Name: Ace Subject: How to know if one is a saint? Question: If a person received the stigmata, can he be considered as a saint? If God speaks to him and God appears to him and he can heal the sick and prophesy, can he be considered as a saint? If he gives to the poor and helps the needy and obeys all the commandments of God, can he be considered as a saint? If he works for God and makes miracles and does all what is said above, can he be considered as a saint? Answer: It depends I suppose Ace on what exactly you define a saint to be. Using the current criteria of the Catholic Church: 'The Catholic Church canonizes or beatifies only those whose lives have been marked by the exercise of heroic virtue, and only after this has been proved by common repute for sanctity and by conclusive arguments.' Cf Catholic Encyclopedia: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02364b.htm Saint Paul says that: First Epistle Of Saint Paul To The Corinthians 1 If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3 And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4 Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; 5 Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child. 12 We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. 13 And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity. Thus the greatest virtue to be found in a follower of Christ is love. It seems to me the great vocation of the Catholic is to become love; to be transformed into the image of Jesus. At the end of the day as Saint Teresa says, 'We will be judged on love' So, for me a saint in the final analysis is someone who loves and loves in a heroic and exceptional way. Other things, such as the stigmata may point as an outer sign of an inner reality, but it can only be a sign of love, not the love itself. The same goes for signs such as prophesy and miracles. The vast majority of followers of Christ live quietly ordinary lives of walking in the way of love. Because they give no great extraordinary exterior signs of such love, does not mean such love is not present in some heroic degree. many, many of God's saints gave no extraordinary miraculous signs. So in my view, a saint is someone who loves, as Jesus did.
