What's a Saint?

Today we celebrate the memory of all the Saints. Every day of the year there are Saints that are celebrated. In some cases we celebrate their births although birthdays are less common. Most often we celebrate their deaths as the day when they entered into their rest and into the presence of the Lord. We hear the prokeimenon “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints.” He calls them to Himself, and He glorifies them with Himself. Sometimes we celebrate great miracles worked through them, or the finding of their relics, or their transfer to a new place. Today is the day that we normally would celebrate the third finding of the head of Saint John the Baptist.

Every day there are several, if not dozens, or even thousands of Saints that we remember either by name or as part of a specific group. But today, we celebrate all of them together. We do this in part because we know that not everyone who has lived a godly life and gone on to life eternal in union and communion with God will be glorified as a Saint on earth. Some will remain unknown to us, but they are known to God and they are worthy of our remembrance, and are able to assist us by their prayers.

But what is a Saint if not someone proclaimed as one by the Church? I think confusion often rises from a very shallow view of salvation. If salvation is just going to heaven when we die, then why even have a category of little “s”  saint or big “S” Saint? Your pious grandma or believing friend is just as important as Saint John the Baptist about whom Christ said, “among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.”  In fact some would claim that grandma is better because Jesus said right after that, “but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”  

Before correcting that view, let’s look at a few things that the Saints are not. A Saint is not just someone who believes. Saint James says in his epistle, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” The Saints are those who live out their faith, not just those who agree to some facts about Jesus Christ.

A Saint is not someone of brilliant intellect, who speaks or writes eloquently. Saint John Chrysostom (a word which means golden-mouth) certainly had marvelous and wonderful things to say which were written down for our edification. Men and women of incredible intellect and eloquent speech have left to us a multitude of words which instruct us in the faith, encourage us to love God and our neighbor, and to warn us of the dangers of sin, heresy, and schism. But there are also Saints who have left us nothing of the sort, even those who rarely or never spoke.

Related to this, it should be pointed out that a Saint is not a celebrity. This is particularly important today when there are Orthodox celebrities and influencers. Many Saints were well renowned. Report of them would travel far and wide, and people would sometimes travel great distance to meet them and to receive the benefit of their prayers. Often monastic Saints would do everything to avoid such things, but people were drawn to them like moths to a flame such that in the sayings of the desert fathers we hear about highways in the desert to reach the places where some of these men lived. This may seem like celebrity, but the holiness which drew people in was of God and not of themselves. The great saints didn’t remind people to like and subscribe, they didn’t do cross promotions, or monetize their platforms. They sought God, and Him alone, and the Lord directed people to them. This is not to say that someone can’t be online and holy, but the holiness really ought to come first.

A Saint is not a philanthropist. If you gave away every penny and every possession that you have, the amount would be insignificant compared to the tax write-off of a billionaire. The good that could be accomplished by their donation might eclipse your entire life’s work, but the alms that you generously give for the sake of Christ no matter how small are regarded by God as great in the Kingdom.

A Saint is not a miracle worker. There are those who heal through medicine, there are those who accomplish amazing things through ingenuity and engineering, and there are those who do impossible things by the help of demonic powers. The fact that something cannot be explained does not mean that it is from God. To love God is to love your neighbor. If both you and your neighbor are united in the love of God and one another, then you fulfill what our Lord said, “where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” This is what we saw on the day of Resurrection, on Thomas Sunday and most recently on the day of Pentecost when the apostles were gathered together in one accord in one place. Miracles will happen because God is with us, and working in us because we are of one mind and heart.

In short, the saints are not the pinnacle of what man can achieve on his own, but a demonstration of what God can do in and through us when we aligns our will with God’s will.

This is a more robust understanding of salvation. We are not saved because we did the right thing by believing in a series of propositions. We are not saved because we have profound thoughts about God or speak eloquently about Him. We are not saved because we proclaimed Him before others and sought to draw others to Him. We are not saved because we helped others either materially or spiritually. We are saved because we are united to Christ in His Body the Church.

That does not mean that being on the roster of your local Orthodox Church means that you go to heaven when you die. You must unite yourself to Christ and receive your life from Him throughout the whole of your life in order that eternal life will be an extension of the life in Christ you live now.

In the epistle we read an account of the Saints of the Old Testament. Among other things, it was said that they “through faith subdued kingdoms.” Saint Paul says in his epistle to the Ephesians, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” These are the kingdoms that we must subdue now. To have the Kingdom of God within you is to not live for these other kingdoms in slavery to the enemy.

The Old Testament Saints stopped the mouths of lions. We must stand against those who would both speak evil against God, and devour those who are weak. We must stand firm in the teachings of the Church; and we must protect and rescue those being led astray. We must also resist the bestial callings of our flesh that seek to tear us apart.

The epistle mentions those who were sawn in two. This is a reference to the Prophet Isaiah who according to Jewish tradition hid in a tree from King Manasseh and was sawn in half while still in the tree. We too must be prepared to be sawn in two. Our Lord points to this in the gospel today when He says, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” Following Christ is being sawn in two we give ourselves completely to Him and all of the things which seek to hold us back from this must be cut away.

Those that we celebrate today come from all throughout the world, throughout time, from different cultures and classes of society. They are men and women, clergy and laity, rich and poor. But what unites them is God. God working in them and through them because they have united themselves to Him and because they have given themselves over to their neighbor as they saw Christ do for themselves. They are those who fought against the temptations of the world, whether those temptations were to lusts of the flesh, corruptions of the mind, or even the biological ties of family. They sought God above all and were filled with His grace in this life and now enjoy communion with Him in the Kingdom of Heaven. We too can be like this. We don’t have to become smarter, or more famous, or give more, or work wonders. We have to become one with God, seeking only that which draws us closer to Him, and cutting off all that holds us back from this. Then God Who is glorified in His Saints, Who is wondrous in His Saints, and Who is praised in His Saints will be seen and known by others in us.