Expository Speech on Saints
... this would be on February 14 the Western world celebrates St. Valentine’s feast day. Today, the Vatican, which is the Catholic Church in Rome only, declares sainthood or "canonization" after painstakingly scrutinizing the character of a deceased martyr, evangelist or public servant. The formal process of sainthood involves a complicated process taking time, money, testimonies, and miracles, and the church follows a very strict set of rules in the process. To begin a cause it is necessary for at least 5 years to have passed since the death of the candidate. First, to determine who qualifies, the Vatican looks to its Congregation for the "Causes of Saints". Typically, his or her admirers who persuade the church that the life of the candidate was a model of holiness and present a would-be candidate’s “cause” to the local bishop Once the applicant is approved as a candidate Personal testimonies, letters, and writings of the candidate's are put together. A relater then sifts through this information and prepares a position paper. If the volumes of evidence prove a life of "heroic virtue", the person is given the title "venerable" by the Pope. The next title, beatified (blessed), is attained if it can be proven that a miracle occurred after the death of the candidate, the result of someone praying to that person for help. To finalize a canonization, it must be established that a second miracle occurred. (Martyrs are the exception. The pope can reduce their miracle requirement to one or waive it altogether.) Verifying a miracle is considered the most difficult hurdle in the process. Just deciding what constitutes one causes debate. A candidates writings, their sayings, everything about them are, so to speak, put under a microscope,” Once a person is named a true saint, they often become the patron of a problem, a profession, or even a place. There is a saint for just about anything. Particular ailments have there own saints. St. Bibiana handles hangovers, St. Lucy, blindness while St. Kea takes care of your toothache. It’s said that one of St. Kea’s teeth was knocked out and when he went to a near by fountain to wash out his mouth the water cured his toothache. Saints are like heroes to people. One saint is even connected with a country, who hasn’t heard of St. Patrick. He is Irelands hero and celebrated in the United States by association with green and little leprechauns. There are even saints for such things, as students St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Catherine of Alexandria are believed to have been great philosophers and preachers. . More famous saints include St. Nicholas and St. Valentine. Even St. Christopher who is the patr...