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Misc.
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Saints (Topic Page)
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"The saints should be counted among your
best friends."
"You
have only one chance to become a saint."
"God, the Blessed Virgin, the angels and
saints are about our path; they are at our side and see all we
do." (St. John Vianney)
"If we possessed a real penetrating faith
like the saints we should see our Lord like they did." (St.
John Vianney)
"The saints were only sanctified by their
great care to follow the inspirations God sent them." (St.
John Vianney)
"The heart of the saints is as steadfast as
a rock in the midst of the sea." (St. John Vianney)
"[A]s
they served Him, so also He will serve them." (St.
Theophylact)
"The
greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are not the ministers but the
saints." (Pope Paul VI)
"Come
let us adore the Lord, the King of kings, for He is the crown of
all the saints." (Invitatory)
"How
true it is that there is no glory here on earth which can bear
comparison with that of the saints!" (Dom Gueranger)
"The life of a saint is just the imitation
of Jesus Christ." (St. John Vianney)
"The saints have buried themselves alive in
this life, that, after death, they may not find themselves buried
in Hell for eternity." (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the
Church)
"We depict Christ as our King and Lord, and we
do not strip Him of His army. For the saints are the Lord's
army." (St. John of Damascus, Doctor of the Church)
"Sanctity
alone merits crowns that endure through all ages of time and for
all eternity; for God is the final awarder." (Liturgical
Year)
"Let
all our earnest desires tend to this: that we may be united with
the saints, that together with them we may possess Christ."
(St. Cyprian)
"Oh!
How glorious is the kingdom, where all the saints rejoice with
Christ; clothed in white robes, they follow the Lamb whithersoever
he goeth!" (Antiphon)
"If the saints were asked: 'Why are you in
heaven?', they would answer: 'For having listened to the Holy
Spirit.'" (St. John Vianney)
"The
saints in heaven resemble the angels as to their share of glory,
but not as to the conditions of their nature" (St. Thomas
Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the
history of the Church")
"Let
us recollect that the saints were not of a more excellent nature
than ours, but were more orderly and regular: that they were not
exempt from sins, but that they took pains to correct their
faults." (St. Ambrose, Doctor of the Church)
"[I]n
the future coming the Saints will have complete rest; for here
they have not rest for the body, but there together with their
souls their spiritual bodies partaking of immortality will rejoice
in perfect rest." (St. Theophylact)
"Glory
be to thee, O good Jesus, both now and for ever; for thou
faithfully assistest them that fight the good fight, and rewardest
the valiant victor with a crown." (Fourteenth Century Hymn)
"We
understand it simply, that every saint who is already with the Lord
is greater than he who yet stands in the battle; for it is one
thing to have gained the crown of victory, another to be yet
fighting in the field." (St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church)
"[T]he difference between the character she
[the Church] produces in her saints and the character of the
noblest of those who do not submit to her is one of kind and not
merely of degree." (Benson)
"The
bodies of the saints will therefore rise again free from every
defect, from every deformity, and from every corruption,
encumbrance, or hindrance. In this way their freedom of action will be as complete as their happiness."
(St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
"The saints in Heaven love God perfectly.
In what, I ask, does the perfection of their love consist? It
consists in an entire conformity to the divine will... The
accomplishment of the divine will has been the sole end of the
saints in the practice of all virtues." (St. Alphonsus
Liguori, Doctor of the Church)
"Blessed are all your saints, my God and
King! Who have through travail and in peace of soul all traveled
within the ship with you, the tempestuous sea of mortality, and
have, at last, made the desired port of peace and of
felicity!" (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
"It is much more acceptable to God for a
man to think of the greatness of his own sins, and how little he
is advanced in virtue, and at how great a distance he is from the
perfection of the saints, than to dispute which of them is greater
or less." (Kempis)
"Hence
it belongs to piety to honor the saints, and not to contradict the
Scriptures whether one understands them or not, as Augustine says
(De Doctrina Christiana ii" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of
the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the
Church")
"The
saints have been traditionally honored in the Church, and their
authentic relics and images held in veneration. For the feasts of
the saints proclaim the wonderful works of Christ in his servants
and offer to the faithful fitting examples for their
imitation." (Second Vatican Council)
"Many,
who on hearing or reading the favors gratuitously granted to
saintly souls are excited to a feeling of holy envy, would shrink
back with dismay if they were told of the trials they had to go
through before gaining such mystic ascensions." (Liturgical
Year)
"But
where did the saints find the courage and constancy to overcome
themselves, to despise the world, renounce its pleasures and
amusements, and endure heroically all the troubles and trials of
this life? It was in the study of Jesus Christ crucified." (Muller)
"All
the efforts, all the works and merits of the saints must be
attributed to the praise and glory of God, because no one can
please God with anything that is not His very own gift...all good
things must be attributed to the source from which they
proceed" (Indiculus, c. 435 - 442)
"Would
that at the present day there were many more who cultivated these
virtues as did the saints of former times, who by their humility,
their obedience, their abstinence, were mighty in work and word,
to the great benefit not only of religion but also of public and
civil life." (Pope Leo XIII)
"Jesus is in the Church as the first
fountain of grace; the Blessed Virgin is there as the channel
through which graces are given to the faithful. The Saints are the
streams which contain each one its portion of this same grace. All
graces are in the fountain as their prime source." (St. John
Eudes)
"The saints have no need of honor from us;
neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is
theirs. Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not
them. But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed
by tremendous yearning." (St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of
the Church)
"It is of the saints that Scripture says:
'The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and the torment
of death shall not touch them' (Wis. 3:11). In fact, their death
is more like dreaming than dying. God is life and light, and those
who are in the hand of God are themselves life and light."
