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Saints Salmaains THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG

ascetics, is addressed by Gregory Nasianzen, by Basil, and by Jerome as intercessors between man and God. Not alone their bones but their graves and their shrines are instruments of blessing; they appear to those who invoke them or are represented by angels who assume their form; and though Augustine issues a warning against the adoration of the dead and argues that the saints are to be reverenced as models, and not worshiped as gods, with him, too, the prayers for the saints at the eucharistic oblations become transformed into an appeal addressed to the saints for their intercession. Julian was in a position to reproach the Christians with having abandoned the service of the gods for that of mere men. In his time every altar had its relics and the sick were laid in the chapels of the saints as formerly they were placed in the temples of Xsculapius. The opposition of a Eunomius, a Eustathius, or a Vigilantius could not check the rapid increase of the cult. The wearing of relics as amulets became common, the aid of the saints was invoked before the inception of important measures, and formal gratitude was rendered them on the successful completion of an adventure. Particular lands and particular trades and professions adopted their patron saints.

The veneration of the saints was formally sanctioned by the second Nicene Council (787) which distinguished, however, between the proskynesis or douleia, the reverence due to the saints and the

absolute worship, latreia, to be ren In the dered to God alone (see Du1.lA). In Middle the West, though the Caroline Books Ages. (q.v.) pronounced for the veneration of the saints, Charlemagne was no friend of the cult in its extreme form, and the Synod of Frankfort in 794 declared against the addition of new names to the list of those venerated. But under Louis the Pious (814-840) the translation of saints became common, and though pretests against the abuses connected with the cult are found after 1104 the principle of the practise was not assailed. In the case of a Bernard or Francis of Assisi venera tion was paid to a saintly character even in his life time. It was the voice of the people that at first bestowed the title of holiness; Uhzch of Augsburg was the first to receive the papal canonization. Scholasticism supplied the dogmatic basis for the worship of saints by describing them as friends of God and intercessors before his throne. The dis tinction between douleia and latreia was preserved and the saints were divided into six categories, par triarchs and prophets, apostles, martyrs, confes sors, virgins, and holy women. Indeed the close of the Middle Ages was marked by the appearance of many new saints, the worship of Anna, the mother of Mary, becoming at that time the basis of a separate cult in Germany.

The Reformation in transforming the ideal of the religious and moral life struck at the roots of saint worship. The certainty of salvation obtained through faith in Christ made the intercession of saints not only superfluous, but derogatory to the character of Christ as the sole advocate. The. Augsburg Confession declares itself clearly on the faint. The Apology would permit the rendering

of honors to the saints though it finds no Scriptural basis for their invocation, and Luther in the Schmal-

kald Articles declares definitely against The Refor- the practise. The Council of Trent mation and contented itself with declaring the

After. practise " ° good and useful," and de cisively rejected a proposal looking to its abandonment. In fact, however, saint worship continued to be a very essential part of the religious life of the southern peoples. In the Greek Orthodox Church the saints are invoked " not as gods but as friends of God." Altars are not dedicated to them. In practise the worshiper addresses himself to his name saint after the Virgin, and the feast days of the saints have pushed the Sabbath day into the background. The Russian Church has added many saints to those it received from the Greek Church, but it knows no actual process of canonization. It considers the most important mark of sanctity to be the delay in, or the total absence of, physical decomposition following death, together with exhi bition of miraculous powers. See CANONIZATION; COMMUNION OF SAINTS; and AcTA MARTmum AND AcTA SANcToRUnf.

BIBLJOGRAPHY: The literature of first importance is given in AcrA MAnTrauae, AcTA SAxcroxurs, which the student can not afford to miss. Further treatises (selected from an immense literature) of a general nature are: C. Cabier, Caractlsiatiques lea saints done Part populaire, 2 vols., Paris, 1867; H. Usener, Legenden der heiligen Pelagia, Bonn, 1879; W. H. Anderdon, Evenings with the Saints, London, 1883; G. F. L. Du Broc, Les Saints Patrons lea corporations, 2 vols., Paris, 1887; H. Samson, Die Schutaheiligen, Paderborn, 1889; idem, Die Heiligen ala Kirchenpatrone, ib. 1892; T. Trede, Das Heidentum in der r6mizchen Kirche. Bilder aus dem religifen und aittlichen Leben Siiditalient, 4 vols., Goths, 188981; S. Biessel, Die Verehrung der Heiligen and ihrer Reliquien in Deutschland, ib. 1890; F. Kattenbuseh, Verglefchends Konfessionskunde, i. 456 sqq., Freiburg, 1892; H. R. Percival, The Invocation of Saints, London, 1896; O. PHeiderer, Die Attribute der Heiligen, Ulm, 1897; H. Leclereq, Lea Martyrs. Recuqrl de pikes authentiqum sur lee martyrs, 3 vols., Paris, 1902-04; E. Hells, Studies in Saintship, London, 1903; H. P. Brewster, Saints and Festivals of the Christian Church, New York, 1904; E. A. Greene, Saints and their Symbols, London, 1904; J. HahnHahn, Die Afdrtyrer, Regensburg, 1904; E. Lucius, Die Anfange des Heiligenkults in der christlichen Kirche, Tiibingen, 1904; H. Delehaye, Lea Legends hagiographiques, Brussels, 1905; D. H. Kerler, Die Patronate der Heiligen, Ulm, 1905; H. Siebert, Beitrage zur vorreformatorischen Heiligen- and Reliquienverahrung, Freiburg, 1907.

For eastern hagiology consult: A. Ehrhardt, Die Legendenaammdungen,Freiburg, 1896; idem, Forschungen zur Hagiographie der griechiachen Kirche, in RQS, 1897, pp. 67 sqq.; L:, Clugnet, Bibliothpque hagiographique oiientale, Paris, 1901 sqq.; G. Rabeau, Le Cults des saints done l'Afrique ehrltienne, ib. 1903. For England: John Wilson, The English Martyrologe, Conteyning a Summary of the Lives of the . . Saintes of the Three Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland collected . . . into mondhs after the Form of a Callendar according to every Saints's Festivity, London, 1608; idem, The Roman Martyrologe, according to the Re. formed Calendar, ib. 1627; John Bowden, Oratorian Lives of the Saints, 4 vols., r'b. 1873-75; T. Walsh, The Church of Erin. Her Saints, 3 parts, New York, 1885; R. Stanton, Menology of England and Wales, London, 1887; F. Heitemeyer, Die Healigen Deutechlande, Paderhom, 1888; John Pinkerton, Vitas antiquas sanctorum qui habitaverunt in ea parts Britannia nunc vocata Scotia vel ejus insulin, ed. W. M. Mitealfe 2 vole., Paisley, 1890; The Book of Lismore, Oxford, 1890· F. A. Smallpiece, The Enolish Saints of the English Calendar, ib. 1894; F. E. Arnold-Forster, Studies in Church Dedications, or, England's Patron Saints, 3 vols., London, 1899; W. Fleming, A Complete Calendar of the English Saints, ib. 1902; W. H. Hutton, Inlfumee of Chris-