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A friend of mine is writing a book about holy men and women. She has asked me to find out about those Causes from the Eastern Catholic Churches that are pending. Help! Silouan, monk

Dear Brother in Christ,
God is with us!
There are numerous "Causes" of holy men and women from various Eastern Catholic Churches awaiting "canonization" in the Vatican Curia. I am a firm believer that every autonomous Church has the authority to glorify (the Byzantine Term) its own saints, but so far the courage to perform such an act has evaded us.

The Servant of God Metropolitan Andre' Sheptitsky of L'viv first comes to mind. Other include the martyred Bishops of the Greek Catholic Churches of Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and Slovakia. The martyrs of the genocide of Eastern Christians in the late Ottomen Empire also come to mind. Of course the Blesseds of the Holy Martyrs of Pohidula (sp.?) who were Polish Greek Catholics martyred in the 19th Century by the Russians were beatified in 1996.

In the cases of the martyred Greek Catholic Bishops are delayed, because of the question of possible Vatican complicity in their martyrdoms. For example the martyred Bishop Nicetas Budka was removed from his office as Exarch of Canada by the Vatican, because of his refusal to accept ordaining only celibates to the priesthood. He was made auxiliary Bishop of Premysyl, the Poles turned him over to the Soviets at who hands he died.

There are several Eastern Catholics, who by joining Roman Catholic religious orders turned their backs on their Eastern Christianity, who are candidates for Rome's canonization. Such a former Byzantine Catholic, Roman Catholic nun may be the first Carpatho-Rusyn American Roman Catholic Saint. I wonder if presenting such a person as an "example of heroic sanctity" is any less destructive to the Byzantine Catholic Church, as the work of the recently glorified Saint Alexis Toth of Wilkes-Barre.

We all need to be seriously thinking about just what canonization is all about!

Your Brother in Christ,
the priest Bryan

A church that cannot canonize its own saints is not a church but an appendage of another.

Elias


[This message has been edited by Elias (edited 07-08-1999).]

I don't share the same vehemence others do about canonization. In past times, given limited communications, saints were declared by the local church. Higher bodies had no ability to know of the vitures of a particular person and the cult was unlikely to spread beyond a local area anyway. This practice was not one unique to the East but common to East and West and did result in certain abuses.

Nowdays, the cause of saints can and does start with the local church (or sometimes religious orders or groups of the faithful) and one of the steps towards canonization by the universal church is veneration by the local community.

Given mass communications, the causes of saints would, in current times, be a proper function for the universal church. It seems absolutely absured that a person could be venerated as a saint in St. Cyril's parish but not in St. Boniface, two blocks away.

In a world so hurt by racism and nationalism, we need saints not just of one's own particular church, race and nationality but of different races, cultures and traditions.

Glory Be to Jesus Christ!
As a church historian I feel myself obliged to correct some mistakes done by Father Bryan.
1) Servant of God Andrew ("Andrei" in Slavonic) count Sheptyts'kyi (Szeptycki in Polish spelling) was Metropolitan of Halych, not of L'viv. Yes, he resided in L'viv and used the title "Archbishop of L'viv", but the church province he headed was named Halych Metropolitanate.
2) It is not correct to write about separate "Greek Catholic Churches of Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Slovakia". Only the Romanian Metropolitanate was considered at that time (the 1940s) the separate Church ("rite"). Before the 1960s Greek-Catholics from Ukraine (including Zakarpattya with its Eparchy of Mukachevo/Mukachiv/Munkacs), Slovakia, Poland and even Yugoslavia (the major part of faithful of the Eparchy of Krizhevtsi) and, partially, Hungary (Exarchate of Miskolc) were considered the one community - the "Ruthenians". Look at the
"Annuario Pontificio"!
3) Beatified 13 martyrs from Pratulin (not "Pohidula"! - look at my topic "Podlachian Martyrs from Pratulin" at Byzantine News) were not Poles! They're of undoubtly Ukrainian origin, language, cultural affiliation etc. Of course, they had no modern national consciousness - but writing they're "Polish Greek Catholics" makes no sense.
4) Bishop Nicetas ("Nykyta" in Slavonic, "Mykyta" in Ukrainian) Budka wasn't the auxiliary of Peremyshl (Przemysl in Polish - but not "Premysyl")! He was auxiliary bishop of the Archeparchy of L'viv!
It's true Polish Communist regime in 1946 deported both Greek-Catholic Bishops from Peremyshl, but their names were Josaphat Kotsylovs'kyi and Gregory (Hryhoriy) Lakota. The first was the ordinary, the second - auxiliary bishop.
I hope Fr. Bryan will not feel himself offended by my comments.
Peter

There are a great number of martyrs and confessors for this century. Such a book is an excellent idea. See Athanasius Pekar's You Shall Be Witnesses unto Me for martyrs and confessors of the Mukachevo Eparchy. Fr. Pekar has authored other books on the Carpatho-Rusyn hagiography for other eparchies. There are several possible candidates for the Russian church

Some Russian Eastern saints include Fr Wendelin Javorka, S. J.(1882-1966) confessor. He was a Slovak who served as a missionary in Presov an Mukachevo eparchies during the 1920s. He later became rector of the Russicum. During WWII he worked in the Soviet Union. Was seized and imprisoned by the Soviets for about ten years (1946-1956.)He died in his native Slovakia March 24, 1966. The story of Fr. Vladimir (Walter) Ciszek, S. J. (1904-1984) is well known. Information about other Russian martyrs and confessors can be found at St. Michael the Archangel website. Most prominent Ukrainian Catholic church figures have very short biographies in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine. I refer to the later multivolume edition. Glory to Jesus Christ !

