Maria is a new convert to the faith who lives in Vermont.
Maria: I’m still a little fuzzy on the whole saint and angels thing, I read recently that saints are the avatars of angels, is that what you believe? I’m gathering it’s not, or I would think you’d pray directly to the angels? That’s what I mean by still being a little “fuzzy” on all this stuff!!!
Here’s my reply.
Sal: Saints are human souls who are in Heaven. The Bible says Christians here on earth are saints, too, or least can be, so it’s ok to say something like “Sal is a saint!” Really, though, when we say something like “I’ve got to pray to St. Anthony about my lost pound cake” we’re talking about Saint Anthony of Padua in Heaven. Saint Anthony of Padua helps us find lost articles. Sometimes angels are referred to as saints, like Saint Michael the Archangel, but usually when someone says “saint” they mean a human soul in Heaven. How’s that for confusing?
The Church pronounces infallibly that a particular saint is in heaven based on evidence of a life of heroic virtue, great holiness, and/or martyrdom. After one dies a cause can be put forth for canonization, which is the infallible declaration that we know someone who has deceased is in Heaven. All kinds of evidence is gathered and examined as part of the process, including evidence of miracles attributed to the deceased either during their or after their death via their intercession. When a cause is put forth for one to be canonized, people pray that the deceased intercedes for them so that their prayers are answered. If the soul is in Heaven and God wants the prayer to be answered, it is answered and sometimes a miraculous cure or happenstance is the result. And that’s how we know they are in Heaven, for if they were in Purgatory they’d be working off the temporal punishment for buying books they never read (that’s me) or generally being an opinionated, snarky, and mean blockhead. Again, that’s me.
Angels are pure spirit beings created by God. The angels were created before the creation of the material universe. There was a rebellion in Heaven led by Lucifer (meaning “Light Bearer”) and all the fallen angels were forced out of Heaven. Lucifer became Satan, the leader of the fallen angels, and the rest is history, though some see it as mythology on par with ancient Greek and Roman myth. But we as Catholics know that evil is real.
Angels can appear to us in bodily form but they don’t have a material body like we do. In fact, since they are purely spiritual, they don’t occupy space. Saints are not avatars, or rather a bodily incarnation of angels. Angels can appear in the form of a human, but they aren’t a union of body and soul like humans.
We can pray to saints and angels, but when we pray to them we’re simply asking for the help of their prayers for us, in the case of saints, or in the case of say our guardian angel, for his spiritual protection. In fact, the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel I’ve been telling you about is a prayer just like that:
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in our day of battle; protect us against the deceit and wickedness of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray.
And do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God banish into hell Satan and all of the evil spirits who prowl throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Some Further reading for you:
http://www.catholic.org/saints/faq.php
http://www.catholic.org/saints/angel.php
Angels and Demons: What Do We Really Know about Them?
Peter Kreeft
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=7I0rRKm9b2&isbn=0898705509&itm=17
To say that “Saints are human souls who are in heaven” is good as far as your argument goes, but it is not complete. For example, you refer to St. Michael the Archangel, who is not a human soul. Therefore saints can also be angels. Also, in a certain, restricted sense, all members of the church, living or dead, are saints (CCC 823). This is implied in the Creed’s teaching on Communion of the Saints (we can’t be in communion with the Saints unless we are saints as well).
So a brief definition of “saint” is “holy one”. In English, the title “Saint” is given to two types of saints, the dead in Christ who have been canonized by the Church, and the three angels whose names we know from Scripture. Other languages do not have seperate terms for “Saint” and “Holy”, hence in Spanish you have both “Santa Barbara” (St. Barbara) and “Santa Cruz” (Holy Cross), and “Santa Clara” (Saint Clare) and “Santa Fe” (Holy Faith).
Umm, Eric, didn’t Sal specifically mention that some angels are referred to as saints?
Sometimes it helps to read the whole entry before commenting.
“The Church pronounces infallibly that a particular saint is in heaven based on evidence of a life of heroic virtue, great holiness, and/or martyrdom.” Although the fuller explanation following that statement is correct, the statement in and of itself is not. It would be better, I think, to say that the some particular part of the Church Universal, perhaps a diocese or a religious order, proposes that a person is in heaven based on “evidence of a life of heroic virtue, great holiness, and/or martyrdom”, and the Church then examines these claims and, ultimately, makes an infallible pronouncement based upon God’s answers to prayers through the intercession of the servant of God.
I think Sal’s mention of “soul” is misleading, because the greatest human saint, the Virgin Mary, is in Heaven already, with both body and soul; so this needs some reformulatin’.