Saint, a name applied in the New Testament to the members of the Christian community generally, but restricted by ecclesiastical usage from very early times to those who have been specially remarkable for their personal virtues and their eminent services to the cause of religion. In the ages of persecution the quality which most of all challenged the admiration and reverence of the faithful was naturally constancy in the profession and the defence of the Christian faith; and the honours of the martyrs, even before the age of persecution had passed, were extended to confessors, and eventually to all who died in the odour of sanctity, and especially to those who also obtained the reputation of performing miracles. In general, however, the saints of the Catholic Church are distributed into several classes, chiefly in relation to the special character of the ecclesiastical offices appropriated to their honour. Thus we find enumerated (1) Apostles and Evangelists; (2) Martyrs; (3) Confessors, a name applied primitively to those who had courageously undergone imprisonment or pains for the faith without gaining the final crown of martyrdom, but in later times understood of all who, not being martyrs, were eminent for sanctity of life; (4) Doctors or saints eminent for sacred learning; (5) Virgins; (6) Matrons and Widows. Anciently the title of Saint was bestowed upon an individual by the members of the particular Christian community to which he belonged, or to which his merits were most familiar. In the earliest times, however, the letters of St Cyprian show that caution was observed by the bishops to guard against the recognition of undeserving persons. It was not, however, till the 12th century that the pope reserved to himself the exclusive right to add to the roll of saints, or that a regular form of procedure was established in the Roman courts for the purpose of testing and of solemnly pronouncing upon the title of persons, who had died with a reputation for sanctity, to the public cultus of the church. A saint, according to the received interpretation, is one who has exercised the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, and the cardinal virtues, prudence, justice, fortitude, in a heroic degree, and has persevered in this exercise until death. Sanctity may exist without miracles, as, according to the commonly alleged instance, there is no record of John the Baptist having wrought miracles; and, on the other hand, miracles may be performed by heretics or sinners. Nevertheless, by the existing discipline of the Roman Church, before a decree of Canonisation (q.v.) can be obtained, the rule requires evidence of such miracles as an expected fruit of heroic faith and as a confirmatory sign of sanctity after proof has been given of the heroic virtues.
It is difficult to estimate with anything approaching to exactness the number of saints who have received cultus as such in the various churches of Christendom from the earliest times. Of many almost all record has perished, except their names commemorated in some ancient calendar or preserved in the dedication of some church or sacred locality. The fullest list is that to be found in the index or general table in the sixty-first volume of the colossal work of the Bollandists (see ACTA SANCTORUM). From these tables it appears that biographies or notices have been given of about 17,000 saints in the preceding sixty volumes—that is, up to the end of October; and further, there are added the names of some 3500 for whom biographies were being prepared for the concluding volumes of the work not yet finished. But the authority, however great, which is due to these researches is no more than the authority of learned men. The catalogue which possesses the highest ecclesiastical authority, and which has the character of a liturgical or church service-book, is that of the Martyrologium Romanum, revised by order of Gregory XIII. in 1586 by Baronius (q.v.), and frequently supplemented since. The breviary prescribes that the 'Martyrology' be read as part of the office of Prime wherever the office is solemnly sung in choir; and it is the custom, moreover, in religious communities to read the 'Martyrology' for the day publicly in the refectory. The 'Martyrology' is not, as its name might suggest, confined to the commemoration of martyrs only. It comprises the saints of every class to whom the Roman Church gives authentic recognition, and names some 2700 in all, including about twenty saints of the Old Testament, arranged as in a calendar according to the days of their celebration; while the recital for each day terminates with the clause, 'And in other places of very many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.' It is plain that of this multitude only a select few can have festivals assigned to them in the ecclesiastical year, or proper offices in the breviary or missal.
