SAINTS

SAINTS. “Saint,” from the Latin sanctus (Greek, hagios; Church Slavic, sviatii), refers to a person recognized by the Church as having partaken during his or her lifetime of the quality of God’s holiness (q.v.), a “holy man” or “holy woman.” The expression, “the saints,” is used of Christians in general by Paul, and Orthodoxy (q.v.) maintains that all believers, by virtue of their having put on Christ in Baptism (q.v.), are at least potentially “holy ones,” temples and manifestations of God’s action in the world. The popular veneration of certain believers who had clearly manifested God’s holiness appears very early in the history of the Church. The veneration of the saints is at least as old as the cult of the martyr (q.v.), and was extended in the 4th c. to the monks, the “ascetics” in the current Orthodox categorization of saints, and to the great teaching bishops, who are called “illuminators” or “luminaries.” Other categories of saints were added later, among them: fools in Christ (q.v.) (saloi, iurodev’i), unmercenary physicians, equals to the apostles (meaning great missionaries), military saints (usually martyrs from the Roman army), and, uniquely in Russia, the “passion-bearers” (innocent sufferers).

The saints are believed to be active members of the family of the Church, intercessors and protectors, though all of them derive their ministry in and through-and as witnesses to-the Risen Christ. They are omnipresent in Orthodox Church life. No child is baptized without receiving the name of a patron saint, and in most Orthodox cultures it is the child’s saint’s day that is celebrated as in the West one celebrates birthdays. The Synaxarion, or collection of saints’ lives for every day of the year, is read from at morning services in monasteries. The relics (q.v.) of the saints are venerated, the subject of pilgrimage (q.v.), and transferred or “translated,” when such occurs, with great pomp and ceremony.