Saint's

[tony mattar]

According to The Church teaching, is a Saint a Saint when they are alive, or are they a Saint when they are dead?

[DavidObeid]

Both.

Before I give an answer to this, allow me to first make the distinction between the way the New Testament uses the word saint and the common usage it has in the Church today.

A saint is someone whom God has made holy (the word saint and the word sanctify - make holy - are related). Since our justification in Baptism makes us holy the Bible refers to all who are in Christ as "saints".

Modern use of the word (eg St. Joseph, St. Peter, St. Augustine, St. Anthony, St. Anne, St. Thomas etc) describes those who the Church puts forwards as models for us as examples of virtue and sanctity. The Church isn't ignoring what the Bible says, nor is it attempting to usurp or change what it says.

OK, that said, the Saints we honour in the Church are those whose lives the Church has studied and examined for heroic virtue and/or great love of God and neighbour and whose sanctity has been proven by miracles after their death.

Does that help?

[tony mattar]

that does help David, but in saying that a Saint is a saint whilst they are alive i.e reffering to the end part of your answer, are we not judging, by saying that a Saint is a saint when they are alive, or is this what the Bible is reffering to ?

[DavidObeid]

When the Church canonises a Saint they are confirming that the person's virtues are worthy of being imitated and that there is divine proof that they are reigning with Christ in heaven. That means, by definition, that they are dead. The Church doesn't canonise a Saint whilst they're still alive.

[tony mattar]

makes sense
thanks David