Who are the saints?

5 min

Awaiting theological review

What you will understand today

What a saint is, why Catholics ask the saints to pray for them, and how the Church recognises them.

In simple words

In the New Testament, Paul calls all believers saints — holy ones — because they belong to God. In a narrower sense, saints are those who now live with God in heaven. Every person is called to become one.

Catholics believe in the communion of saints: the Church on earth, those being purified after death and the saints in heaven form one family in Christ. Death does not break that bond. So Catholics ask the saints to pray for them, as they would ask a friend on earth.

When the Church canonises someone, she declares that this person lived the Gospel heroically and is with God, and proposes them as a model and an intercessor. There are saints of every age, country and walk of life — from first-century martyrs to a teenager who died in 2006.

Key Bible passage

Stephen, the first martyr, dies praying like Jesus: for the very people who are killing him.

⁵⁹And falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord. And Saul was consenting to his death.
Acts of the Apostles 7:59 · Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

One family in Christ

On earth

Pilgrims

Being purified

On the way

In heaven

The saints

Go deeper

Canonisation usually comes after a long process: the person's life and writings are studied, witnesses are heard, and normally miracles attributed to their intercession are examined. The steps are Servant of God, Venerable, Blessed and Saint. Martyrs can be beatified without a miracle.

The Church distinguishes the worship given to God alone (adoration) from the honour given to the saints (veneration). Statues and images of the saints are like photographs of family members: they remind us of people we love, not objects of worship.

The saints are not perfect people. Many had difficult characters or dramatic pasts — Paul persecuted Christians, Augustine lived for years against his conscience. What they share is that they let God's grace change them.

Questions people ask

Can the saints hear us?

The Church teaches that the saints are alive in God and united to us in the communion of saints. How they know our prayers is part of the mystery of God; what matters is that they pray with us before him.

Why are there patron saints?

It is a custom, not a doctrine: Christians have linked saints to places, professions or needs because of something in their life — Luke, a physician, for doctors; Francis, for the environment.

Are there saints the Church has not canonised?

Yes, countless. The Church celebrates them all together on All Saints' Day, 1 November. Canonisation names only some, as models for everyone.

Did you know?

Early Christian source

The Martyrdom of Polycarp, written around 156, says that the Christians of Smyrna gathered his bones and planned to meet each year at his grave to celebrate the day of his martyrdom — one of the earliest records of a saint's feast.

Martyrdom of Polycarp 18(awaiting verification)

A common misconception

Praying to the saints takes away from God.

In fact

The saints point to God and pray to God. The Church teaches that their holiness is the work of Christ's grace in them — honouring them honours him.

A question to take with you

Is there someone whose life of faith inspired you? What did you see in them?

One small thing for today

Find the saint whose name you share, or the saint of today, and read their story.