Old Testament Saints?

[Stylteralmaldo]

catholic.com/thisrock/quickquestions/?qid=69

Why isn’t Noah a saint?

Formal canonization is a process that developed hundreds of years after the founding of the Church. Before that, righteous people were “recognized” or “acclaimed” by the Christian communities to be saints. That is why Old and New Testament saints (including the Blessed Virgin Mary) were never formally canonized…

Okay, I understand the explanation of the ‘formal’ process of sainthood. But honestly, I’ve never heard of ‘St. Noah’. I’ve heard (although it is rare) to hear of the Blessed Virgin Mary as ‘St. Mary’. St. Joseph (her most chaste spouse) is ‘common’.

The Catholic answers tract answers the question as to why Noah isn’t ‘formally’ declared a saint, but it doesn’t answer the question as to why Noah isn’t referred to as a saint in a ‘general’ sense among Christians.

In the New Testament, we’ve got saints ‘informally’ declared such as St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John the Baptist, St. Matthew, St. Mary Magdalen, etc. etc. There’s no such declaration for Old Testament ‘righteous’.

Why is this?

 

[MarcoPolo]

I think the Eastern Rite does, if I’m not mistaken. I rather like the idea of St. Job or St. Moses myself. The tradition probably comes from the idea that a “saint” is someone who follows Christ, and the OT folks did so in anticipation or unknowingly rather than more formally or apparently.