Any Lay Saints?

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SonofJoseph said:
Especially the one with “Blessed” in front of their names who have a miracle attributed to their cause for canonization.
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Servant of God and Venerable are both declared with regards to how a person lived on earth without explicit reference to where they are in eternity. It is worthy of belief that Servant’s and Venerable’s are in heaven, but it’s possible they are still in purgatory. I would, however, rule out the possibility that someone could be a Servant or Venerable yet be in hell.

The key difference between a Servant of God and a Venerable is a Servant has only been declared by their local Bishop to have lived a life of virtue as a servant of God, whereas a Venerable has been declared to have lived a holy and venerable life throughout the universal Church.

Blessed and Saint are both declared with regard to where someone is in heaven - upon Beatification, the Church recognizes the person is in heaven and can intercede for us and be venerated.

The only difference between a Blessed and a Saint is that a Saint can be given a feast day on the General Roman Calendar (i.e. become a rule in the Church, hence “canonized”), whereas Blessed’s are only recognized on local calendars.

There is zero difference between a Saint and a Blessed with regard to their being in Heaven.

This applies to the Latin Church. In the East the situation is a bit different - Saints are not “canonized” - they are “glorified [by the Church].”
 
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Bernadette did go into a religious order.
There are also quite a few female saints who had an ordinary life for some years and then joined an order after their husbands died, etc.
 
Thank you for the excellent resource!

I’d still like to know about specific Saints from folks. Less of a shot in the dark for me. 🙂
 
In addition to the child saints already mentioned (St. Maria Goretti, Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto of Fatima)
there are also St. Dominic Savio and St. Jose Sanchez Del Rio, who both died at very young ages.
 
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St. Joseph was also a very “ordinary Joe” of a saint. A simple working man thrust into a situation he certainly didn’t expect.
 
Here’s another, St. Guy of Anderlecht, also known as St. Guido, or the Poor Man of Anderlecht. Born in Belgium around the year 950, he was drawn to religious life, but he was poor and uneducated, and so he worked as merchant. After a bad business deal, he became a pilgrim and a hermit in Europe and the Holy Lands. When he returned to Belgium, he served as the sacristan in his parish church, and devoted his time to helping the poor. Miracles were reported after his death, and his gravesite became a shrine. He is the patron saint of bachelors.
 
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Very true! My husband and I were talking the other night about how (relatively) little recognition Joseph gets (outside the Church). My husband is still Baptist btw.
 
St Joseph and the Blessed Mother and St Elizabeth and St Mary Magdelene
 
Here’s some more, now that I’m in front of a computer.

St. Isidore the Farmer, who was a farmer in Spain who helped the poor (his wife is up for canonization as well)
St. Thomas More, who was a lawyer and politician
St. Anne Line, a housewife who was martyred in England for hiding priests and having secret Masses in her apartment
St. Giuseppe Moscati, an Italian medical doctor and University professor who died in 1927
St. Zita, a servant to a wealthy Italian family
 
Bernadette and Lucia became nuns so I don’t think they count.
 
Lucia isn’t a saint yet. She is a Servant of God currently, which is the opening stage of the canonization process.

Francesco and Jacinta Marto are saints.
 
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Ray said Fatima children and I take that to refer to all three. Sorry.
 
I’m sure she will be a saint someday. She died relatively recently, and they can’t even start the saint process till you’ve been dead five years, so it will take a while, especially since she lived such a long time they have a lot of material to go through and review.
 
St. Rose of Lime came to mind as well as St. Dymphna. Not sure what is meant by prominent saint. Not sure if St. Dymphna actually fits the parameters of being a lay person. Her father was a king so she was quite privileged I would imagine.
 
metanoia1 said:
St. Rose of Lime came to mind
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She was a Dominican tertiary. I’m not sure if that counts as a “religious order”.
St. Catherine of Siena was also a Dominican tertiary, which is why I didn’t list her.
Both of them lived at home with their parents, but essentially lived the life of a person in a religious order, just not in a convent.
 
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