(St. John of Damascus, Doctor of the Church)
"In
that He says that the bundles of tares are to be cast into the
fire (Mt. 13:30), and the wheat gathered into barns, it is clear
that heretics also and hypocrites are to be consumed in the fires
of hell, while the saints who are here represented by the wheat
are received into the barns, that is into heavenly mansions."
(St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church)
"For
all men of every condition, in whatever honorable walk of life
they may be, can and ought to imitate that most perfect example of
holiness placed before man by God, namely Christ Our Lord, and by
God's grace to arrive at the summit of perfection, as is proved by
the example set us of many saints." (Pope Pius XI, "Casti
Connubii", 1930 A.D.)
"...we worship and adore the Creator and
Maker alone, as God who by His nature is to be worshipped. We
worship [that is give great honor] also to the Holy Mother of God,
not as God, but as God's mother according to the flesh. Moreover
we worship [honor] also the saints, as elect friends of God, and as having
gotten ready audience with Him." (St. John of Damascene,
Doctor of the Church, c. 8th century A.D.)
"The prophets also do we love, because they
too have announced the gospel; and they hoped in Him and awaited
Him. In Him and by their faith in Him they were saved, being united to Jesus Christ. They are saints worthy of love and worthy
of admiration, approved by Jesus Christ and numbered together in
the gospel of the common hope." (St. Ignatius of Antioch, c. 110 A.D.)
"Let
us, children of the Church, love and practice devotion to the
saints, and remember how God, who demands our homage, requires us
to pay that portion of it which consists in honoring Him in those
whom He has crowned. Now the first homage which we ought to pay to
God in His saints is, to study to know them. One of the evils of
our times is, that the saints are not sufficiently known"
(Dom Gueranger)
"Gregory
argues as follows (Dialogorum iv,25): 'If there is no doubt
that Christ is in heaven, it cannot be denied that Paul's soul is
in heaven likewise.' Now it cannot be gainsaid that Christ is
in heaven, since this is an article of faith. Therefore neither is
it to be denied that the souls of the saints are borne to
heaven." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and
"greatest theologian in the history of the Church")
"[T]here
are certain goods which man cannot ill use, because they cannot
have an evil result. Such are those which are the object of
beatitude and whereby we merit it: and these the saints seek
absolutely when they pray, as in Psalm 80:3, 'Show us Thy
face, and we shall be saved,' and again in Psalm 119:35, 'Lead me into the path of Thy commandments.'" (St.
Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian
in the history of the Church")
"These
are they whom the world in its folly abhorred; while they, the
faithful followers of thy name, O Jesus, merciful King of the
heavenly citizens, despised the world as barren and devoid of
fruits and flowers. For thy sake they scorned the rage of men,
their savage threats and cruel stripes: the fiercely rending hook,
vanquished by their courage, left the brave heart untouched."
(Liturgical Year, Hymn)
"Because
that life eternal shall be equal to all the saints, a denarius is
given to all (Mt. 20); but forasmuch as in that life eternal the
light of merits shall shine diversely, there are with the Father
many mansions; so that under this same denarius bestowed unequally
one shall not live longer than another, but in the many mansions
one shall shine with more splendor than another." (St.
Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
"He
who pretends to admire the good works of a saint must at the same
time admire the homage and love due to
God. Therefore either
imitate that which you praise or do not permit yourself to praise
that which you do not care to imitate. He who admires the good
works of the saints must also distinguish himself by the holiness
of his own life." (Roman Breviary, 7th of November, Lesson IV)
"Can.
