From the Pastor’s Desk:

During the first two weeks of August almost every day is a memorial to a saint. What does that mean and what role do saints play within the Catholic Church. In the Catholic and several other Christian faith traditions, a saint is seen as a holy person who was/is known for his or her sanctity and who is believed to be in heaven. Pope John XV in the 10th century formalized a process establishing the identification of saints. During the first 900 years of the Church from the time of the apostles, saints were largely declared because of martyrdom or by public acclaim. There are more than 10,000 saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, although the names and histories of many of these holy men and women and youth have been lost to history. The saints include martyrs, kings and queens, missionaries, theologians, men and women, parents, nuns and priests, young people, everyday people who dedicated their lives to the loving pursuit of God. Many people have found inspiration from their lives, especially saints who devoted themselves in service to the poor, sick and outcasts of society. Examples of these saints include St. Vincent de Paul and St. Mother Teresa. Within the ranks of those who died for their faith would begin with the first martyr, St. Stephen and St. Joan of Arc, both who showed forgiveness through their trials and tortures. St. Francis of Assisi and St. Therese of Lisieux are revered for their simplicity and humility. Among the great thinkers, theologians of the church are St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas who shaped the Church, but also Western civilization and thought for centuries. With all of that said, Catholics venerate the saints and look to them as examples of lives lived in the faith. They were men and women who have shared our same struggles, sins, doubts, hardship and through prayer and intercession persevered in their struggle to follow Christ. Some saints are upheld by the Church as patrons of certain occupations or causes and are many times invoked to aid people in those professions or situations. The saints listed on the Church calendar are many times observed by the Church on a special day in their lives, perhaps the day of martyrdom or the day they were born. The different types of liturgical celebrations within the Catholic Church are solemnities, feast days and memorial days. Solemnity is a celebration of the greatest importance and it begins on the evening before the actual day with evening prayer. A feast day is celebrated only on that day and the Gloria is prayed but not the Creed. Memorials are a lower -ranked feast day and are either obligatory or optional. Only the memorials of those saints who are of universal significance are observed by the whole Church. A priest may choose to celebrate the memorial mass in the honor of that saint or not.