By Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
The recent beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) at Pope John-Paul II’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations brings into focus an ancient tradition of the veneration of the righteous dead who can intercede for the living from heaven. Although there are previous archaic hints, the earliest full evidence we have of veneration of the dead comes from the royal burials and Pyramid Texts of Egypt in the early third millennium BC, where the dead pharaoh is described as having ascended into heaven and become a god, and as receiving veneration from people on earth. Ancestor veneration recurs in various forms throughout much of the world, usually manifesting itself with some combination of the building of monumental tombs, pilgrimage and offerings at those tombs, and seeking intercession from the righteous dead.
In Judaism at the time of Christ, the veneration of righteous ancestors and martyrs was widespread-nearly fifty Jewish sanctuaries commemorating ancestral prophets, patriarchs, kings, and martyrs have been found in the Holy Land. The most famous of these is the Tomb of the Patriarchs (especially Abraham), in Hebron, which is still a site of pilgrimage for Jews, Christians and Muslims, making it one of the oldest continually operating pilgrimage tombs in the world. The belief that the righteous dead can intervene or intercede on behalf of the living is based on an interpretation of a number of passages in scripture.
The Apocrypha-books found in the Greek and Latin Old Testaments which are not in current editions of the Hebrew Bible-contain an interesting example of the righteous dead intervening on behalf of the living. In the mid-second century BC the Jewish high Priest Onias had a vision of the dead prophet Jeremiah protecting Judah in its wars against the Seleucid Greeks. “This [Jeremiah] is a lover of the brethren, who prayeth much for the people, and for the holy city [Jerusalem], to wit, Jeremiah the prophet of God. Whereupon Jeremiah holding forth his right hand gave to Judas [the Maccabee, king of Judea] a sword of gold, and in giving it spake thus, ‘Take this holy sword, a gift from God, with the which thou shalt wound the adversaries'” (2 Maccabees 15.14-16).
In the New Testament, Jesus tells the parable of Lazarus and the wicked rich man who dies and finds himself in hell. The wicked man sees the poor Lazarus, whom he had always mistreated in life, in heaven. “And in hell [the wicked rich man] lift up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me'” (Lk 16.23, cf. 6.19-31). The text goes on to imply that it is not possible for Abraham to intervene on behalf of the rich man. Be that as it may, the story also implies that some Jews believed they could pray to the righteous dead for intercession with God, and is often cited as a prototype for the intervention of saints.
Although the word “saint” (Greek hagios = “holy one”) is generally used in the New Testament to refer to living members of the Church, it is also vaguely linked to the souls of the righteous dead in heaven. In Christianity, the belief that those who had died as martyrs for Christ were guaranteed a place in heaven in the presence of God is based on Revelation 6:9-11: “I saw under the altar [of the heavenly temple-hence the practice of burying saints’ bones under church altars] the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’ And white robes were given unto every one of [the martyrs].” Here we see the righteous dead interceding with God on behalf of those on earth, the essence of the idea that eventually developed into the concept of sainthood. Revelations 5.8 and 8.3 describe the prayers of the (living or dead?) saints ascending to God as being like incense from the altar of the temple.
Cult of Saints
The ancient account of the martyrdom of Polycarp of Smyrna (c. AD 155)-a disciple of the apostle John-records the feelings and acts of early Christians, representing a transitional view in the origin of the cult of saints. “For [Jesus] we worship as the Son of God, but the martyrs [like Polycarp] we love as disciples and imitators of the Lord. . [When Polycarp’s body had been burned by the Romans] we, at last, took up his bones, more precious than precious stones, and finer than gold, and put them where it was meet. There [at Polycarp’s tomb] the Lord will permit us to come together according to our power in gladness and joy, and celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom [= the day of his death]. . [Polycarp] thus gained the crown of immortality, and [in heaven] he is glorifying God the Almighty Father, rejoicing with the Apostles and all the righteous [dead]” (Martyrdom of Polycarp, 17.3-19.2). His martyrdom is still celebrated on the calendar of saints on 23 February.
In the Middle Ages the veneration of saints became widespread and standardized with a number of characteristics, including:
* building churches over the tombs (or bones) of saints (St. Peter’s in Rome is technically a church built over the tomb and bones of a sanctified martyr, Peter.)
* celebration of a special mass commemorating the death-day of the martyr-hence the creation of a calendar of saints
* prayers invoking the saint’s name
* belief that divine power could reside in the bones or relics of the saint (cf. Paul’s handkerchief in Acts 19.11-12); relics kept in precious vessels known as reliquaries
* pilgrimage to the church of a saint as penance, or seeking spiritual guidance
* veneration of that saint through the creation of icons with halos representing the glorious light of heaven.
* recollection of the life of the saint in short biographies (hagiography)
* claims of miraculous cures performed by God through the saint.
Whereas commemoration of the deaths of the martyrs began as local practices, by the twelfth century the system of beliefs and practices became increasingly systematized and controlled by the papacy, which, because of local confusion and abuses, eventually reserved for itself the right to decide who was and was not a saint-a process known as sanctification, or canonization. Conceptually, this is not the Church declaring someone a saint, but the Church recognizing the signs that a dead person has already entered into eternal glory in the presence of God. Although the veneration and invocation of saints was widespread throughout the Middle Ages, the practice was repudiated by most Protestant groups.
In association with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-5), there has been a reformation and standardization of Catholic concepts of sanctification. There are three steps on the path to sanctification, each associated with a different title: “Venerable,” “Blessed,” and “Saint.” The title “Venerable” is bestowed on a possible candidate for sanctification who either died a martyr or displayed “heroic virtue” in life. The second stage is beatification, where the departed may be called “Blessed” and receives some public recognition and veneration. Generally, a miracle needs to be attributed to the dead before beatification can occur. (Note, that, although St. Mary is frequently called the “Blessed Virgin Mary” she is preeminent among the saints. Her special title “Blessed” derives from her being called “blessed” in the Annunciation [Lk 1.28].) The final stage is full canonization-usually requiring additional miraculous intervention-in which the dead person is fully recognized as a “saint” by the Church.
A few weeks ago, then, Mother Teresa was technically given the title of Blessed, meaning that she is in the second stage of progress towards full canonization. Whatever one may think of the Catholic tradition of sanctification, few would deny that Mother Teresa’s half century of service and devotion to the destitute and dying of Calcutta represents one of the modern age’s great examples of Christ-like love. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Further Reading:
Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981), is a scholarly introduction to the origin of the cult of the saints in early Christianity.
David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 4th ed. (1997), offers a collection of brief biographies of the major saints.
Manuela Dunn-Mascetti, Saints: The Chosen Few (1994), is a lavishly illustrated survey of the concept of sainthood in world religions.
