Do saints know they are saints?

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I was wondering about saints and if they are aware of their standing with God. Not talking about the early martyrs so much, like those bumped off by Diocletian, who probably didn’t have time to give it all much thought. But later saints who died in their beds. As I understand it, some saints go through purgatory first, but some don’t and go directly to the presence of God. So, I guess in the first place, I’m a little blurry on the criteria that establishes whether somebody is a “saint” or just a really good, God-loving person.

So, as to those who go directly to heaven. At the end of their lives, when they are close to dying, do they know they are going directly to heaven? Do they know they have a special status as a saint and just haven’t crossed over yet but are a saint? Would somebody like Pope St. John Paul II, who was canonized almost immediately, be aware of their station in regard to sainthood?

Hard to articulate exactly what I mean.
 
Non-martyr saints would probably be too humble to think of themselves as saints apart from wanting to unite with Jesus this life and the next.
 
No. They don’t think in those terms, due to humility. They only think about being closer to God.

At the very end of their lives, right about when they die, some of them react with some type of happiness like they are seeing Jesus or Mary. Like they smile or say something leading people to think they are seeing Jesus or Mary. Then they die.
 
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Don’t confuse canonized Saints with Saints in general…think of canonized Saints as the Church’s All-star team…but there are many more saints than those honored by the Church with Feast or Memorials.

Check out the CCC and look at the make up of the Communion of the Saints:

The Church Triumphant
The Church Expectant
The Church Militant

The Church Triumphant consists of those dying in a state of grace and who’s soul will realize the beatific vision of Heaven, and those released from Purgatory who have become perfect enough to enter into the beatific vision (The Church Expectant). And finally, the Church Militant, the believers living on earth waiting for death and hoping for immediate entry into heaven, or into Purgatory. The members of the Church Expectant are often referred to (perhaps optimistically by St. Paul) as Saints.

Peace!
 
When we say we believe in the Communion of Saints, I didn’t realize who all we were talking about!
 
A lot of people use Saint and saint as separate terms to help clarify the distinction between the two meanings the word can have.

Little-s-saint refers to anyone at all who’s in Heaven. If you’ve been striving to follow God and are in a state of grace, it’s possible to know pretty certainly that you will be a saint (even if you might spend time in Purgatory first).

Big-S-Saint refers to those canonized by the Church. It just means that this is a specific person that we on earth can say for certain is in Heaven. From my understanding, any saint is qualified to be a Saint, it’s just physically impossible to actually reach that point. So no, no one can really know that they’ll become a Saint, although some people who were really well known in life, like JPII or Mother Teresa, might well have had the thought cross their minds. (In humility, I doubt they would have dwelt much on it… Although Saints were still human, and we can never say that none of them would ever have sinned in any particular way.)
 
Often times, they’re some of the most scared for themselves, because they know people don’t get judged versus everyone else. (“I’m not the best, but at least I’m better than those people!”) They know people get judged against Christ— and that no one is going to meet that mark. But they’re also aware of how many gifts and graces they’ve been given, and they know how many gifts and graces they’ve wasted.

People who’ve been given a lot-- a lot is expected of them. So saints are going to be some of the least likely to coast into heaven-- it’s something they actively strive for on a daily basis, and they pay attention to their daily successes and failures.
 
St. Therese of Lisieux definitely knew she was a saint. She spoke often of it to her fellow sisters. It is really remarkable, but all of a piece with her doctrine of extreme confidence in God.
 
I think St Faustina was much the same way. It wasn’t that they thought they were better than others; they just had a very high degree of trust in God.

Same with Francisco and Jacinta Marto. Our Lady had promised to take them to Heaven soon, so with the trust of children, they believed her, and weren’t afraid of going anywhere else.

Often I think the saints who doubted their own salvation may have been undergoing demonic torture that caused these thoughts. St. Jean Vianney for example was plagued with some doubts about his own soul and I saw a presentation showing these thoughts as the Devil trying to make him anxious.
 
St. Teresa of Avila wrote about the signs of holiness regarding the journey of the soul. In her book, The Interior Castle, she described the soul as we ascend the seven mansions or dwelling places. She describes our faults as reptiles. The reptiles are more plentiful in the first few mansions and the reptiles begin to disappear as we get closer to the center where God lives. Some saints describe the Purgative, Illuminative, and the Unitive way and they describe the signs along the way.
If we read about the lives of the saints, I’m paraphrasing metaphorically, they tend to keep one eye on their wretchedness and one eye on their idea of what holiness is.
Another sign, according to the saints, is the overwhelming desire for the Eucharist. Maybe desire for Jesus, in the Eucharist, is part of the unitive way?
Some of the saint’s biographies described them as cheerful and generous. However, they weren’t all like that.
They were always looking for God, mostly, optimistic.
 
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Usually true saints excel in all the virtues, specially humility, so they would never go around town playing the ‘holier than thou’ role, or being presumptuous about their salvation.

Once a priest told us during homily that once St. John of the Cross heard about a ‘saint’ who lived in a convent, so he went there to see if the rumors were true. He arrived and knocked on the door, when a nun came and asked him what he wished:
  • I want to see the saint.
  • Oh, here I am!
He nodded and went away, for he knew she wasn’t a saint.
 
When they open their eyes in heaven, they know!

As far as consolations for the dying, we never know.
 
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I don’t think they did. Some apocrypha books on Virgin Mary show.she also doubted her Assumption and Archangel.Gabriel comes to reassure her of God’s affection for her. So being in doubt she showed signs of doubting her position in front of Him.
Many others prayed all their lives for.illumination from God and when we read what they said while alive we say “wow!” But their prayers are filled with “me the greatest sinner” and thus it shows they were unaware of the importance they had for the Church.
I think that… seeing yourself as a saint (like so many modern days “prophets” do, is no way to actually acquire sainthood). So it was important for God to not show them their spiritual position to keep them on track so to speak. Like, you don’t just go say boo to a runner while they are still running provided they get smiten and trip.
 
Mary888 said:
Many others prayed all their lives for.illumination from God and when we read what they said while alive we say “wow!” But their prayers are filled with “me the greatest sinner”
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I’m going to try to get at something in a clumsy way, so bear with me.
Sin darkens the intellect, so a person who is steeped in sins can still say about themselves “see, I’m a good person, it’s not like I’ve robbed a bank or I’m like Hitler or anything “.
But as a person leave sin behind, and conquers fault after fault, they start to see more clearly.
They leave their mortal sins and become disgusted with their venial sins.
They stop committing venial sins, and they can see more clearly the roots of where their sins come from—like maybe they want To be the smartest one in the room (ie pride), they want everybody to like them (greed), or they’re fasting, but all they can think about is a great big hoagie and that chocolate cake in the kitchen (gluttony).
They haven’t really precisely done anything wrong, but they see everything in their soul that’s not about God, but as their love for Him grows, they dislike these selfish tendencies.

Sorry for ramble.
 
They often have a good hope in their salvation. For example, St. Paul says:
  1. Tim. 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
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But I doubt any saw themselves as worthy of being glorified on the altars. They were intensely aware of their sins and the grace by which they were saved.
 
I have read, from a couple sources, that during her final illness St. Therese held back little personal items like her nail clippings because she thought they might be treasured later, after her passing. Like she knew they could be relics. Her trust in God is so inspiring!
 
I am not sure how that squares with the whole idea of ‘we must never assume’. Although I did ‘meet’ Therese when her relics went on tour in the uk. The bishop prayed for me that day and I didn’t recognise him. Interesting
 
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