Workers carry flowers to place near the altar in St. Peter's Square April 26 in advance of the canonization of Blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II. (CNS/Paul Haring)
Posted on 04/27/2014 2:02:42 PM PDT by NYer
Workers carry flowers to place near the altar in St. Peter's Square April 26 in advance of the canonization of Blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II. (CNS/Paul Haring)
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- From St. Peter to Pope Francis, there have been 266 popes; 78 of them are recognized as saints, and that number will jump to 80 after the April 27 canonizations of Blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II.
The earliest popes were martyred for their faith, which the Catholic Church takes as a clear sign of holiness. Once the persecution of the church ended, the clusters of pope's names with the title "saint" before them got thinner.
Over the past 701 years, and as of April 27, only four popes will have been declared saints.
Here's a quick look at some of the top 10 most interesting of the earliest popes who are saints:
1. St. Peter, who was first named Simon, was the first to refer to Jesus as Christ, the Son of the living God. His special stature in the Gospels to "feed the sheep" of Christ helped form his mission to proclaim, protect and nourish the faith. He is also considered the first pope. Early tradition says he was crucified at the foot of Vatican Hill in the mid-60s during the reign of Emperor Nero, martyred because of his Christian faith and preaching. His tomb is believed to have been found under St. Peter's Basilica.
2. St. Soter was Bishop of Rome from around 167 A.D. to his death about seven years later. It's believed St. Soter formally introduced the annual celebration of Easter in Rome.
3. St. Fabian was pope 236-250. He is famous for the miraculous nature of his election, in which a dove is said to have descended on his head to mark him as the Holy Spirit's unexpected choice to become the next pope.
4. St. Damasus was born in Rome and served as pope 366-384. His papacy coincided with the establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380, and he was a staunch advocate of the primacy of the bishop of Rome as being the direct successor of Peter. He is said to have established Latin as the standard liturgical language in Rome.
5. St. Leo the Great was born with the name Leo, which he kept as pope. Serving as pope 440-461, he was the first pope to be called "the great" and is a doctor of the church. He confirmed the church's position on the incarnation of Christ -- that Christ was both divine and human. He is best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452 and persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy.
6. St. Gregory the Great was pope 590-604 and was the second pope to be referred to as "the Great," after Leo. He was related to two popes, and his mother and two aunts were also canonized, leading him to be considered "a saint among saints." He had been a monk and did not want to serve as pope upon his election. He often lamented his new duties as pontiff as having to "bear with secular business" and no longer being part of the peaceful and contemplative life of the monastery. Nonetheless, he put great emphasis on simplicity and charity and donated food to Rome's poor as well as invited poor people to eat with him each day.
7. St. Nicholas I the Great was pope 858-867. He was the third and last pope to receive the title of "great." He worked to strengthen papal authority and denied anyone had the right to depose a bishop without papal authority. He staunchly upheld marriage laws and urged bishops of their duty to excommunicate a royal Catholic who left her spouse for another. He did support freedom to marry and did not endorse some bishops when they excommunicated another royal for marrying without her father's consent.
8. St. Gregory VII was pope 1073-1085. He enacted many reforms such as reversing centuries of civil control over church affairs and giving the pope of Rome full sovereignty over all church affairs in the West. He promoted a more saintly episcopacy and priesthood and fought against simony, the buying and selling of church office. He introduced the legislation that locked in the observance of celibacy, despite frequent debates over the issue. He decreed the Roman rite for all of Europe and established Nov. 1 as All Saints' Day. He lifted the excommunication of Emperor Henry IV in 1077 after the emperor did public penance of walking barefoot in the snow.
9. St. Celestine V was a Benedictine monk and hermit who resigned from the papacy just a few months after his election in 1294 because he wanted to return to his humble monastic life. He issued a papal bull articulating the ability of a pope to resign and establishing rules for an abdication. Pope Benedict XVI, the next pope in history who would voluntarily resign in 2013, placed the pallium he received when he was elected in 2005 on the saint's tomb in L'Aquila, Italy, in 2009 and left it there as a gift.
