The Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches have thousands of Saints, 10,000 according to Wiki.
It is ridiculous. They have no power, they are no more than regular humans ‘deemed’ by a Pope to be special somehow. There is nothing biblical about that.
In reality they are more like old testament Prophets, ordinary, flawed humans used by God for a purpose.
Yep. That is exactly right.
Catholics debunked these “prophesies” hundreds of years ago.
Try to keep up y’all.
Don’t blame Catholics for the St. Malachy idiocy.
1. Yes, there was a St. Malachy, but the prophecies attributed to him showed up five centuries after his death.
2. For a couple more centuries, there was no mention of Peter the Roman, merely a list of descriptive titles of popes.
3. Nothing in the list of popes suggests it is a complete list of every pope to come, except the spurious addition of Peter the Roman.
4. Even if Peter the Roman were authentic, nothing in the wording precludes a very long list of unmentioned popes between the Glory of the Olives and Peter the Roman.
5. Oddly, the legend of St. Malachy was hyped in the past decade by anti-Catholics who inverted the meaning of Peter the Roman into some sort of anti-Christ figure, as if “persecution of the Church” meant “persecution of the Church,” and “shepherding his flock” could somehow be evil.
Don’t blame Catholics for the St. Malachy idiocy.
1. Yes, there was a St. Malachy, but the prophecies attributed to him showed up five centuries after his death.
2. For a couple more centuries, there was no mention of Peter the Roman, merely a list of descriptive titles of popes.
3. Nothing in the list of popes suggests it is a complete list of every pope to come, except the spurious addition of Peter the Roman.
4. Even if Peter the Roman were authentic, nothing in the wording precludes a very long list of unmentioned popes between the Glory of the Olives and Peter the Roman.
5. Oddly, the legend of St. Malachy was hyped in the past decade by anti-Catholics who inverted the meaning of Peter the Roman into some sort of anti-Christ figure, as if “persecution of the Church” meant “persecution by the Church,” and “shepherding his flock” could somehow be evil.
You should be happy to know that the Catholic Church ascribes no special power to someone being made a Saint, although some Saints certainly have had miracles attributed them as a part of private revelation.
(Private revelation is never binding for any Catholic to believe in, as opposed to public revelation which consists of that which was handed down to us from the apostles, including the Scriptures, and whose tests of authenticity includes being in accord with the Scriptures.)
Catholics believe that since the souls of the justified do not perish, it is fitting to ask people, living or deceased, to join them in prayer. However, there is a grave danger in asking the deceased to pray with you, for you do not know whether the deceased is in Heaven or Hell, and you always want to be certain that the will of the one you pray with is always in accord with Christ. Therefore, there are certain souls whom the Church has found to be safe to pray with, for it is certain that they are in Heaven and that their wills have been sanctified to be in perfect accord with Christ. These are the firstfruits, whom the Book of Revelations clearly depicts as viewing the events on Earth below, praying to God, and offering up the prayers of the faithful below as incense before God.
Those Saints who have been formally recognized as Saints are by no means anywhere near an exhaustive list of all those who have become saints, merely the ones that the Church is certain have become saints.
Ridiculous and unbiblical to you perhaps. But not for Catholics. At Mass we unite with those who have preceded us to Heaven (whom we call saints or the Church Triumphant) and with the angels to adore the Most Holy Trinity. We don't consider saints to have special powers but to have been redeemed and sanctified by Christ.
For us the Mass is just what Hebrews 12:22-24 says: "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel."
For us the Mass is truly a meeting of heaven and earth, a time of unity with those who preceded us in the faith. And this is why we aren't tempted to worship angels or saints despite numerous accusations to the contrary. We worship God in union with them NOT in addition to him.
Peace be with you.