1186 To foster the sanctification of the people of God, the Church
commends to the special and filial veneration of Christ's faithful
the Blessed Mary ever-Virgin, the Mother of God, whom Christ
constituted the Mother of all. The Church also promotes the true
and authentic cult of the other Saints, by whose example the
faithful are edified and by whose intercession they are
supported." (1983 Code of Canon Law)
"Can.
1278 Likewise laudably, those things being observed that ought to
be observed, there should be selected Saints for nations,
dioceses, provinces, confraternities, and other religious families
and moral persons and places so that, with assenting confirmation
of the Apostolic See, they are constituted patrons; but not so
with Blesseds without a special indult for same from the Apostolic
See." (1917 Code of Canon Law)
"Can.
1277 § 1 It is licit to venerate with public cult only those
Servants of God who are listed by the authority of the Church
among the Saints or Blesseds. § 2 The cult of dulia is owed [to
those] canonically listed in the book of the Saints; listed Saints
can [have this dulia] everywhere and by any cultic acts of this
sort; but Blesseds cannot [have this] except in the place and
manner that the Roman Pontiff grants." (1917 Code of Canon
Law)
"Can.
1255 § 1 To the most Holy Trinity and to each of its Persons
[and] to Christ the Lord, even under the sacramental species,
there is owed the worship of latria; to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
the cult of hyperdulia; and to the others reigning with Christ in
heaven, the cult of dulia. § 2 Also to sacred relics and images
there is a veneration and a cult owed to the respective persons to
whom the images and relics refer." (1917 Code of Canon Law)
"The
Church is most successful in this work of sanctification when it
is possible for her, through the mercy of God, to hold up to the
imitation of the faithful one or other of her dearest children who
has made himself conspicuous by the practice of every virtue. This
work of sanctification is of the very genius of the Church, since
she was made by Christ, her Founder, not only holy herself but the
source of holiness in others." (Pope Pius XI, "Rerum Omnium
Perturbationem", 1923 A.D.)
"Although it is the custom of
the Church occasionally to celebrate some Masses in honor and in
memory of the saints the Church teaches that sacrifice is offered
not to the saints, but to God alone who has given them their
crown. Therefore, 'the priest does not say: 'I offer this
sacrifice [of the Mass] to you, Peter and Paul', but giving thanks to God
for the victories of the saints, the priest implores their help
that they may pray for us in heaven, while we remember them on
earth." (Council of Trent)
"To
every age has He been made manifest to us as obedient even unto
death; in every age the apostle's dictum has its force: 'Those who
are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its vices and
concupiscences.' Would to God that more nowadays practiced these
virtues in the degree of the saints of past times, who in
humility, obedience and self-restraint were powerful 'in word and
in deed' - to the great advantage not only of religion, but of the
state and the public welfare." (Pope Leo XIII, "Testem
Benevolentiae Nostrae", 1899 A.D.)
"Gregory
proposes and solves this very difficulty (Dialogorum iv,25): 'If then,' he says,
'the souls of the just are in
heaven now, what will they receive in reward for their justice on
the judgment day?' And he answers: 'Surely it will be a
gain to them at the judgment, that whereas now they enjoy only the
happiness of the soul, afterwards they will enjoy also that of the
body, so as to rejoice also in the flesh wherein they bore sorrow
and torments for the Lord.'" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor
of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the
Church")
"When
we read the lives of the saints, and find that persons who were in
the ordinary walks of life practiced extraordinary virtues, we are
inclined to think that they were not exposed to great temptations, or that
the misfortunes they met up with in the world made them give
themselves up unreservedly to God's service. Such interpretations
of the actions of the saints are shallow and false, for they
ignore this great fact, that there is no condition or state,
however humble, in which man has not to combat the evil
inclinations of his heart, and that corrupt nature alone is strong
enough to lead him into sin." (Dom Gueranger)
"Many
measuring the commandments of God by their own weakness, not by
the strength of the saints, hold these commands for impossible,
and say that it is virtue enough not to hate our enemies; but to
love them is a command beyond human nature to obey. But it must be
understood that Christ enjoins not impossibilities but perfection.
Such was the temper of David towards Saul and Absalom; the Martyr
Stephen also prayed for his enemies while they stoned him, and
Paul wished himself anathema for the sake of his persecutors.
