I’ve been told that the Irish words for “Saint” and “god” are identical.**
Sorry to nit-pick, but no, they’re not. The Gaelic word for god is Dia. The Gaelic word for saint is Naomh. Don’t ask me to pronounce them! I’ll refer you to my partner for that!
A lot of early Catholic saints have the names of Greek and Roman deities, which is suspicious. At least one Catholic saint appears to be Buddha in thin disguise (his life story is identical to the bio of Gautama Siddhartha). Many of the very Early Catholic saints are simply names, with no trustworthy vitae, so they could have come from anywhere.
I’m not sure about the Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha, being “canonized” into the early church, but I’m pretty sure that one of the celtic goddesses, Brighid, was canonized into St. Bridgit. I don’t have a reference for it, tho.
"Before the formal canonization process began in the fifteenth century, many saints were proclaimed by popular approval. This was a much faster process but unfortunately many of the saints so named were based on legends, pagan mythology, or even other religions – for example, the story of the Buddha traveled west to Europe and he was “converted” into a Catholic saint! In 1969, the Church took a long look at all the saints on its calendar to see if there was historical evidence that that saint existed and lived a life of holiness. In taking that long look, the Church discovered that there was little proof that many “saints”, including some very popular ones, ever lived. Christopher was one of the names that was determined to have a basis mostly in legend. Therefore Christopher (and others) were dropped from the universal calendar.
Some saints were considered so legendary that their cult was completely repressed (including St. Ursula). Christopher’s cult was not suppressed but it is confined to local calendars (those for a diocese, country, or so forth"
I beg to disagree. There are “saints” mentioned in the Canon of the Mass who are STILL saints, despite the fact that absolutely nothing is really known about them. The same is true of a lot of other saints wo aren’t as famous as Christopher.
Just a couple of thoughts: Therese of Lisieux (aka the Little Flower, Therese of the Child Jesus) died of tuberculosis at 24 and was buried; the only people to ascend into heaven were Jesus and Mary. Therese wrote that she would like to spend her heaven doing good on earth, and that when she died she would let fall a shower of blessings like roses to the earth. In fact, many miracles occurred after her death as people prayed for her intercession.
She is a good example of an “official” saint folks pray to (as Tom said, in the sense of asking for her petition to God). She is one of my patrons (in addition to my two baptismal names) as I took her name at Confirmation. Her life is a model to me as she served God and her fellow nuns with love despite physically suffering throughout her short life. Mary is another exemplary model, as a human being who never sinned and was open to God’s will, as scary as that must have been.
The Catholic Church recognizes a communion of saints on earth, in purgatory, and in heaven and canonizes those individuals who are rare examples of faith and action. Yes, one prays only to God but sometimes it is helpful to have a human model to think of and reflect on in praying for one’s own shortcomings.
Cal Meacham wrote: "There are “saints” mentioned in the Canon of the Mass who are STILL saints, despite the fact that absolutely nothing is really known about them."
*From Eucharistic Prayer 1:
Peter and Paul, Andrew [James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude; we honor Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian] and all the saints.
For ourselves, too, we ask some share in the fellowship of your apostles and martyrs, with John the Baptist, Stephen, Matthias, Barnabas, [Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia] and all the saints.*
