What Is A Saint and Who Are The Saints

Saint Thomas The Apostle

    The first question is what is a saint. A saint is generally a person that has achieved a state of exceptional holiness. Some individuals seem to think that we create the various saints in the catholic church. Actually we do not create any saint, we just recognize the person for their holiness. The person who has been recognized by the church as a saint has been canonized by the church. The word canonized means to be actually recognized. The person that has been canonized is believed to definitely be in heaven.
  You may be asking how many saint are there in heaven. It seems that some individuals believe or state that there are over 10,000 saints in heaven presently. By looking or studying a saint we get a picture of what God is like. This also shows us what we should be like and what kind of life we should be living here on earth. That is usually not an easy task for all of us to follow. That is why it takes a special person to be a saint. Now a saint is not just men there are many women that are saints as well. There are some saints that are particularly well known, such as Saint Francis or Saint Patrick.
 


Throughout the year we have what we call feast days for the different saints. We do not worship any saint, we only worship God. Worship is only reserved for God and God alone. We can ask any saint to pray for us or intercede on our behalf. In heaven the saints are just in a different place and time. They do know when we are praying and asking them to pray for us. That is why it says in the bible that we have a great cloud of witnesses in heaven.
 Some saints are what we call a patron saint. They may have done a specific job during their lifetime here on earth. Some saints may be asked to pray for someone that has a certain problem in their life such as a sickness or some kind of catastrophic problem we are encountering. There are occasions when we may ask the saint to pray for a friend or family member that may be suffering from cancer fro example. The only power that a saint may have come only from God and not from the saint them self. In the church you may see statues of various saints and you may see a person kneeling before the statue. No the person is not praying to the statue. The statue is merely a reminder of the the saint.
  My advise for anyone looking for more information on the various saints within the catholic church is to buy some of the books on the saints. You can also learn what the different saints did and what they are known for. You may even decide on who will be your favorite or patron saint. You can usually get a catholic calendar from your local catholic church that has the feast days through out the entire year. When we as Catholics become confirmed or go through confirmation we pick a particular saint. I myself picked Saint Thomas, because my stepfathers middle name was Thomas and I felt it was special to me.
  Well I hope this give a little explanation about saints in the Catholic Church. Thank You for reading and God Bless.