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To: Redleg Duke
Bogus list...

From the site:

Can you tell me how many saints there are?

That is a difficult question to answer. In the first eight or nine centuries there was no formal process of canonization. People were recognized as saints because of a kind of popular acclamation. People were believed to be saints because they had been martyred for the faith or they had lived very holy lives. Often their graves became places of pilgrimage and prayer. We have no idea of how many people’s holiness was not recognized. That is one reason why we have the Feast of All Saints.

Sometimes the recognition of holiness was particular to an area or community. Sometimes the reputation for sanctity spread beyond national borders.

It was not until 993 that the first official canonization took place. It was then that Pope John XV declared Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg a saint.

The original edition of Butler’s Lives of the Saints, published between 1756 and 1759, had 1,486 entries. The 1956 revision contained 2,565.

Butler’s Lives is now undergoing another revision. Since not all the new volumes have yet been published, I cannot tell you how many biographies or saints will be listed.

In any case I doubt that anyone will claim it is a complete and exhaustive listing of all the saints or people who are claimed to have been saints.

There is also under way a revision of the Roman Martyrology by the Congregation for Divine Worship. The Martyrology is an official listing of saints’ feasts.

43 posted on 09/19/2006 8:54:58 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: martin_fierro

It was meant as a joke. Sorry it misfired on you.


46 posted on 09/19/2006 9:02:52 AM PDT by Redleg Duke (¡Salga de los Estados Unidos de América, invasor!)
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To: martin_fierro

Didn't the blessed John Paul II add several dozen more to the list? He was definitely generous to a fault there.


54 posted on 09/19/2006 5:11:11 PM PDT by PandaRosaMishima (she who tends the Nightunicorn)
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