The other day I was thinking about the Saints of old. Those that non evangelical branches of Christianity still talk about. You have all these traditions and tales about them and what they did and all of that. Children are taught about the lives of the saints and sermons use them as examples. Yet for some reason we don't. On one hand I can understand this because of the overemphasis that they have received from certain people, where respect and reverence for those who led exceptionally holy lives turns into obsessiveness and in some cases idolatry, with them taking precedence over God. Yet on the other hand I wonder if we do not take an similarly extreme stance. I definitely know evangelicals who scowl whenever St. something-or-other is mentioned, like if they were satan's accomplices in leading people to the very gates of hell. Now I already agreed that an erroneous view of saints can lead people astray, but I do not think that it is any fault of the dead Christian anymore than the element Gold is responsible for people's greed. In fact we could do with some more tales of saints and martyrs in the more evangelical traditions. Because in a way our reasoning is a bit skewed since we will talk of the great missionaries of the past or other great believers yet fear mentioning St. Francis of Assisi lest we be branded as papists.
Yet while St. Francis (lets continue with him as an example shall we?) is generally celebrated in the Roman Catholic tradition, he himself cannot be accurately called Roman Catholic in the modern sense because there was no such thing as Protestantism. I find it so ridiculous the way that some protestants act like the real Christians have existed from the time of Christ until the fall of Rome and then reappeared after the reformation, acting like if in the dark ages there were no Christians because the only ones around were papists.
Another thing that I have seen people hold against the Saints of old is the stories attributed to them. Granted that in the middle ages deeds were likely to get distorted by legend and tradition (heck just listen to some of the tales about kings) but I think it is erroneous to throw out all their stories and miracles just because they sound outlandish and supernatural. I know Christians that have no problem recounting tales of miraculous events that happened at a prayer meeting or mission trip that would never believe St. so and so's staff bloomed as he was martyred or that he fed a village with a loaf of bread, or that he healed people all over the countryside. If God can empower Christians today to perform miracles, then why not 700 years ago?
I dunno, just my thoughts. I just hate to see good people vilified, which undoubtedly many of the saints were. They must have done something to be remembered by millions of people hundreds of years later. I'm not saying we have to accept them all with glee, many saints were cannonized or made up to be propaganda for the ruling organized religion of the day. I mean Santiago Matamoros (St. James the Moor Slayer... an embarrassing Spanish favorite) probably isn't one of those we all want to emulate, and is obviously a political creation. But there are many saints whose stories are inspiring and worth appreciation... St. Francis, Mother Theresa, Teresa of Avila, Anthony of Padua, St. Clare... There is much that we could learn from these people.
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Manny Jr said...
Excellent conclusions! I completely agree. The Christians today are not any more religious and have more Bible than the Christians who lived before the Reformation. On the contrary, St. Augustine, Anselm, Arius, Nestorius and others while they don't align in some theologies they were devout Christians who were incredible scholars of the Word. I believe they just interpreted the Bible differently much of the time, but I think they believed they were doing the right thing.
5:41 PM
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Jenn said...
You missed my favorite: St. John of the Cross. I've always had a love/hate relationship with the saints. There is so much beauty in their lives, but the distortion does bother me. Yet, the stories of their lives, no matter how exaggerated, have something to tell us, right?
5:56 AM
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Ryan said...
The virgin mary is another one that has suffered distortion but also protestant backlash... we treat her like a criminal almost. "Bad virgin mary! Bad!" She is fine as long as she stays in the gospels. If we try to think of what she can show us then we are worshiping her. I mean, lets face it, she must have been pretty damn extraordinary for God to point her out as 'blessed are you among women'.
6:13 AM
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kenaka said...
First of all, it's an interesting observation and the revering (in a non-deist way) of saints is good. I find it curious that you would talk so negatively about evangelicals on this aspect considering the kind of teaching that goes on in your old church (Amistad). I can't count the times Flores or Antonio or José Luis , even your mom every once in a while (no, not Manuel, jeje) would use references from St. Augustine or whoever's life. I don't think the "anti-saintness" is as harsh as you paint it, at least not in the Christians that surround me... In fact, in Spain the reactionary element in the Evangelical church is quite logical (dude, the hail virgin things are wacko, some would say satanic with the KKK costumes).
Secondly, I agree on your point of being careful what saint should be revered, the founder of Opus Dei, now cannonized, keeps coming to mind, if anyone is to pray against people becoming an official "Saint", now is the time.
11:09 AM
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Jenn said...
Ryan, you said: "She is fine as long as she stays in the gospels. If we try to think of what she can show us then we are worshiping her."
I'm not sure what you mean by that. Mary has all kinds of things to show us. She just does so very briefly. After all, she was an incredibly brave woman, who went against her entire culture because she had a spiritual encounter she couldn't ignore. I don't believe she's on the same level with Christ at all, but she is a woman of God and a saint. Her spiritual walk can teach us just like your spiritual walk can teach me.
Please explain.
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Ryan said...
Jenn: what I mean is that I have seen so many people that are so nervous about revering mary in the wrong way that they just keep her in the christmas story and in a couple other bible stories, unwilling to even acknowledge her as a model to emulate and learn from lest they become marianists.
Kenny: I have no way of knowing what attitude Amistad has in regards to this topic since I have not been there reguarly in 4 years. It certainly did not make many references to saints when I was growing up. It is also admissable to say that my perception of evangelicalism has been a bit skewed or lopsided by some of what I experienced in ECA, but only to a cetain extent. Yes, you are also right to point out my secondary bias because of the nature of the evangelical churhc in Spain that has reacted (out of necessity I think) so strongly against the traditions of a very lost spanish catholic church (for the most part). Also it is worth agreeing with you in saying that yes, evangelicals do make reference to many of the early church saints quite often, especially the dogmatic ones like Augustine. But you'll be hard pressed to hear them speak of many later ones.
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