Orthodox to Catholic Saints?

[awatkins69]

Sometimes I’ve noticed that a few Orthodox saints have been accepted as Catholic saints. If re-unification happens, is this what it would be like? Would the Catholic Church recognize all the Orthodox saints? For example there is St. Sergius of Rodenezh, St. Gregory Palamas, St. Maximus the Greek and especially St. Photios of Constantinople. How do they end up being recognized as saints by the Roman Catholic Church? Is it appropriate for them to be venerated by Latin Catholics (I assume it is.)?

 

[Aramis]

Not going to make much difference in practice… Many Byzantine Catholics already privately revere many of the Orthodox Saints.

Only a few would be problematic at all… examples such as St Peter the Aleut (Who was likely NOT aleut, but aleutic, and was supposedly martyred by the Jesuits in California) and St Alexis Toth (whose sainthood involves leading Byzantine Catholics to union with the Orthodox and out of Union with Rome).

 

[Madaglan]

Sometimes I’ve noticed that a few Orthodox saints have been accepted as Catholic saints. If re-unification happens, is this what it would be like? Would the Catholic Church recognize all the Orthodox saints? For example there is St. Sergius of Rodenezh, St. Gregory Palamas, St. Maximus the Greek and especially St. Photios of Constantinople. How do they end up being recognized as saints by the Roman Catholic Church? Is it appropriate for them to be venerated by Latin Catholics (I assume it is.)?

These saints already are recognized in the Eastern Catholic churches, and I do not see any reason why the Latin Church would not accept them as saints. It was about a year ago, I believe, that Cardinal Walter Kaspar visited Russia and venerated the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov (a Russian Orthodox saint of the 18th century)

Interestingly, St. Sergius of Rodenezh is in the Martyrologium Romanus of the Latin Church, even though he was not in communion with Rome. So, it seems that the Latin Church could recognize other post-schism Orthodox saints.

St. Photius died before the schism, and I believe he died in communion with Rome.

 

[Madaglan]

Not going to make much difference in practice… Many Byzantine Catholics already privately revere many of the Orthodox Saints.

Only a few would be problematic at all… examples such as St Peter the Aleut (Who was likely NOT aleut, but aleutic, and was supposedly martyred by the Jesuits in California) and St Alexis Toth (whose sainthood involves leading Byzantine Catholics to union with the Orthodox and out of Union with Rome).

Perhaps problematic, but I do not think unresolvable.

In the first case, Rome would only have to declare those who killed St. Peter wrong in their decision.

I believe a Pope of Rome declared wrong the ecclesiastical court that condemned Joan of Arc to death, so a statement like this would not be totally unprecedented, even though in this case there is less historical evidence as to who exactly the perpetrators were.

Were there reunion between Catholics and Orthodox, I do not think St. Alexis Toth’s action would be seen in the negative light it is by Catholics today. It would be seen more as an internal struggle resulting in difficult decisions made by St. Alexis Toth to maintain holy tradition–and without the sense of St. Alexis Toth “leaving” the Church.