Catholic View on Eastern Orthodox Saints?

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bben15

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Hello. šŸ™‚

What is the view of the Catholic Church on Eastern Orthodox saints? If Holy Mother Church recognizes them as true saints, what about the ones that spoke-out against the Papacy?

Thank you for answering. šŸ™‚
 
My understanding is that there are very few ā€œEastern Orthodox Saints,ā€ owing to a lack of unity among those churches, and no formal canonization procedures. However, most of the saints honored by Orthodox communions are in fact Catholic saints (St. Basil, St. Benedict, St. Mary, SS Cyril and Methodius, etc.), so there should be little if any conflict.
 
bben15 said:
Hello. šŸ™‚

What is the view of the Catholic Church on Eastern Orthodox saints? If Holy Mother Church recognizes them as true saints, what about the ones that spoke-out against the Papacy?

Thank you for answering. šŸ™‚
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Seraphim of Sarov is one of my favorites. Interestingly
enough I know more than a few Carmelites that
have found him to be the Russian Orthodox
equivalent of the RCs St. Therese of Lisieux as
had his own ā€œlittle wayā€.

oca.org/saints/lives/2011/01/02/100008-repose-of-the-venerable-seraphim-the-wonderworker-of-sarov
 
margotdarby said:
My understanding is that there are very few ā€œEastern Orthodox Saints,ā€ owing to a lack of unity among those churches, and no formal canonization procedures. However, most of the saints honored by Orthodox communions are in fact Catholic saints (St. Basil, St. Benedict, St. Mary, SS Cyril and Methodius, etc.), so there should be little if any conflict.
Click to expand...
Your understanding is incorrect. There are hundreds of post-schism saints within Orthodoxy, which are recognized universally by all. In fact, not having a papacy has not impacted our ability to glorify saints at all, because the original practice of the Church was to allow for local synods to declare certain deceased Christians to be saints worthy of veneration (the practice of which would then spread to neighboring provinces and synods), instead of having a centralized canonization process.
 
Fair enough. But who are these Orthodox saints Iā€™ve never heard of? I went looking for them, and they were few and far between. Just shoot me a list or a link.
 
margotdarby said:
Fair enough. But who are these Orthodox saints Iā€™ve never heard of? I went looking for them, and they were few and far between. Just shoot me a list or a link.
Click to expand...
Just look at any synaxarion. This website is good, if you can read Greek. synaxarion.gr/gr/sxcalendar.aspx

You could also look at the calendar on pravoslavie.ru, days.pravoslavie.ru/en/Days/20110101.htm. Itā€™s a bit harder to navigate, and it doesnā€™t include details of the saintsā€™ lives, but it does name who is commemorated on each day.

Just starting with the first four days of January on the Greek website (which is not comprehensive), there are at least thirteen named saints commemorated between the 1st and 4th of January, along with the 12 monks martyred with Hieromartyr Euthymius, and the unspecified number of unnamed saints martyred with Hieromartyr Plato

January 1:
New Martyr Peter the Peloponnesian, martyred in 1776
Hieromartyr Plato and those martyred with him, martyred in 1919
January 2:
St. Cosmas the Wonderworker and Patriarch of Constantinople, reposed in 1081
St. Sylvester of the Kiev caves, reposed some time in the 12th century.
Righteous Julianna, born in 1530 in Moscow, reposed in 1604
New Martyr George (or Zorzes) the Georgian, martyred in 1770
St. Seraphim of Sarov, reposed in 1833
January 3rd:
Venerable Panteleimon, founter of Kostychev Monastery of Russia, reposed in 1884
January 4th:
The venerable Euthymius, hieromartyr and hegumen of Vatopedi monastery, and the 12 monks martyred with him. Martyred in 1285
St. Eustathius, archbishop of Serbia, reposed in 1286
Venerable Achillius, deacon of the Kiev Caves, resposed in the 14th century
Venerable Symeon of Smolensk, reposed in 1699
St. Onuphrius, the venerable new martyr of Chios, martyred in 1818
 
margotdarby said:
Could we see a few from the 20th (or even 21st) century?
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Iā€™m fond of this one. She died a martyr in a concentration
camp in 1945.
incommunion.org/2011/11/08/challenge/

There are actually four ā€œnewā€ saints in Russian
Orthoxy who were recognized recently but not sure
thatā€™s what you mean by recently as they are Russian
Orthodox who lived in America in the past two
hundred years.
And also Slovakia, Syriac etc saints that died here
in North America in the past two hundred years.
02varvara.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/four-new-saints-and-the-quest-for-orthodox-unity-in-north-america-part-one/

We have to remember that some of the Orthodox
are saints because the Orthodox view them as
martyrs who were killed by Roman Catholic Church.
In fact at times on the west coast for the ones that
came through Puget Sound, it was worth the life
of any Orthodox priest to bump into the Jesuits.
So it is always a touchy subject.
 
margotdarby said:
Could we see a few from the 20th (or even 21st) century?
Click to expand...
There are probably hundreds from the early 20th century alone, mostly new martyrs (such as St. Plato, commemorated on January 1st, as mentioned in my post above), who were martyred by the communists in Russia or by the Turks, and whose glorifications are so recent that not all of the synaxaria and menaia have been updated to reflect this. We also have glorified saints who reposed in the 1990s, such as St. Porphyrios, glorified just this past year. It is also likely that Elder Paisios who reposed in 1994 will soon be glorified.
 
