Saints

A saint, also historically known as a hallow, is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness or likeness to God. Depending on the context and denomination, the term also retains its original Christian meaning, as any believer who is "in Christ" and in whom Christ dwells, whether in Heaven or on Earth. In Anglican, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, and Oriental Orthodox doctrine, all of their faithful deceased in Heaven are considered to be saints, but some are considered worthy of greater honor or emulation;[4] official ecclesiastical recognition, and consequently veneration, is given to some saints through the process of canonization in the Catholic Church or glorification in the Eastern Orthodox Church.While the English word saint originated in Christianity, historians of religion now use the appellation "in a more general way to refer to the state of special holiness that many religions attribute to certain people", with the Jewish tzadik, the Islamic walī, the Hindu rishi or Sikh guru, and the Buddhist arhat or bodhisattva also being referred to as saints. Depending on the religion, saints are recognized either by official ecclesiastical declaration, as in the Catholic faith, or by popular acclamation (see Folk saint).

## General characteristics

The English word "*saint*" comes from the Latin "*sanctus*". The word translated the Greek "ἅγιος" (*hagios*), which derives from the verb ἁγιάζω (*hagiazo*), which means "to set apart", "to sanctify", or "to make holy". The word ἅγιος appears 229 times in the Greek New Testament, and its English translation 60 times in the corresponding text of the King James Version of the Bible.

In the New Testament, "saint" did not denote the deceased who had been recognized as especially holy or emulable, but rather the living faithful who had dedicated themselves to God.

The word *sanctus* was originally a technical one in ancient Roman religion, but due to its "globalized" use in Christianity the modern word "saint" in English and its equivalent in Romance languages is now also used as a translation of comparable terms for persons "worthy of veneration for their holiness or sanctity" in other religions.

Many religions also use similar concepts (but different terminology) to venerate persons worthy of some honor. Author John A. Coleman (Society of Jesus, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California) wrote that saints across various cultures and religions have the following family resemblances:

1. exemplary model
2. extraordinary teacher
3. wonder worker or source of benevolent power
4. intercessor
5. a life often refusing material attachments or comforts
6. possession of a special and revelatory relation to the holy.

The anthropologist Lawrence Babb in an article about Sathya Sai Baba asks the question "Who is a saint?", and responds by saying that in the symbolic infrastructure of some religions, there is the image of a certain extraordinary spiritual king's "miraculous powers", to whom frequently a certain moral presence is attributed. These saintly figures, he asserts, are "the focal points of spiritual force-fields". They exert "powerful attractive influence on followers but touch the inner lives of others in transforming ways as well".

In the Bible, only one person is expressly called a saint: "They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the LORD" (Psalms 106:16–18). The apostle Paul declared himself to be "less than the least of all saints" in Ephesians 3:8.