Saint means “holy person”. It comes from the Latin noun and adjective with masculine and feminine versions: sanctus/sancta. In Spanish, we know the masculine san (as in San Francisco) and the feminine santa (as in Santa Rosa). The Latin neuter sanctum means “holy thing”. The other languages derived largely fromContinue Reading
An exact number eludes us! It should, of course, because there are more saints than just the canonized and the beatified. The number of saints in heaven is known only to God. Beyond that, we have recourse to the Roman Martyrology, the official listing of not just martyrs but allContinue Reading
In the Protestant tradition, the word saints (ordinarily in this plural form) has typically referred to living believers in Christ – Church members, all the baptized – usually without any implication about their individual degree of virtue or holiness. This broad usage has roots in Saint Paul’s New Testament lettersContinue Reading
Yes, it can. Unofficially and usually without much precision, Catholics and others might speak of a person as a saint or a living saint when describing someone with qualities best defined by the speaker. Usually, they mean someone still living who fits each speaker’s sense of a good, holy, virtuousContinue Reading
The word saint ordinarily means a deceased person who believed deeply in Jesus Christ as Lord and who lived a holy life while on earth, and as a result, dwells forever with God in heaven. The person is not necessarily famous. One who fits this description and is not publiclyContinue Reading