She died in gas chamber? Where? When? Why? The story in the link is skimpy on specifics.
 
margotdarby said:
She died in gas chamber? Where? When? Why? The story in the link is skimpy on specifics.
Click to expand...
If you read it all the way through you see she was first
incarcerated in a camp in France where she was concealing Jews and
later died in the camp in Ravensbruk Germany after the deaths
of two friends/priests who worked with her. They were
gassed at Buchenwald I believe.
The article is pretty good for an Orthodox biography
but we might find a better one on a RC site as she
is glorified in both Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.
She is especially venerated in the Roman Church in
France.
 
bben15 said:
Hello. šŸ™‚

What is the view of the Catholic Church on Eastern Orthodox saints? If Holy Mother Church recognizes them as true saints, what about the ones that spoke-out against the Papacy?

Thank you for answering. šŸ™‚
Click to expand...
I donā€™t know that the Church has any particular stance on the matter, but personally I think they too are great role models and are probably in Heaven worshipping the Lord right next to ā€œourā€ saints. We just cannot guarantee they are in Heaven, as we can the ones we have canonized. But if none of the EO saints are in Heaven, then I cringe at my chances of making it šŸ™‚

If they spoke against the Pope, but with reverence and pure intentions, I would imagine their culpability would be quite low. Heck, we donā€™t even claim the Catholic Saints are infallible šŸ˜‰
 
margotdarby said:
She died in gas chamber? Where? When? Why? The story in the link is skimpy on specifics.
Click to expand...
Can you please be a little more respectful to our Orthodox brother - it seems like youā€™re putting him through an interrogation in an attempt to justify your point.
 
Saints like Maria Skobtsova, who is venerated in both Roman and Orthodox
Churches ( in fact itā€™s a fair bet she is known more in the French Roman
Catholic Church than any where else) are why I never say the Orthodox
are in schism. What I prefer as a more realistic view of what is actually
a scandalous behavior on the part of both Churches is ā€œthe Catholics
schismed.ā€ Ask any marriage counselor anywhere and they will
tell you it takes two to tango.

The Orthodox, while venerating Mother Maria would probably
not be particularly interested in the Roman saints Titus Brandsma
and Edith Stein who also died in the camps in Germany within months
of Mother Maria.

The saints from both churches show anyone with eyes
how scandalous the schism really is. Who knows what
the Lord will say? For the fact that the Orthodox do not hold Edith Stein
and Titus Branddma in particular esteem is as sickening as
knowing north American Orthodox saints died martyrs at the hands of
the Jesuits.
 
Personally I have a certain devotion to the 20th century Passion-bearer St. Alexander of Munich (Schmorell), who co-founded the White Rose after seeing the horrors of the German campaign in the East.

He was canonized by ROCOR a bit over two years ago so has not yet made it on to many other calendars.
 
marywarfield said:
Saints like Maria Skobtsova, who is venerated in both Roman and Orthodox
Churches ( in fact itā€™s a fair bet she is known more in the French Roman
Catholic Church than any where else) are why I never say the Orthodox
are in schism. What I prefer as a more realistic view of what is actually
a scandalous behavior on the part of both Churches is ā€œthe Catholics
schismed.ā€ Ask any marriage counselor anywhere and they will
tell you it takes two to tango.

The Orthodox, while venerating Mother Maria would probably
not be particularly interested in the Roman saints Titus Brandsma
and Edith Stein who also died in the camps in Germany within months
of Mother Maria.

The saints from both churches show anyone with eyes
how scandalous the schism really is. Who knows what
the Lord will say? For the fact that the Orthodox do not hold Edith Stein
and Titus Branddma in particular esteem is as sickening as
knowing north American Orthodox saints died martyrs at the hands of
the Jesuits.
Click to expand...
It is a shame that brothers and sisters on both sides of the schism are prevented from glorifying God in all the Holy Saints of Mother Church. ā€œOne Lord, One Faith, One Baptismā€, I pray to Almighty God for reconciliation and communion. There will be no divisions in the Heavenly Jerusalem, why should there be here on Earth? Some things, I suppose, are beyond me. Lord have mercy!
 
margotdarby said:
Fair enough. But who are these Orthodox saints Iā€™ve never heard of? I went looking for them, and they were few and far between. Just shoot me a list or a link.
Click to expand...
The last royal family of Russia are saints with the Russian Orthodox.

Though, as I understand it, there is conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church headed by the Patriarch as to recognition.
 
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