The term “saint” means “holy one”. I guess that the biblical writers had particular people in minds when they spoke of the saints, persons of high reputation who weres of judged on the basis of their works.
You are correct that saint is synonomous with Holy. Early Christians where probably called saints because when we accept Jesus, His Holy Spirit comes into us. In other words, we can be called holy because He, Jesus, is holy.
Here is a link which is a good source for the definition of saint/holy and where it is found.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G40&t=KJV&page=3
My point was more along the lines of the early, New Testament, Christian church doesn’t indicate any kind of post life meetings to confer a title of saint on people. In fact, when you look at the saint passages, they are primarily referencing living people.
But, like I mentioned before, there is no “skin off of my nose” if the Catholic church wishes to create extra hoops or ceremonies for people they respect.