Some more sources for Eastern saints include: Donald Attwater Saints of the East. Check the websites of the various Eastern Catholic churches. The Russian Catholic parish in New York, St. Michael the Archangel has some of the best information on Russian saints. There are a number of books on the Ukrainian catholic Church. One is by Serge Keleher. The Maronite website has a new saint . Glory to Jesus Christ!

Silouan (et.al.!)
I would like to expand upon one of the points made by Fr. Bryan, i.e., it is useful today not to limit those who can be presented as "models of faith" to those who are being proposed for canonization by the Roman curia.
I would repeat Fr.'s comment that the process of canonization in itself is worthy of discussion. (There is a rather extensive body of scholarly writing on this topic.) I will begin such a discussion by offering the opinion that we would be better served putting our energies into reminding us all that EVERY baptised Christian is called to be a saint.
As I think of those who have been models of holiness for me, I call to mind a rich assortment of people. Families with a special needs child, who day in and day out perform heroic service in love; women who are caretakers for the elderly, quietly exercising their ministry of the "washing of the feet" while being ignored or even laughed at by those around them; the pocket of 3,7,10 faithful who attend daily services in every parish, not because they have nothing else to do or because it gives them status in the community, but simply because they are hungry to pray ...
I could go on, but I hope my point is clear. These are the types of stories which I would find more edifying at this t ime in my life.
Phil Yevics

Well said, Phil! I couldn't agree with you more. Officially declared saints are important to the whole church and to the liturgy, but I believe we are individually called to honor the hidden saints we encounter in our daily lives. They are beacons of holiness to us, and in discovering their sanctity we find an opportunity to receive grace ourselves so that we too may come one step nearer the source of all holiness.

The original question was about hagiography.I hope the bibliography I have presented proves useful. Glory to Jesus Christ !

I have recently come into possession of some materials from my ancestral village in the mountains of Greece, in the Province of Arkadia.

It has been the tradition of the village to honor (venerate?) people whose lives were dedicated to the service of the poor. There are tablets on the walls of the church, and there are public commemorations of their lives in the community.

Do we need bleeding stigmata; do we need people raised from their deathbeds; do we need solar eclipses or dancing stars to verify the holiness of these people's lives?

Think of the Albanian woman known as Mother Teresa. Most Christians I talk to consider her a saint of God because she gave up everything to care for the sick and dying, for abandoned babies, for those dying of AIDS, and for women and children put out of their homes because of 'social' order customs, and for the dignity of ALL human beings as children of God.

Do you think that I (and zillions of other Christians-- and non-Christians too!!) am going to wait for a bunch of miracles before I consider her a holy woman and worthy of my respect and veneration? Do you seriously think that it is appropriate for me to wait for some Neapolitan bureaucrat to sign some papers and to authorize my public honor of this woman? Wrong.

The medievals had a phrase: "Vox populi, vox Dei". (The voice of the people is the voice of God.) This has conveniently been forgotten in contemporary, hierarchical theology. So, we Christian people, individually and collectively, have every right to declare someone worthy of our veneration without the "Mother, may I" game.

So: Glory to the Servant of God, Teresa, Saint of Calcutta! May her prayers and good works bring us to the Throne of God!

(And if someone feels the need to report me to the authorities for 'declaring' a saint, send me an e-mail, and I'll give you my name, address and phone number to include in the report.)

[This message has been edited by Dr John (edited 07-29-1999).]

Boy oh boy! Ask a simple question.......
Dr. John: You sure do seem to have strong feelings about the papal process of canonization though I think there is some kind of process in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, though not as involved and time-consuming. I do believe though that the present pope has worked to simplify the process and to encourage the peoples of the world to honor holy people, especially martyrs. He has written extensively about this in many of his documents, especially the one on the Third Millenium.
I believe that it is certainly appropriate to honor those we have known who have led holy lives and to ask them to pray at the Throne of Grace for us.
As far as the Eastern Orthodox are concerned, (I speak with very limited knowledge) I know that there are certain requirements that must be met before a holy person is glorified and may be commemorated in the Divine Liturgy. Eg. The Royal New Martyrs have been glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia but not by the Patriarchal Church. I was also given to understand that, since the process of canonization in the Catholic Church involves the papal dogma of infallibility, a great deal of investigation must be done. There are certainly many, many un-recognized saints. Hopefully, you and I will be among them!

I must agree with Dr. John. Proclamation of saints should be done at the local Church level by those who are members of the same local Church - ideally by those who knew them and witnessed their holiness. Each of us who is baptized is called to become a saint. The great "cloud of witnesses" includes the person in the next pew who has devoted his or her life to serving those among us who are less fortunate - be they children in the cancer ward, the elderly or the poor. When the local Church sees one of its own who has led an exceptionally holy life it should proclaim that person a saint. All of those who have gone before us in holiness are still with us and can pray for us as we pray for them - this is what profess in the communion of saints. The idea that this should involve papal infallibility and a rigorous process is nothing but excessive legalism. All salvation is local. Acknowledgement of this salvation should also be local since Christ is present here in our midst just as much as he is present in Rome or Constantinople.

Moose--

That sounds good, but I would try to preserve a contribution to the process from both the local and the universal church. History has shown a tenedeny for the local church to canonize local elites and civil figures.