Saint

Popular recognition

Popular recognition of saints arises out of a predilection of the religious masses (those who maintain popular belief, or folk belief, along with beliefs officially promulgated) to grasp the supernatural in that which is believed to be unusual and uncommon—i.e., in the miraculous event. Thus, the religious masses long for those who can perform wonders that are awe-awakening and satisfy their desire for the miraculous and mysterious.

Besides the desire for miracles, there is another basic requirement of the masses, especially within monotheistic religions: the yearning for a superhuman being in human form. The one abstract God who is believed to be present everywhere and capable of helping everybody and everything is too unperceptual and remote for the average religious person. There is a tendency among the religious masses to split up the deity into many numinous beings that fulfill the desires of the people. The religious masses often have polytheistic tendencies. The term dear saints, as the holy ones are called in Roman Catholicism, expresses an emotional relationship to those near, benevolent, heavenly, or spiritual powers that are the heirs to the ancient ethnic and patron deities of pre-Christian times.

In the course of their histories, and as they expand, the great universal religions (e.g., Christianity, Buddhism, and others) incorporate ever more people with their particular folk beliefs. As their numbers grow and their influence increases in the religious communities, the indigenous peoples retaining many earlier folk beliefs form the majority and their inclinations prevail. Because their behaviour patterns generally remain constant, their religious forms are preserved. Occasionally, religious reform movements arise within the organized mass religions. Such movements attempt to restore what is believed to be the original form of the respective religions and often turn against a belief in and veneration of saints, regarding such forms of religiosity as degenerate. This was the case in the 16th-century Protestant Reformation and also in the Wahhābiyyah movement, an 18th-century reform movement in Islam.

Theological interpretations of popular recognition

In monotheistic religions the belief in saints in its popular form generally contradicts orthodox teaching. Such religiosity is usually opposed and rejected or else reinterpreted in view of its ineradicability. If the latter is the case, the orthodox interpretation given the cult of saints in order to justify it is a theological construction. In Roman Catholicism, for instance, church doctrine makes a distinction between veneration (veneratio, douleia) and adoration (adoratio, latreia). Veneration is defined as a proper attitude toward saints, whereas adoration is applicable only in connection with God. The veneration of images as practiced especially in the Eastern Orthodox Church is explained similarly. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the saints are representatives of God’s grace on earth and that they are completely subject to his will. The vestigial remains of polytheistic beliefs and practices connected with the veneration of saints are thus theologically, though not popularly, eliminated.

Similar interpretations of the belief in saints in a monotheistic religion serve to justify an existing cult. The people themselves are hardly influenced by such interpretations, however. According to many scholars, the differentiation between douleia (veneration) and latreia (worship), or between veneratio (veneration) and adoratio (adoration), has little meaning for the masses. In practice, they observe their cult of saints quite in accordance with polytheistic devotion toward gods. The supplications actually directed to the saints in the various religions can hardly be distinguished from prayers to deities, even though the saints are theologically regarded as mere intercessors having special access to God, and the answer to prayer is considered as coming from God alone. From the perspective of scholars of comparative religion, however, beings to whom prayers are dedicated are gods.

Forms of cults

The form of a cult of saints can be categorized as either indirect or direct. An indirect cult form involves the veneration of objects that stand in a magical relationship with the respective saint. In this connection there can be a veneration of the saint’s relics. Such religious practices are to be understood in terms of spiritual power. Numinous power is viewed as issuing from the saint, and it is believed to be acquired by veneration or, in practice, mainly by touching (or kissing) the object itself. Another indirect cult form is the veneration of the image of the saint. According to primitive belief, there is a magical connection between the image and the original, which is itself holy. A common and widespread custom is the depositing of votive offerings, dedicated to certain saints, at holy places—temples, churches, shrines, or chapels where the supplicant can be certain of their direct presence and aid. This custom is of ancient origin—e.g., the votive offerings dedicated to the healing god Asclepius in the museum of Epidaurus (Greece). This practice is still to be found in present-day popular belief in Greece or at Roman Catholic places of pilgrimage.

In these forms of indirect cult, then, saints are venerated through the medium of concrete objects. In direct veneration, on the other hand, the saint himself is addressed in invocation and praise. According to popular belief, such direct worship is most effective at the place of the predominant presence of the respective saint. The idea of pilgrimage is always based upon such a belief in the localized presence of numinous power.

Types and functions of saints