About two-thirds of every month in the Roman calendar is occupied with special saints' days, though, on some of these, minor saints are commemorated by a collect or prayer. But the Roman calendar is modified or supplemented in a greater or less measure in every national church, every diocese, and every religious order or community. Thus to the Roman breviary in England is added a supplement containing the offices of the English saints who sometimes displace or transfer to another day the saints of the Roman calendar. The fixed calendar of saints' days in use in various Catholic countries or communities thus varies considerably. At the end of the useful handbook by Canon Husenbeth, entitled The Emblems of Saints, will be found printed in parallel columns for purposes of convenient comparison eight such calendars—the Roman calendar, two old English calendars, the Scottish, the French, the Spanish, the German, and the Greek. It should further be noted that the actual calendar of saints' days in use in any given year can never quite correspond with the fixed calendar of this or that diocese or community. The great movable feasts determined by the annually varying date of Easter constantly disturb the order of the calendar, and lead to transferring the observance of a saint's day to some proximate feria or vacant day, and in some cases to extinguishing it altogether. The complicated rules which regulate these changes are based upon the different ranks accorded to the feasts—doubles of the first class, doubles of the second class, greater doubles, doubles, semi-doubles, and simples—in their relations to one another and to the Sundays and movable feasts which also have their various ranks.
Thus, to take an example of these variations at random, the 26th of May is the festival of St Philip Neri in the Roman calendar, but in England his place is taken by St Augustine of Canterbury, while St Philip is regularly transferred to the following day. On the other hand, in the churches of the Congregation of the Oratory the feast of their founder keeps his own day even in England, and St Augustine is postponed to 6th September. Again, the 26th of May is specially liable to be invaded by the occurrence of movable festivals. Thus, in 1877 the English churches had to transfer St Augustine to the 30th of the month, and St Philip Neri to the 23d of June. The result is that a special local 'ordo' is annually printed for the use of the clergy, and the annual Catholic Directory for England gives separately the fixed calendar and the ecclesiastical calendar corresponding to the clerical 'ordo' for the year.
In Christian art representations of the saints are often marked by the nimbus, aureole, or glory (see NIMBUS), and many of the saints are pictured as accompanied by emblems, by which they could readily be recognised. Apart from symbols which only typified the person indicated (as a shepherd for Christ, a gourd or a whale for Jonah), the figure of the saint is given with an added emblem. Thus the four evangelists were symbolised by four rivers, the four rivers of paradise. The adoption of the four living creatures (Rev. iv. 6) for the same purpose does not appear to have taken place till the 5th century; but soon it became a constant practice to represent St Matthew by or with the man, Mark with the lion, Luke with the ox, John with the eagle. The twelve apostles are depicted as twelve men, twelve sheep, or twelve doves. St Peter, for obvious reasons, is represented with the keys or with a fish; many of the saints with the instruments by which they were martyred—St Paul with a sword; St Andrew with a Cross (q.v.); St Simon with a saw; St James the Less with a club; St Matthew with a lance; St Catharine with a wheel; St Lawrence with a gridiron; others with objects connected with their history or in some other way—St George with a dragon; St Matthew with a purse. St James the Elder is figured as a pilgrim. Many hundreds of such emblems are given in Canon Husenbeth's work already mentioned, together with a list of patron saints of trades, professions, countries, and cities. A martyr who had a special interest in a place was called its patron (see PATRON) as early as the 4th century; the possession of a relic was enough to constitute the saint a patron of its possessors. His being born in a place or having died there was a good reason for choosing the patron saint. The angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael were chosen patrons of churches as early as the 6th century. Trades and professions had their patrons, and every disease a saint gifted for its cure. The patron saint defended his votary, heard his prayer, helped him in difficulty, and even protected him at the day of judgment from the consequences of his sin. Among well-known patron saints were St George of England, St Andrew of Scotland, St Patrick of Ireland, St David of Wales, St Denis of France, St James of Spain, St Nicholas of Russia, St Stephen of Hungary, St Mark of Venice. There are curious instances, especially in the 15th century, of armorial bearings assigned to certain English and other saints. The Catholic doctrine of invocation of the saints is treated at PRAYER; at RELICS the honour paid to relics of saints and martyrs is dealt with. See also ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, and SYMBOL.
Besides the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, see Mrs Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art; Alban-Butler, Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and other Saints (12 vols., new ed. 1866); Baring-Gould, Lives of the Saints (17 vols. 1872-92), the last volume of which treats of the emblems of saints; Lives of the English Saints (1844-45), edited by Cardinal Newman; C. A. Jones, Saints of the Prayer-book (1885); R. Owen, Sanctorale Catholicum (1880); R. M. Stanton, A Menology of England and Wales (1888), which includes the English martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries recently beatified by Pope Leo X.; for Irish saints, O'Hanlan (1877) and Whitley Stokes (1888); for Scottish, Forbes (1872) and Pinkerton (new ed. 1892); for Welsh, Rees (1853).