A Great Cloud of Witnesses

Today in the United States, we celebrate a federal holiday honouring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It seems like a good day to tackle the question “are there non-Catholic saints?” Seems like a simple question.

First off, what’s a saint exactly? We turn to our trusty Catechism once more and find the following:

823 “The Church . . . is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as ‘alone holy,’ loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God” (Cf. Eph 5:25-26). The Church, then, is “the holy People of God,”290 and her members are called “saints” (Acts 9:13).

That’s not entirely helpful, especially since it goes on to say:

825 “The Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real though imperfect” (Lumen Gentium 48). In her members perfect holiness is something yet to be acquired: “Strengthened by so many and such great means of salvation, all the faithful, whatever their condition or state – though each in his own way – are called by the Lord to that perfection of sanctity by which the Father himself is perfect” (Lumen Gentium 11).

So while I might not be particularly saintly (yet!), it’s my job to ever progress down the road of holiness and so to become at last a saint in heaven.

Still doesn’t tell us what a saint is, exactly.

Fortunately, we read on and discover this:

956 The intercession of the saints. “Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness…. They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus…. So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped” (Lumen Gentium 49; cf. 1 Tim:2-5).

“Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you then more effectively than during my life”
(Saint Dominic, to his brothers on his deathbed).

“I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth”
(Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, The Final Conversations)

Emphasis mine. So the saints are those in heaven. Furthermore, since the Church has a comprehensive process for determining if somebody is a saint, she is very careful and very sparing in this designation. In 2,000 years the Church has recognized about 10,000 saints. That’s less than five a year, and certainly fewer than the number of souls in heaven.

So, back to the question. Hmm. Turns out meaning of the question informs the answer.

If you mean “could the Church recognize non-Catholics as saints?” The answer must be absolutely yes, for although the Church can only speak for her own baptized believers, she commends the righteous, baptized and unbaptized alike, to the infinite mercy of God.

Pope Paul VI hedged in exactly this way at his the homily at the canonization of the Ugandan martyrs. While he canonized the 22 Catholic martyrs, he also made mention of the Anglican dead:

Et mentione digni sunt alii etiam, qui, anglicana instituta religiosa profitentes, pro Christi nomine morte affecti sunt.

And the others are worthy of mention also, who, professing the Anglican religious customs, were afflicted with death for the name of Christ.

(source)

“Death in the name of Christ” is the very definition of martyrdom, and that’s a punched ticket to heaven. The Pope certainly implied that these Anglicans were Christian martyrs and therefore saints.

If you mean “has the Catholic Church ever actually canonized a non-Catholic?” Then the answer must be no. The process of canonization requires that somebody put forth the cause of the deceased. It’s unlikely that a non-Catholic family or organization would do that for one of their own, as it would mean that they acknowledge the authority of the Church.

If you acknowledge that authority, you’d be Catholic, so that scenario is pretty unlikely.

As an aside, the situation between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in regard to the veneration of saints canonized after the Great Schism seems much more complicated. While neither the Catholic nor Orthodox venerate each others’ saints officially, neither do they necessarily dismiss them.

One of the most obvious examples was Pope John Paul II, who in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope refers to the hieromonk Prokhor Moshnin by his Orthodox label of Saint Seraphim of Sarov – complete with the title of “saint”.

As we’ve seen, the saints intercede for us with God – they pray for us, just as I might pray for you.

We admire their Christian example, and we ask them to pray for us. This, we call veneration. Note that this is not worship, which is reserved to God alone!

When the Church canonizes a saint, they’re not making somebody a saint, they’re merely confirming that this person is one and proposing him or her for our veneration.

There are a vast, unknown and unnamed number of saints who we shall only know in heaven.

I have no problem at all in venerating those who seem to have lived holy lives, and asking them to intercede for me. I have prayed to G.K. Chesterton, for example, whose cause for sainthood is stalled, probably for the next century or more, and J.R.R. Tolkien, whose cause will not be taken up in my lifetime.

That’s how causes move forward: prayer and response.

So was Doctor King a martyr for Christ? I don’t know, but I hope to find out one day.