Admiring the Saints

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If you are a Catholic, are there any Orthodox saints that you admire? Or, if you are an Orthodox, are there any Catholic saints that you admire? Why?

For example, I am a Catholic, but I have a great admiration for (St.) Silouan the Athonite. In moments of great difficulty, I often remember the words that Christ gave to him: “Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not!”

I also have great respect for Elder Paisios of Mount Athos…for his simplicity.
 
St. Francis Xavier, for much the same reasons I admire pioneering Orthodox Saints.
 
I believe some Orthodox hail Andrei Rublev, the great Russian icon painter, as a saint. I certainly love his work and admire the man who created works of such power and profundity.

And I know the family of the last Tsar of Russia, the Romanovs, have been canonised as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox church. I certainly compassionate their horrific end, abandoned even by their close relatives among English royalty who refused to grant them asylum from the Communists who killed them. I also believe Nicholas and Alexandra had a good marriage, scurrilous rumours about Rasputin aside.
 
Shortly after the Russian Church in Exile (aka Russian Orthodox Church Abroad or the Synod) glorified St. John of San Francisco, churches in other jurisdictions, especially the OCA and Antiochians were named for him.

We soon saw the reconciliation between ROCA and the Moscow Patriarchate, and thus the rest of Orthodoxy. I believe there was a direct spiritual cause and effect here.

Maybe if the faithful start venerating the other Church’s saints, we’ll see reconciliation among the Churches–not only between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, but with the Assyrian Church of the East and the Non-Chalcedonian Miaphysite Churches as well.

Ya think?

Obviously, there will be some saints that appeal to us more than others for whatever reason.

But this is one of the reasons why the Church is Catholic–there are treasures for everybody.
 
Cistercian said:
If you are a Catholic, are there any Orthodox saints that you admire? Or, if you are an Orthodox, are there any Catholic saints that you admire? Why?

For example, I am a Catholic, but I have a great admiration for (St.) Silouan the Athonite. In moments of great difficulty, I often remember the words that Christ gave to him: “Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not!”

I also have great respect for Elder Paisios of Mount Athos…for his simplicity.
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I think St. Francis de Sales was a good Catholic saint because of his unrelenting devotion to bring the Protestants back. I also respect St. John Vianney for his simplicity and steadfast faith.

In Christ,
Andrew
 
Harpazo said:
I think St. Francis de Sales was a good Catholic saint because of his unrelenting devotion to bring the Protestants back.
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I likewise have always been a fan of St. Francis of Sales. Although well known in Catholic circles, I think he is under-appreciated.

I am glad you brought that up.
 
I am of a similar mind.

It’s not that I think they are not saints (we all know that most of those who are saved cannot be known to us by name, and if we did know we might be surprised), it’s that I think that it is too obviously a political statement.

It’s not a new phenomenon, the number of monarchs who have been canonized in the east and west is probably (IMO) out of proportion to their numbers in society.
 
St. Seraphim of Sarov. The story of his transfiguration gives me chills.
 
bpbasilphx said:
Shortly after the Russian Church in Exile (aka Russian Orthodox Church Abroad or the Synod) glorified St. John of San Francisco, churches in other jurisdictions, especially the OCA and Antiochians were named for him.

We soon saw the reconciliation between ROCA and the Moscow Patriarchate, and thus the rest of Orthodoxy. I believe there was a direct spiritual cause and effect here.

Maybe if the faithful start venerating the other Church’s saints, we’ll see reconciliation among the Churches–not only between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, but with the Assyrian Church of the East and the Non-Chalcedonian Miaphysite Churches as well.

Ya think?

Obviously, there will be some saints that appeal to us more than others for whatever reason.

But this is one of the reasons why the Church is Catholic–there are treasures for everybody.
Click to expand...
But they were never outside of the Communion, they simply ceased taking orders from Moscow, which is the exact same thing the OCA did, based on St. Tikhon’s declaration that all Russian Churches outside of Russia were authorized to cease communication with Moscow until such a time as it was deemed safe to do so.
They were just more political than most in opposing the Soviets.
 
Hesychios said:
It’s not a new phenomenon, the number of monarchs who have been canonized in the east and west is probably (IMO) out of proportion to their numbers in society.
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That’s true, but it’s also understandable, from a purely practical standpoint. The unknown numbers of ordinary men and women who lived holy lives tend not to get much publicity.

“A multitude no one could count…” 🙂
 
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