Every person who is in heaven is a saint, but there are those who have lived such exemplary lives in Jesus Christ on Earth that they are identified as saint with a capital "S" and are honored today on the Solemnity of All Saints Day in the Roman Catholic Church.
Nov. 1 is set aside as a holy day of obligation, which requires that Roman Rite Catholics attend Mass to honor those people who have been recognized as those who showed an exceptional degree of holiness, sanctity and virtue during their lives and are now in the presence of God.
Because of the lingering effects superstorm Sandy, Allentown Diocese Bishop John Barres has lifted the obligation for Catholics to attend Mass on All Saints Day in five counties of the Diocese of Allentown, Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill.
The Rev. Edward B. Connolly, pastor of St. Joseph and St. Vincent de Paul parishes in Girardville, told a story that gives an idea what a saint is.
"An old man took his little granddaughter to a beautiful church with magnificent stained glass windows depicting many different saints, and he explained the different saints," Connolly said. "She was very intrigued by this. Shortly thereafter, she was at a CCD or Sunday school class and the teacher said the lesson was about the saints. Does anybody know anything about the saints? The girl raised her hand and said, 'Saints are people the light shines through.' "
There is no official count on how many saints there are, but Catholic and Orthodox sources bring the total to more than 10,000 saints. With its relatively young age as compared to the beginning of the Christian church in the first century, the U.S. has 12 canonized Roman Catholic saints, with two being honored with the title of "Saint" in October: St. Kateri Tekakwitha and St. Marianne Cope, OSF.
The other American saints are St. Isaac Jogues, SJ, St. Rene Goupil, SJ, and St. Jean de Lalande, SJ, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, MSC, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, SC, St. John Nepomucene Neumann, CSsR, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, RSCJ, St. Katherine Drexel, SBS, St. Mother Theodore Guerin, SP, and St. Damien de Veuster of Molokai, SSCC.
Seton, Drexel and Tekakwitha are the only native born American saints. Someday that may change with the canonization of the Rev. Walter J. Ciszek, SJ, whose cause for canonization is currently being investigated. A native of Shenandoah, Ciszek holds the title of "Servant of God," as do 74 other Americans whose causes for sainthood are being investigated.
"Every organization and community has its own preeminent people," Connolly said. "The United States has its preeminent people. Go down to Washington, D.C. and you see monuments to Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, Martin Luther King and other people. When we visit those monuments, we think about the virtues of those persons and we express our gratitude to God for those virtues and what they have done for the nation.
"Analogously, we in the Catholic church have our heroes and we have many of them," Connolly continued. "It does us good to know about their lives and emulate their virtues in our own lives. They are inspirations to us because they are human beings just like us who came into this world in a fallen state with original sin, but by God's grace and their cooperation with God's grace, they came into a state of human perfection. We believe they are in heaven with God and their awareness of us has not ceased, but rather has intensified. One of my favorite quotes is from St. Therese of Lisieux who said, 'I will spend my heaven doing good on earth.' The word 'saint' essentially means 'holy person.' "
Even though there are no saints directly from Schuylkill County at this time, St. John Neumann had much contact with Catholics in the county and in other areas of the coal region. The fourth bishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia, many churches in the region were founded during his tenure as bishop, including St. Joseph and St. Mauritius in Ashland, and the former St. Kieran in Heckscherville, and former St. Boniface in Saint Clair.
Neumann is known for establishing the first parochial school system after he was consecrated bishop in 1852, and for founding the Sisters of St. Francis. He also organized the first diocesan schedule of the Forty Hours Devotion in America, which is still held in churches.
There are also 15 American "venerables," which includes Venerable Mother Maria Kaupus, SSC, foundress of the Sisters of Saint Casimir who opened the first ethnic Lithuanian school in the country in Mount Carmel, Venerable Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, and Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, an archbishop whose television show had millions watching every week. There are also six "blesseds," which means they have one confirmed miracle in their name. A second confirmed miracle after being raised to "blessed" could lead to being recognized by the Church as a saint.
"Every new saint is an expansion of the fullness of Christ, until ultimately God will be 'all-in-all.' That's the will of the Father. Jesus Christ, the historical person, is God's way of drawing all of us to Himself," Connolly said. "The saints are various and sundry parts of the excellence of Jesus. When we're talking about Jesus, we're talking about His whole body. Built in the whole of the idea of loving Christ and being in communion with Christ is that we are in communion with all of those who are in Christ."
According to the Orthodox Church in America, there are 10 North American saints who labored for the Church. They are St. Herman, Alaska, St. Tikhon, St. Innocent, Alaska, St. Raphael, St. Alexis Toth, St. Jacob, Alaska, St. John Kochurov, St. Alexander Hotovitsky, St. Juvenaly and St. Peter.
Connolly pointed out that the Catholic church does not "make saints."
"Some people say the pope makes saints. We Catholics say that only God makes saints, but the church from time to time is given the insight to officially recognize them, but we are not by any means saying these are the only saints."
While Roman Catholics honor the saints on Nov. 1, the Eastern Rite Catholic and Orthodox churches do so at a different time of the year. The Very Rev. Archpriest John M. Fields, a Frackville native and former pastor of St. Michael and St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic churches in Frackville and Maizeville, respectively, said the tradition in the Eastern Rite Catholic and Orthodox churches is to honor the saints after Pentecost Sunday.
"I always associate celebration of All Saints in the Eastern Church with the celebration of Pentecost Sunday - the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit," said Fields. "This is considered the birthday of the church. So it is natural on the following Sunday to honor and hold up to the faithful models and exemplars of piety, holiness and those martyrs, witnesses of the faith, to encourage others to follow their example, to emulate them. Additionally, when the church gathers to celebrate the Eucharist, the living and those asleep in the Lord are mystically gathered together in the communion of the saints."
He said All Saints Day is a Christian holy day observed by eastern churches on the first Sunday after Pentecost, keeping the traditional date as celebrated in the early church. The feast was transferred for the Latin church to Nov. 1 in 835 by Pope Gregory IV. The day now honors all saints of the church, even those not known by name.
Fields serves as director of communications for the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia.