A couple of years ago, after much discussion and debate, Assumption’s Pastoral Council recommended that we expand our gallery of saints with more contemporary figures and saints who better represent the diversity of our neighborhood. So, we added St. Oscar Romero, St. Josephine Bakhita, Blessed Stanley Rother, and St. Kateri Tekakwitha. On one level, this was designed to make our church appear more welcoming and relevant to more people. The retired Bishop of Belleville, Bishop Edward Braxton, once wrote very movingly about growing up in “hand me down churches” built for European immigrants on the South Side of Chicago and never seeing a Black face among the many images of angels and saints. He had to struggle with the issue, “Is holiness possible for people who do not resemble the models of holiness presented to us?”

But there is a much deeper question about saints. What exactly is holiness? What makes someone a saint? For many centuries the Catholic Church has had a multi-step process for canonizing or declaring that someone is a saint. This process requires that a certain number of miracles be attributed to their intercession and a thorough investigation of both their holiness and anything that might disqualify them from being declared saint. One of my theology teachers in the 1980’s worked part-time in Rome investigating various candidates for sainthood, a decision that ultimately lies with the Pope. He would often tell us stories of the reports he gave the Pope. I remember his saying once, “Well, Your Holiness, if you want to canonize a crazy woman go ahead, but she was still a crazy woman.”

One of the challenges we face in determining whether someone is a saint is that their genuine holiness was not that apparent to their contemporaries, primarily because they did not reflect the contemporary understanding of holiness. They did not conform to what was expected of them. That was most certainly true of Jesus himself, who was condemned by Jewish authorities and turned over to the Romans because he was a blasphemer, a sinner, a man who claimed to speak for God. In the New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Mertin suggests that the rejection that saints experienced because they did not fit in with what was expected of them helped them on the path of holiness. “If the holiness of all the saints had always been plainly evident to everybody, they would never have been polished and perfected by trial, criticism, humiliation and opposition from the people they lived with.” Saints were not perfect people and they could be a terrible annoyance. To quote King Henry II of England concerning the future St. Thomas Becket: “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?”

Yet it is precisely because they did not always conform to contemporary understandings of holiness that their example and intercession are important to us today. Studies have shown that many people leave organized religion because they find their churches too insular and not engaged in the issues that they see as important in the world. During the 1960’s and 1970’s there was a strong movement in the Catholic Church away from devotion to the saints because such devotion had been so thoroughly domesticated. People lit candles in front of statues and offered devotional prayers asking for their intercession without knowing very much about the life of the saint. The thinking was that our private devotions took away from the centrality of Christ and the centrality of the Mass. As a result, many churches were stripped of their saints. In truth, many saints were thoroughly engaged with the larger issues of their time, without losing the centrality of prayer and trust in God. St. Frances Cabrini addressed the needs of immigrants. St. Josephine Bakhita was a slave and is the patron saint of the victims of human trafficking, a modern form of slavery. Blessed Stanley Rother and St. Oscar Romero were outspoken critics of human rights violations in Central America. St. Patrick used innovative teaching method to win over tribal chiefs in Ireland. St. Philip Benizi and St. Peregrine, the Servite saints, were peacemakers and healers. St. Anthony of Padua in his own time was better known for finding lost souls than lost objects. Even St. Theresa of Lisieux, who lived most of her short life in an enclosed convent, taught the world an important lesson. The only thing that will save the world is love, and we have to love one another exactly where we are.

Our church may appear very traditional. However, if we look beneath the façade of each saint, we will find a tremendous amount of zeal and a willingness to confront the complexities of their time and our time. We can benefit greatly from their inspiration and intercession.

                                                                                       Fr. Joe