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To: Iscool; Marysecretary

You are mistaken to claim that St. Christopher was “deemed a fake”. From the article you cited, (which should settle the matter, since it agrees fully with what I posted to you and Marysecretary earlier) “Christopher’s cult was not suppressed [unlike the aforementioned St. Ursula] but it is confined to local calendars (those for a diocese, country, or so forth). His name Christopher, means Christ-bearer. He died a martyr during the reign of Decius in the third century.”

For clarification: If St. Christopher was indeed “deemed a fake”, then any devotion to him would be forbidden, even on a local level. The article you found merely expounds on St. Christopher’s fragmentary history, further clarifying the reason his feast day was removed from the universal calendar. (because his history isn’t as complete as would be required for celebration on the universal calendar) However, no pagan origins were found for him, thus, his existence as a Saint isn’t questioned or belief in same isn’t forbidden. Also, (anticipating) the argument, “Well, wasn’t St. Ursula a saint at ONE time and then “deemed a fake’ in the 1960’s proof of the general concept that Catholics remove Saints at their whim?”: This is fallacious, as the point of the article you provided was that in the early Church, some saints weren’t subjected to the rigorous, UNIVERSAL standards we have today, and, when such UNIVERSAL standards are applied to some, it is discovered, they were NEVER SAINTS TO BEGIN WITH.

And BTW, one may find a mention of a “St. Ursula” in the records of Catholic Saints somewhere, but this is not surprising given the number (literally thousands) of Saints in the Church; it also doesn’t necessarily “prove” it’s the same St. Ursula who’s devotion to has been deemed pagan in origin since the 1960’s, also because of the number (literally thousands) of Saints in the Church today.

Now this does settle it, whether you want to admit it or not is not in my, or anyone else’s power to control. Thus, all future posts still claiming “St. Christopher is no longer a saint” will be ignored (at least by me) since such would be counterproductive to reasonable discourse.


526 posted on 05/05/2008 10:18:21 AM PDT by FourtySeven (47)
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To: FourtySeven

Thank you for the information. M


528 posted on 05/05/2008 10:20:32 AM PDT by Marysecretary (.GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL)
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