Saints

Introduction

By Paul Anderson

For December, my son had me listen to the tale of Krampus.  Who knew Santa had an enemy?

Santa Claus, my dear old friend, you are a thief, a traitor, a slanderer, a murderer, a liar, but worst of all you are a mockery of everything for which I stood. You have sung your last ho, ho, ho, for I am coming for your head. . . . I am coming to take back what is mine, to take back Yuletide . . .

- Krampus (from the book, Krampus: The Yule Lord)

 

Since the folklore about Krampus originates from German and Scandinavian mythology, I was quite interested, having both German and Scandinavian 2nd Great-Grandparents.  

6 Germany, 4 Sweden, 3 England, 2 Norway, 1 Ireland

In his book, There Really is a Santa Claus - History of Saint Nicholas & Christmas Holiday Traditions, William J. Federer makes the case that the life of Saint Nicholas (March 15, 270 - December 6, 343)  was embellished into the legend of Santa Claus.

It turns out the Feast of Saint Nicholas is celebrated December 6th.  On the preceding evening of December 5th, Krampus Night or Krampusnacht, is celebrated.  Saint Nick handles the good kids and passes out gifts while Krampus takes care of the naughty kids with coal and a bundle of sticks.  Is it any wonder that I knew nothing of Krampus?  I was such a good kid.

 

So, I thought maybe I should know more about saints.

There are more than 10,000 saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.  Saint Nicholas is the most popular Greek Orthodox saint, like Peter to Catholics and Patrick to Irish.

These saints seem to be the precursor to the National Days we have now and are mainly just reasons for people to eat.  For example, here are some current National Days:

• NATIONAL DARK CHOCOLATE DAY – February 1
• NATIONAL TATER TOT DAY – February 2
• NATIONAL CARROT CAKE DAY – February 3
• NATIONAL HOMEMADE SOUP DAY – February 4
• NATIONAL FROZEN YOGURT DAY – February 6
• NATIONAL FETTUCCINE ALFREDO DAY – February 7
• NATIONAL PIZZA DAY – February 9
• NATIONAL PEPPERMINT PATTY DAY – February 11
• NATIONAL PLUM PUDDING DAY – February 12
• NATIONAL CHEDDAR DAY – February 13
• NATIONAL CREAM-FILLED CHOCOLATES DAY – February 14

Is it any wonder that some of our National Days are directly related to saints?  

Not only is February 14th a day for cream-filled chocolates, but also it is the feast day for Saint Valentine.  Saint Patrick's feast day, March 17th, is also NATIONAL CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE DAY.  Saint Nicholas's feast day is also NATIONAL GAZPACHO DAY.  Since gazpacho hasn't taken off in America, this is the primary reason we changed his name to Santa Claus and moved our feast to the 25th of December.

Even Halloween is tied to saints.  As the number of martyrs and saints increased, there weren't enough days in the year to honor all of them.  So, one day was set aside for all saints.

All Saints Day was made a day of obligation on November 1, 835 in the area of France before it became the Holy Roman Empire.  It is also known as All Hallows' Day, which was part of a larger, 3-day celebration from October 31st to November 2nd called Allhallowtide, and it precedes All Souls' Day, which commemorates the faithful departed.  The day before All Saints Day was known as All Hallows' Eve and became our Halloween and NATIONAL CARAMEL APPLE DAY!

If you think the National Days are crazy, you probably didn't know that this stems from the patronage of the Saints.  Here are some of their stranger patronages:

• ST. VALENTINE – GREETING CARD MANUFACTURERS
• ST. PATRICK – AGAINST ABNORMAL FEAR OF SNAKES
• ST. CLOTILDE – DISAPPOINTING CHILDREN
• ST. DROGO – UNATTRACTIVE PEOPLE
• ST. DRAUSNIUS – INVINCIBLE PEOPLE
• ST. GERMAIN COUSIN – GIRLS FROM RURAL AREAS
• ST. ARNOLD – BEER
• ST. BIBIANA – HANGOVERS
• ST. VITUS – OVERSLEEPING
• ST. CORNELIUS – TWITCHING
• ST. POLYCARP OF SMYRNA – DYSENTERY

So, I wondered if the Bible started all this craziness.

Here are my top 12 verses on Saints:

Jesus On Saints

Matthew 16:16-19 King James Version

16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 27:50-52 King James Version

50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

John 21:20-25 King James Version

20 Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?

21 Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?

22 Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.

23 Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?

24 This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.

25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

Acts 9:4-6 King James Version

4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

Saints In The New Testament

Romans 1:7 King James Version

7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:2 King James Version

2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

1 Peter 1:14-16 King James Version

14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

Revelation 15:3 King James Version

3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

Saints In The Old Testament

Deuteronomy 33:1-3 King James Version

1 And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.

2 And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.

3 Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.

2 Chronicles 6:38-41 King James Version

38 If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name:

39 Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee.

40 Now, my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.

41 Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness.

Psalm 97:10 King James Version

10 Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

Daniel 7:16-18 King James Version

16 I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.

17 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.

18 But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.

Conclusion Of The Whole Matter

The word "saint" occurs close to one hundred times in the King James Version.  However, 

not all translations use that term.  In fact, the NIV has zero occurrences of "saints" and prefers the phrase "holy ones."  The use of "saint" may stem from the fact that "Holy One" is a title of Jesus.  While Peter says that Christians are to be holy like God is holy, there is a difference between Christ's holiness and the holiness of Christians.  Therefore, having a term to distinguish the righteous from the unrighteous who have not yet achieve the perfection of Christ is why the word "saint" has remained in use.

Saint is more frequent in the New Testament with close to twice the Old Testament references, and the Psalms have the vast majority of those uses.  It is interesting to note that most of the OT occurrences appear in blessings, songs, and prayers.

Jesus doesn't use the term "saint."  The only occurrence of the word in the Gospels is after His death when many were resurrected.  So, while the NT doesn't make a distinction between different Christians with the word "saint," I chose a couple of verses from those who have been set apart as special Saints:  Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and Saint John.

It was interested to see that Saint Peter and Saint Paul share a feast day on June 29th.  Saint John has his feast day on December 27th.  Being the Beloved Disciple and having his feast so close to Christmas, it is surprising that John didn't get a major holiday like Saint Valentine, Saint Patrick, or Saint Nicholas.  

At least, John got a city named after himself.  In fact, if it weren't for the Saints, we would probably have to use numbers for all the places named after them.  For example, Santa Fe might be called 1610 rather than it's full Spanish name:  La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis (The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi).

If you haven't got a city named after yourself just yet, don't fear.  Another title for Christ is King Of Saints.  He is the King and all Christians are his servants.  And when he returns, you can add Saint to your name and use it for one of your cities (Luke 19:12-19).

98 Bible results for “saint” from King James Version.

• Old Testament (36)
• New Testament (62)

0 Bible results for “saints” from NIV.

Scripture contributions for December 2022 by: Paul Anderson, Matthew Anderson