of even the most basic, simple facts. Professionals such as anthropologists examine the remains to see if they match the known historical information known about the candidate. And perhaps new information is learned from the exhumation itself.

In some cases, the candidate’s body is incorrupt. If scientifically inexplicable, this no doubt adds to the reputation of holiness for the candidate — although incorruption itself is not a miracle fulfilling those required for canonization.

Many times sainthood candidates’ mortal remains are enshrined in a church or chapel at some point after the person is declared Venerable, and so exhumation is necessary for that. Exhumation also allows for relics to be distributed to churches, etc., for veneration by the faithful, typically after the beatification process.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael. 

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Saints

Get to Know Venerable Pierre Toussaint

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Born a slave in Haiti, Toussaint came to New York as property of a French Haitian family, who later freed him in 1807. Establishing himself as a successful hairdresser, Toussaint…

Born a slave in Haiti, Toussaint came to New York as property of a French Haitian family, who later freed him in 1807. Establishing himself as a successful hairdresser, Toussaint earned a sizable salary, which he put to use for the good of others, beginning with the purchase of his sister’s freedom as well as that of his future wife, Juliette. Together the Toussaints spent their lives in service to the poor and needy. When urged to retire and enjoy his remaining years, Toussaint is quoted as saying, “I have enough for myself, but if I stop working, I have not enough for others.”

Toussaint’s great charity and works of mercy were fueled by an abiding faith. A daily Mass attendee for more than 60 years, Toussaint lived as he worshipped. Not embittered by the hardships he endured because of his race and his Catholic faith, the model layman only continued to give of himself for others. Toussaint and his wife adopted his niece, took in orphans and funded orphanages, operated a credit bureau, established hostels for priests and refugees, and generously supported the Church and other institutions. Toussaint attended to the sick and suffering, too, even strangers whom he helped nurse to health.

Toussaint died, two years after his wife, on June 30, 1854. In 1990, his remains were moved to a niche in the Bishop’s Crypt at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City — a rather poetic postscript to the life of a man whose race once prohibited him from entering the city’s Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He was declared venerable in 1996.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael.

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