Saints have several roles in Christianity: they are examples of faithful living, members of the community Christians remember in worship and, in Catholic and Orthodox belief, people whose prayers may be sought. These roles are related, but they are not identical. Christians can honour a person’s example while disagreeing about whether to ask that person’s intercession.
The word “saint” also has more than one use. It can refer broadly to people made holy in Christ, or more specifically to deceased people whom a church recognises for particular holiness. Distinguishing those meanings helps explain both shared Christian beliefs and differences among churches.
“Saints” in the New Testament includes living believers
Paul addresses the congregation in 1 Corinthians 1:2 as people sanctified in Christ and called to be saints. He is not writing only to a small group who have completed a formal recognition process. The language concerns the community’s relationship with Christ and its calling.
This broad meaning remains important even in churches that also recognise particular saints. Holiness is not understood simply as a professional achievement available only to clergy or extraordinary religious figures. The specific ways churches speak about holy people differ, but “saint” does not always mean “a person officially canonised by the pope.” That latter description belongs to a particular ecclesial process, not every biblical occurrence of the word.
Saints offer examples of Christian life
Remembering saints gives abstract virtues a human setting. Courage, generosity or perseverance become questions about what someone did and how they treated other people. Different lives can illustrate different forms of service; not every saint was a martyr, missionary or member of a religious order.
A biblical example is Tabitha, also called Dorcas. Acts 9:36–42 describes her good works and assistance to others. When Peter arrives after her death, widows show him garments she made. The narrative goes on to recount her restoration to life, but it has already made her ordinary service visible. Her importance is not explained only by a spectacular event: the grieving community remembers practical care.
Catholic teaching: communion and intercession
In Catholic belief, the Church’s communion is not broken by death. Lumen Gentium, sections 49–50, describes those in heaven as united with Christ and interceding for others. Saints also encourage the living through the example of their lives.
Asking a saint’s prayer is therefore understood within communion with Christ, rather than as an appeal to a rival deity. Catholic teaching presents Christ as the mediator through whom that communion exists. A prayer asking for a saint’s intercession does not, within this account, give the saint independent divine power.
The same distinction helps explain Marian devotion. Sections 66–67 distinguish the honour given to Mary from adoration of God and connect devotion with love of Christ and imitation of virtue. These are Catholic explanations of the practice. Other Christians may understand the intention while still disagreeing with its scriptural or theological justification.
How Catholic recognition of saints works
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ explanation distinguishes the stages associated with a cause for sainthood. Investigation concerns the person’s life and writings, including heroic virtue, martyrdom or the offering of life. “Venerable,” “Blessed” and “Saint” identify different recognised stages.
Miracles attributed to intercession normally form part of the process, with different provisions for martyrs and possible waivers. It is misleading to reduce every case to an unvarying numerical rule. The bishops’ account also recognises that early Christian commemoration developed before the modern canonical process.
Canonisation is the Church’s formal recognition of a person as a saint for universal veneration. It does not mean that no other person is in heaven. Nor should a devotional biography be treated as proof that every anecdote later told about the person has equal historical support.
Orthodox recognition and glorification
The Orthodox Church also honours saints and seeks their prayers, but its processes should not be described simply as Roman Catholic procedures under another name. An Orthodox Church in America account by Joseph Frawley explains glorification as recognition of holiness already manifested through God’s grace.
The account discusses local veneration, examination by church authorities and formal recognition by the Holy Synod. It does not make a fixed number of miracles an absolute requirement for Orthodox recognition. The recognised saint’s name enters the calendar, and other Orthodox churches are notified. In this explanation the Church does not create holiness by taking a vote: it recognises what it believes God has done in a person’s life.
Protestant remembrance does not always include invocation
Many Protestants distinguish remembering saints from praying to them. The Lutheran Augsburg Confession, Article XXI, allows the saints’ memory to be placed before believers as an example of faith and good works. It rejects invocation, arguing that Scripture directs prayer to Christ as mediator and intercessor.
This is not the same as saying that Protestant Christians have no interest in earlier Christians or no language of sainthood. It is a disagreement over the appropriate religious response to them. The shared act of honouring an example should not hide the real difference about prayer.
Commemoration can also be communal and personal. United Methodist Communications’ account of All Saints Day describes churches remembering deceased loved ones through practices such as lighting candles. A service of remembrance can express gratitude for people who shaped a congregation without adopting the Catholic canonisation process.
Images and biographies need thoughtful interpretation
Paintings, statues and icons make saints recognisable through visual forms. Catholic Catechism 2132 distinguishes respect for a person represented by an image from the adoration owed to God. Within that teaching, the image is not itself a god.
Biographies likewise need attention to what they claim and which sources support them. The Vatican’s account of Josephine Bakhita identifies her as a Sudanese woman who survived kidnapping and slavery, became a Catholic religious sister and died in Italy in 1947. It describes years of service within the Canossian community. Her story provides a concrete example of a remembered life; it should not become a general claim that suffering or enslavement was good or necessary.
Conclusion
Saints connect Christian faith with remembered lives, practical examples and the idea of a community that extends across generations. Catholic and Orthodox churches also understand them as intercessors, while many Protestant traditions honour their memory without invoking them.
Understanding these distinctions makes the subject clearer. Biblical sainthood, formal church recognition, personal devotion and historical biography overlap, but each asks a different question. Attention to those differences allows Christians’ shared respect for faithful lives to be explained without erasing their disagreements about prayer and authority.
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