I recently read about an English nun who is being considered for sainthood. Sr Elizabeth Prout worked with the poor and destitute in Manchester in the 19th Century. She was clearly a woman of social conscience who did enormous good, and is a great exemplar.
I wonder about all this. I wonder why saints are still necessary to us.
I really don’t believe that heaven is so hierarchical that the saints occupy special places at the table, seated above the salt so to speak. Do you? Our perception of heaven is of necessity limited by our human experiences, with just a few glimpses afforded us through the veil.
So why the emphasis on the legions of saints? Why is this important to us in Christianity, past and present? Sainthood is no historical concept being allowed to die out: the Catholic church continues making Blesseds and Saints at a great rate.
In the past, the identity of saints merged with mythology. St Brigid is a good example. There was a pre-Christian Celtic goddess called Brigid, goddess of metalworking and healing. There was also an historical Celtic woman called Brigid who became a nun and founded a monastery in Kildare. The various spellings of their names and elements of their legends intertwine.
We see these dualities where saints and deities of polytheistic religions merge quite often in the early days of Christianity as it spread to new lands. Sometimes Christianity deliberately ‘took over’ native deities, sometimes it was a more organic process.
I’ve heard it argued that the saints are for Christians our way of having our cake and eating it – of living a polytheistic religion under the guise of monotheism. I think that’s taking it too far, but I clearly remember growing up in a Catholic house being encouraged to pray to different saints for different causes. For example a prayer to St Anthony would enable one to find something lost. (It worked!)
The saints clearly had their own personalities and areas of expertise, and as we would say today they had their own ‘power base’, not at all dissimilar to, for example, the Greek gods. And of course the further back into history one goes, the more the lives of the saints are enshrouded in myth and symbol, not to be taken literally.
Today, I think perhaps that as our belief in God becomes more sophisticated, the saints are simply easier for us to identify with. They were after all human. As we develop away from the concept of a patriarchal, masculine God booming from the sky to something more all-encompassing, something far more ‘other’ and unknowable, we need human examples of how to live our lives.
Of course the great primary example for us as Christians is Christ himself, and the way he lived.
And between them, the saints provide examples that give each of us a slightly different slant on life. Whether we are inspired by the lives of Magdalene, Francis, Clare, Brigid or Benedict, the simplest definition is perhaps that a saint is a holy person, in whose footsteps we can attempt to tread.
What do you think? Do you find inspiration in the saints?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
not being of the catholic persuasion
i have never been very familiar with saints. i do believe, however, that we all search to see ourselves in others…or at least to know that we are not alone in our thoughts or behaviors.
i do, however, find great inspiration from st. lucia
i look forward to hearing what other readers have to say!
One of the things I find most positive about the Catholic church is how it provides a myriad number of paths and techniques for each individual to find their own relationship to God. Saints are one very human route — a path by example. All the great art is another route — think about why it was initially used: for an illiterate laity. The art in a Catholic church can instantly convey meaning and emotion in a way that words never could or can. A devotion to the rosary and Mary is yet another option. And then there is the incredible, vast array of writings by mystics. All of us are so different — in need and ability — and the Catholic church provides for this. As a lesbian, I am certainly not a pious Catholic by any means and wish there were more open routes for ME, but I still can appreciate what IS there.
Lucy: I’m delighted to hear you find inspiration from St Lucia! Being of the Catholic persuasion (by upbringing at least, if very shaky now) I’m actually unfamiliar with what not having saints might mean in other Christian denominations. I think some emphasise them and some don’t??
Blisschick: Your point about art being used for an illiterate laity is a good one that I hadn’t thought of, and yes the art and symblism is hugely important for me. For similar reasons I love the iconography which is such a big part of Orthodox worship. I admit I have a tendency to knock the Catholic church – I’m bi and I share your wish for more ‘open routes for ME’ – but yes there is huge richness as well.
tess, all i know is that the denominations of my ‘youth’ (& i use that term very broadly) very much frowned on saints or anything outside of the trinity…mary included. needless to say, i have broadened my horizons a bit.
Tess, For more (and better) explication on the art theme, Greeley wrote a great book, The Catholic Imagination. I try very, very hard, and am not successful most of the time, to separate the individuals who may say and do ignorant things within the hierarchy from the bigger picture — the richness of it all. I refer to myself as a “Reluctant Catholic Yogi.”