Topic:  Who was the first Saint?

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Date originally posted: June 7, 2003

Moderator who originally posted this source: Father Phillip

Question:  Who was the first Saint canonized by the Catholic Church and by which Pope? Also, when did the church realize they had the authority to do so.

Answer: 

Thanks very much for your question to www.CatholicQandA.org. We're always pleased that undergrads -- such as yourself -- from universities around our country use this service provided by the Campus Ministry Department of the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, NC!

Your question is short, but I'm afraid that the answer is rather complex! As a college student, you are probably familiar with the way professors can almost always make what started off as a straightforward inquiry into a lengthy response; sorry to do that to you here! :-)

Let me suggest, first, that you go to the following website:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02364b.htm

There you will find a very fine article on the process of Canonization in the Catholic Church from the old-but-still useful "Catholic Encyclopedia."

I won't try to repeat what is written there because if you're really interested in the subject, you'll need to understand all that is available in that article to come to some 'answer' to your question.

However, I will make just a couple of comments here.

First, the way you phrase your question is very good. You say, "when did the church realize..." That is right on the mark. It wasn't as if the Church just woke up one day and decided that it "had the authority to" canonize saints. Nor did God confer some "new" authority on the Church.

Catholic theology has always taught that within the "depositum fidei" the fullness of Catholic faith, belief, practice, and morals is present. But as Pope Pius XII said in his 1950 encyclical, "Humani generis," God oversees a "development of doctrine." In John's Gospel Jesus Himself says that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth which rather clearly indicates that at no one moment in the Church's history (prior to the Second Coming) does the Church yet realize the fullness of all God has in store for us. The 'seeds,' as it were, are surely present within the "depositum fidei" but the unfolding, the realization of what is there takes time.

A second comment that I would make about your question is to remind you that since our doctrine is always -- under the guidance of God the Holy Spirit -- developing, being able to pinpoint with specificity when "the first" happened is somewhat difficult. As with any reality which is alive and growing and developing, it's really hard to be absolutely certain that "this" was "the first."

For example, even parents who are really, really attentive to their child might have some difficulty saying absolutely and for sure that THIS was baby's first step. Those parents can say with a fair degree of certainty that THIS was probably baby's first step, that they had not seen baby take a step before this moment. But positively, without question is sort of hard to be 100% sure of -- even for the best parents.

In a similar way, then, the article from the "Catholic Encyclopeida" can give you some very informed "guess-ti-mates" because the people who write those articles are excellent scholars. But proof positive is certainly beyond my ability and, even I would think, beyond theirs -- and they are a whole lot smarter than I am!

But none of this is bad, really. If we could have with complete certitude the answers to all our questions, I suspect that we wouldn't "need" God. But since we don't always get the definite answers that we think we need or want, we have to turn again and again in humility and gratitude to God Who is constantly inviting us to trust.

I am confident, Richard, that you do trust God a lot...and that the Saints are an important part of your devotional life. How 'bout this: When you get to heaven -- many, many, many years from now -- we'll ask God to introduce you to the very first Saint canonized by our Church?!!? In the meantime, use the great scholarship of the "Catholic Encyclopedia" as a resource to keep learning about our Catholic faith; ok?

Many blessings,
Father Phillip