10. St. Pius X was elected pope in 1903 and served until his death in 1914. He promoted greater piety among the faithful, encouraged the frequent reception of the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist, and insisted on proper decorum during the celebration of the Mass. He highlighted the beauty and appropriateness of Gregorian chant, cautioned against using popular musical styles and encouraged efforts to ensure that the faithful could participate actively in the Mass by singing. He reorganized the Roman Curia and established a congregation of cardinals to codify Canon Law. He embraced scientific inquiry and designed sundials. However, when given the first papal car in 1909 by then-Archbishop John M. Farley of New York, the pope never used it, sticking with his horse and landau carriage.
Ping!
Officially, what are Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II to be called? I haven’t seen anything except supposition.
Does canonization mean they get better benefits? What is the point of all this?
I suspect it's news to him.
Pope Saint John XXIII and Pope Saint John Paul II.
His tomb is in the Norman cathedral in Salerno, which had just recently been built. Somehow it survived WWII. The Normans conquered Southern Italy and later also Sicily.
On feast days, the title will look like this:
St. John XXII, Pope
St. John Paul II, Pope
just as we now have
St. Pius X, Pope
Some will also have the word Martyr in the explanation of the title if they were martyred for the faith.
Respect from those on earth.
Heros! Simply put, saints are ordinary people, like you and me, who achieved extraordinary things through faith in Christ. What is a saint? First of all, one who knows he is a sinner. A saint knows all the news, both the bad news of sin and the good news of salvation.
There are many saints in heaven who are unknown to us. The point of this is to set an example for us to follow .. essentially, a role model .. whose life is a testimony to heroic value. The secularists have Superman or Spiderman; we have saints.
Of course. They get more frequent flier miles/points when they get their wings. They get the Platinum Health Heavencare Plan. And their pick of the harps.
Thanks!
ABC :o) J/K.
Pope St John XXIII and Pope St John Paul II.
“Does canonization mean they get better benefits? What is the point of all this?”
Point:
1) To publically offer glory to God for the great works He has wrought.
2) To declare what is known.
3) To add the saints to the calendar for public commemoration and veneration with the liturgy.
4) To offer the new saints as models for people to emulate in service to Christ and His Church.
The Roman Catholic cult is full of such nonsense. They claim to be the authors of the Bible, yet deny the actions of the Holy Spirit which caused it to be recorded. They raise Peter, the liar, as their primate, and deny Paul (the Apostle previously known as Saul, who persecuted the new Christians, until God struck him down on the road to Damascus) has much credibility and discount his teachings. Yet, it is Paul's writings that give us the clearest intent of what God requires of us.
The Roman cult acts similar to the Pharisees of Jesus's time.
Micah 6: 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
....
Matthew 23: ... 16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ 19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started! ...
....
Romans2: ...5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.
When Protestant anti-Catholics have nothing worthwhile to say they go out of their way to throw the kitchen sink at you.
He turned me into a newt! Is that a miracle?
So a commoner like me can recommend other commoners for sainthood? Why not elevate more commoners than the notorious?
We put Paul in the Bible and studied his teaching a thousand years before your heretical cult was hatched.
Ahhh, the ubiquitous "we". I see nothing that links Scripture to belonging to some distinct group of men. Paul is the one who is was called by Christ and became the most prolific writer to the new church. He wrote directly about those at Rome, and aptly placed them in the right place. Paul's ministry ws to the Gentiles, whereas your claim to Peter defies the logic of his calling to preach to the Jews.
My faith is in Christ, not in some group of men in fancy costumes, claiming to be the ones called as leaders of some group. I do not belong to a 'cult', but I do see any religious structure based on a designated hierarchy making claims of infallibility as a classic cult. The age of the constituency doesn't matter, it is the content that completes the description. Therefore, it is reasonable to presume the Roman Catholic religion is also the largest cult of personality.
Romans 11: ... 13 I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
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