Jesus both taught and did the same, saying, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do." (St. Jerome, Doctor of the
Church)
"What good, then, am I doing in that I do
not consent to wicked concupiscence? I do good, and I do not
perfect the good; and my enemy, concupiscence, does evil, and it
does not perfect the evil. How do I do good, and not perfect the
good? I do good when I do not consent to wicked concupiscence;
but I do not perfect the good, so as to be entirely without
concupiscence. Again, therefore, how does my enemy do evil, and
yet not perfect the evil. He does evil because he moves me to
evil desire; but he does not perfect the evil because he does not
drag me to the evil. And the whole life of the saints is involved in
that war." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, c. 5th century A.D.)
"Or;
The Master of the household, that is, our Maker, has a vineyard,
that is, the Church universal, which has borne so many stocks, as
many saints as it has put forth from righteous Abel to the very
last saint who shall be born in the end of the world. To instruct
this His people as for the dressing of a vineyard, the Lord has
never ceased to send out His laborers; first by the Patriarchs,
next by the teachers of the Law, then by the Prophets, and at the
last by the Apostles, He has toiled in the cultivation of His
vineyard; though every man, in whatsoever measure or degree he has
joined good action with right faith, has been a laborer in the
vineyard." (St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Doctor of the Church)
"That
we with equal zeal may tread the footprints of the saints, the
Church proposes to our contemplation their life and actions. She
offers us the rose, the violet, and the lily: emblems of the
triple way leading to the heavenly reward. The rose by its ruby
color signifies the martyrs; the violet's purple flower the
confessors. The lily proclaims the lover of virginity: by these
three ways, then, must we follow our God. Let true patience make
us suffer as martyrs; and by continual abstinence let us be
confessors. May constant purity preserve us virgins; but if any
have fallen, courageous continence will save them. May the saints,
whose feast we celebrate, come to our assistance; that by their
intercession we may be enabled to attain the heights of heaven.
Amen." (Sequence)
"We
have lauded this affectionate solicitude for the people and
declared it to be the special duty of both the secular and regular
clergy. But in the fulfillment of this obligation let there be the
greatest caution and prudence exerted, and let it be done after
the fashion of the saints. Francis, who was poor and humble,
Vincent of Paul, the father of the afflicted classes, and very
many others whom the Church keeps ever in her memory were wont to
lavish their care upon the people, but in such wise as not to be
engrossed overmuch or to be unmindful of themselves or to let it
prevent them from laboring with the same assiduity in the
perfection of their own soul and the cultivation of virtue."
(Pope Leo XIII, "Graves De Communi Re", 1901 A.D.)
"The
Faithful should, therefore, understand that the Church keeps an
official register of the actions, and maximums, and virtues of the
saints, who are her glory; there she has chronicled, through all
these [many centuries], the wonders which God has wrought in them and by
them, and the blessings she has received through their
intercession. This admirable history of the saints is known under
the name of 'the Legends of the Breviary'; a history which the
Church is ever writing, for God is ever adding to the number of
His saints: a history which the learned admire for its great
beauty of style, and in which the children of the Church find that
unction which has such power over the heart, and which the
Catholic Church alone can put into human language." (Dom
Gueranger)
"How
consoling it is to see a just man die! His death is good, because
it ends his miseries; it is better still, because he begins a new
life; it is excellent, because it places him in sweet security.
From this bed of mourning, whereon he leaves a precious load of
virtues, he goes to take possession of the true land of the
living, Jesus acknowledges him as His brother and as His friend,
for he has died to the world before closing his eyes from its
dazzling light. Such is the death of the saints, a death very
precious in the sight of God. But, on the other hand, see how
shocking is the death of the wicked. The least evil is the loss of
all the good things of this world; the separation of body and soul
is more dreadful still, but the worst of all is the devouring
flame, the gnawing worm that never dies." (St. Bernard,
Doctor of the Church)
"For
the Communion of Saints, as everyone knows, is nothing but the
mutual communication of help, expiation, prayers, blessings, among
all the faithful, who, whether they have already attained to the
heavenly country, or are detained in the purgatorial fire, or are
yet exiles here on earth, all enjoy the common franchise of that
city whereof Christ is the head, and the constitution is charity.
For faith teaches us, that although the venerable [Eucharistic]
Sacrifice may be lawfully offered to God alone, yet it may be
celebrated in honor of the saints reigning in heaven with God Who
has crowned them, in order that we may gain for ourselves their
patronage. And it may also be offered - in accordance with an
apostolic tradition - for the purpose of expiating the sins of
those of the brethren who, having died in the Lord, have not yet
fully paid the penalty of their transgressions." (Pope Leo
XIII, "Mirae Caritatis", 1902 A.D.)
