Angels are Saints?

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carol_marie

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I thought that only people who died and went to heaven were Saints… but I’ve just read that angels are also Saints.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=79839

I’m wondering why we say, “and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin, and all the angels and saints, and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord our God.”

It makes it seems like they are two different things… :confused:
 
The Angel are pure spirit and existed before humans. The Saints are humans who have great virtues and are spirit until the reunification of the body at the end time. Mary is human with a resurrected body.
 
Actually, we are also saints, you and I. It is not just those who have died and gone to heaven who are saints. I briefly looked for where it was stated in the Catechism, couldn’t find my hardcopy and couldn’t find the reference online.

But if you look under saints in the topical index in the back, you will find it. I know because when I was considering coming back to the Catholic Church someone tried to talk me out of it by saying, “You know, Catholics don’t believe they are saints and the Bible says we are all saints.” I looked it up in the Catechism and she was wrong, we are all defined as saints.

The Catholic Church just ***commonly ***reserves the term Saint for those we know to be in heaven.

So although we could just say “I ask all the saints to pray for me to the Lord our God” we just like to differentiate the saints in that prayer.

I did not ***think ***about angels being saints until I also read the answer in the apologist at one time or another. Although I regularly say the prayer of St. Michael the archanger!

I hope that helps a little.

Maria
 
There are also some angels who we refer to as saints, such as Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael.
 
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twhicke:
There are also some angels who we refer to as saints, such as Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael.
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That link seemed to indicate that ALL angels were saints though?
 
I heard it like this…

Angel is merely the title given to the occupation of that particular spirit. Humans would be another type of spirit created by God.

So:

All angels are spirits, but not all spirits are angels. Some would be human beings.

And just as with human beings, we all (including spirit angels) belong to the larger Communion of Saints… (the non venerated ‘saint’).

Then there are spirits that have done God’s will so perfectly or so spectacularly, that we venerate them and call them (big ‘S’) Saints.

Because angels are spirits- they can be Saints or saints, just as human being spirits can be Saints or saints.

So there are those angels who are in the beatific vision of God, who we do NOT venerate as Saints. They are just spirits that have the occupation of angel.

Angels and Saints.
 
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Shiann:
So there are those angels who are in the beatific vision of God, who we do NOT venerate as Saints. They are just spirits that have the occupation of angel.
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The only angels we speak of as Saints (Gabriel, Michael, Raphael) are those whose names we know through divine revelation. Since the names of others have not been revealed we, of course, cannot refer to them as Saint X, Y or Z 🙂 (“saint” being a reference to their holiness and in this case of particular angelic spirits the identity of which has been revealed).
 
The word in Latin, Sanctus, gets translated as Saint as well as Holy in English.

Saint can mean:

All those in heaven, including angels.

All men in heaven, excluding angels.

A title given to those we glorify – both the angels we know from the bible and men that are canonized.

Holy or holy one.

Someone who has or has died with “heroic virtue” – which is a necessary criterion for canonization which is a recognition of heroic virtue as well as being in heaven.

Someone who has or has died with heroic virtue and been canonized.

IMHO having all Christians be known as “saints” regardless of personal holiness is a “Protestant thing” 😛 Saint means holy or holy one … if someone is a Christian, duly baptized, but like me, is a horrible sinner, then that person is no holy one, no saint! Bibles translate the word as both “saint” and “holy one” – same exact word, kind of like the Latin word sanctus gets translated as “saint” or “holy” If it’s not a Protestant thing, it’s definitely a post-Vatican II thing.
 
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tuopaolo:
The word in Latin, Sanctus, gets translated as Saint as well as Holy in English.

Saint can mean:

All those in heaven, including angels.

All men in heaven, excluding angels.

A title given to those we glorify – both the angels we know from the bible and men that are canonized.

Holy or holy one.

Someone who has or has died with “heroic virtue” – which is a necessary criterion for canonization which is a recognition of heroic virtue as well as being in heaven.

Someone who has or has died with heroic virtue and been canonized.

IMHO having all Christians be known as “saints” regardless of personal holiness is a “Protestant thing” 😛 Saint means holy or holy one … if someone is a Christian, duly baptized, but like me, is a horrible sinner, then that person is no holy one, no saint! Bibles translate the word as both “saint” and “holy one” – same exact word, kind of like the Latin word sanctus gets translated as “saint” or “holy” If it’s not a Protestant thing, it’s definitely a post-Vatican II thing.
Click to expand...
From the Catholic Encyclopedia- 1908 (therefore PRE-Vatican II)

Entry- Saints, Communion of

The communion of saints is the spiritual solidarity which binds together the faithful on earth, the souls in purgatory, and the saints in heaven in the organic unity of the same mystical body under Christ its head, and in a constant interchange of supernatural offices. The participants in that solidarity are called saints by reason of their destination and of their partaking of the fruits of the Redemption (I Cor., i, 2-Greek Text). The damned are thus excluded from the communion of saints. The living, even if they do not belong to the body of the true Church, share in it according to the measure of their union with Christ and with the soul of the Church. St. Thomas teaches (III:8:4) that the angels, though not redeemed, enter the communion of saints because they come under Christ’s power and receive of His gratia capitis.

We are all saints (and have been considered so for hundreds of years). We venerate Saints…
 
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