2. What can you tell me about the importance of the remembrance of these saints in the Catholic community?

As you might imagine, there are more saints in heaven than there are canonized, or listed, Saints in the Church. A canonized Saint is someone whose life on Earth has been scrutinized by a specific body in the Church, and whose intercessions in heaven have brought about miracles on Earth. The criterion is very strict and few make it to the official list. The first step is to prove that the person lived a life of “heroic virtue”. This is because the canonized saints are meant to be role models for the church. There are people like Fr. Miguel Pro who defied the anti-Catholic Mexican government and continued to minister to the people and was martyred for it, or like Mother Theresa who gave up a comfortable life to take care of the poorest of the poor in India because she saw our Lord in even the most wretched of them. Then there are some like St Thomas Aquinas whose writings became the foundation for philosophical thought in the Christian world for centuries and continuing today. The variety of their lives and witnesses for Christ shows His many gifts and callings to His people and the memory of their Earthly lives is to give us strength to follow our callings and use our gifts on behalf of Jesus.


--The Baron
Ceterum autem censeo, Tabulam esse delendam!