"True
miracles cannot be wrought save by the power of God, because God
works them for man's benefit, and this in two ways: in one way for
the confirmation of truth declared, in another way in proof of a
person's holiness, which God desires to propose as an example of
virtue... In the second way miracles are not wrought except by the
saints, since it is in proof of their holiness that miracles are
wrought during their lifetime or after death, either by themselves
or by others. For we read (Acts 19:11,12) that 'God wrought
by the hand of Paul... miracles' and 'even there were
brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs... and the
diseases departed from them.' In this way indeed there is
nothing to prevent a sinner from working miracles by invoking a
saint; but the miracle is ascribed not to him, but to the one in
proof of whose holiness such things are done." (St. Thomas
Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the
history of the Church")
"Penance
then is, as it were, a salutary weapon placed in the hands of the
valiant soldiers of Christ, who wish to fight for the defense and
restoration of the moral order in the universe. It is a weapon
that strikes right at the root of all evil, that is at the lust of
material wealth and the wanton pleasures of life. By means of
voluntary sacrifices, by means of practical and even painful acts
of self-denial, by means of various works of penance, the
noble-hearted Christian subdues the base passions that tend to
make him violate the moral order. But if zeal for the divine law
and brotherly love are as great in him as they should be, then not
only does he practice penance for himself and his own sins, but he
takes upon himself the expiation of the sins of others, imitating
the Saints who often heroically made themselves victims of
reparation for the sins of whole generations, imitating even the
divine Redeemer, who became the Lamb of God 'who taketh away the
sins of the world' (lo. i. 29)." (Pope Pius XI, "Caritate
Christi Compulsi", 1932 A.D.)
"Yet
the Lord bids us pray for our persecutors... Stephen prays for
those that stoned him, because they had not yet believed in
Christ; but the Apostle Paul does not pray for Alexander though he
was a brother, but had sinned by attacking the brotherhood through
jealousy. But for whom you pray not, you do not therein pray
against him. What must we say then of those against whom we know
that the saints have prayed, and that not that they should be
corrected (for that would be rather to have prayed for them), but
for their eternal damnation; not as that prayer of the Prophet
against the Lord's betrayer, for that is a prophecy of the future,
not an imprecation of punishment; but as when we read in the
Apocalypse the Martyrs' prayer that they may be avenged. But we
ought not to let this affect us. For who may dare to affirm that
they prayed against those persons themselves, and not against the
kingdom of sin? For that would be both a just and a merciful
avenging of the Martyrs, to overthrow that kingdom of sin, under
the continuance of which they endured all those evils. And it is
overthrown by correction of some, and damnation of such as abide
in sin. Does not Paul seem to you to have avenged Stephen on his
on his own body, as he speaks, I chastise my body, and bring it
into subjection." (St. Isidore of Seville, Doctor of the
Church)
"In
the course of the liturgical year, besides the mysteries of Jesus
Christ, the feasts of the saints are celebrated. Even though these
feasts are of a lower and subordinate order, the Church always
strives to put before the faithful examples of sanctity in order
to move them to cultivate in themselves the virtues of the divine
Redeemer. We should imitate the virtues of the saints just as they
imitated Christ, for in their virtues there shines forth under
different aspects the splendor of Jesus Christ. Among some of
these saints the zeal of the apostolate stood out, in others
courage prevailed even to the shedding of blood, constant
vigilance marked others out as they kept watch for the divine
Redeemer, while in others the virginal purity of soul was
resplendent and their modesty revealed the beauty of Christian
humility; there burned in all of them the fire of charity towards
God and their neighbor. The sacred liturgy puts all these gems of
sanctity before us so that we may consider them for our salvation,
and 'rejoicing at their merits, we may be inflamed by their
example.' It is necessary, then, to practice 'in simplicity
innocence, in charity concord, in humility modesty, diligence in
government, readiness in helping those who labor, mercy in serving
the poor, in defending truth constancy, in the strict maintenance
of discipline justice, so that nothing may be wanting in us of the
virtues which have been proposed for our imitation. These are the
footprints left by the saints in their journey homeward, that
guided by them we might follow them into glory.' In order that we
may be helped by our senses, also, the Church wishes that images
of the saints be displayed in our churches, always, however, with
the same intention 'that we imitate the virtues of those whose
images we venerate.' But there is another reason why the Christian
people should honor the saints in heaven, namely, to implore their
help and 'that we be aided by the pleadings of those whose praise
is our delight.' Hence, it is easy to understand why the sacred
liturgy provides us with many different prayers to invoke the
intercession of the saints." (Pope Pius XII, "Mediator
Dei", 1947 A.D.)
Also
See: Saint
Facts | Honoring
& Intercession of the Saints | Prayers
to Saints / Prayers in Honor of the Saints | Prayers
of the Saints
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