Rank the Saints

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Ok, I know, I know, the saints are all now perfect, and thus are all equal, but for the sake of this lets pretend.

List what you think to be the greatest saints(choose your own list lenghth, but keep it reasonable), in order.

give reasons if you’d like

for me,
first would be St. Michael the Archangel(the most well stories should suffice)
second would be St. Francis of Assisi(his love of every creation, evangelization, and the spirituality he started)
third would be St. Dominic Savio(an outside shot, but something about a Saint this young fascinates me. Even many of the most famous saints had a “late start in life”)
 
Mary is first, obviously

Joseph, found worthy to be Christ’s foster father, and the husband of Mary

John the Baptist

Joachim and Anne

Peter

Francis

Benedict

Philomena

Wow, this exercise is difficult. Plus, there are so many 'lesser known martyrs etc. who may have been every bit as virtuous, if not moreso, than many of the more well known saints. I don’t know much about the OT saints, though I’d like to include Simeon and the prophetess Anna.
 
Aside from all members of Jesus’ family, I would say St. Francis; he is often called the most Christ-like of the saints.

As well, there are many anonymous saints who were probably extremely holy persons
 
SenorSalsa said:
Ok, I know, I know, the saints are all now perfect, and thus are all equal, but for the sake of this lets pretend.
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The Saints are not equal. There are degrees of honor in Heaven.

Our Lady recieves the hyperdulia and is the Queen of Heaven. No one comes close to her in honor. Tradition has it that her heart is intertwined with Christ’s.

St. Joseph recieves protodulia (first honor) and is the Patron of the Church.

St. Michael is the head of all the Angels and the Prince of Heaven.

The Seraphim stand before the Throne of God Himself and shield their faces from Him out of their burning love for Him.

St. John the Baptist and the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul rank high enough to be in the Confiteor with Our Lady and St. Michael.

After that we’d also have to know where the Old Testament Saints rank (which we don’t) But I’m sure God has a very special place in his heart for Adam and Eve as his first Children and Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, Samson, Gideon, etc.

And I hope, Chesterton. 🙂
 
  1. The Immaculate Conception
  2. St. Joseph, chosen father of Jesus, husband of Mary
  3. ?
I think St. John of the Cross would be pretty high up there.
 
Gerard, nice list…kinda looks like mine. For some reason I was only including humans though I think I’d put St. Michael just after St. Joseph as well, or maybe just before him. St. Michael never sinned, of course.

King Alfred, just out of curiosity, why did you put Paul before Peter?
 
Yes there are degrees of honor. The saints are not all equal. The angels are ranked according to a hierarchy and so, as far as we know, are the saints. We are judged according to our works. In the parable of the talents (in Matthew 25), for example, the servants are given various rewards according to their efforts in this life. (And there are many other similar parables and passsages). The 12 apostles were told that they would sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel (Mt. 19:28). St. Paul tells us that Father Abraham, as great as he was (the spiritual father of us all) was inferior to the great priest Melchizedek (Heb. 7:1-4). Our Lord tells us that St. John the Baptist was the greatest of the OT prophets (Lk 7:25-27)…in fact more than a prophet as the Forerunner of the Lord. St. John the Baptist is also the only person (besides Our Lord and Our Lady) who has a birthday celebrated in the Church…having been cleansed of original sin while in the womb when Mary visited his mother Elizabeth.

I would rank Father Abraham quite high. He is commemorated in the liturgy (especially in the Extraordinary Form) as our patriarch and father. That being said, as already mentioned St. Paul tells us that Melchizedek is greater still. This mysterious figure, who is commemorated at every mass in Extraordinary Form (and in Eucharistic Prayer 1 in the Ordinary Form) must be quite high up in the heavenly hierarchy as well…perhaps in the same league as St. Joseph and St. John the Baptist. (Just my guess).

Our Lady is, of course, as close to the Divine as a creature possibly can be. She has no equal and her glory, as St. Louis tells us, is greater than that of all the angels and saints combined. Her aside then, I would include the following among the greatest saints (in no particular order):
St. Joseph, Head of the Holy Family and Patron of the Universal Church
St. John the Baptist, Forerunner of the Lord and bridge between the old and new covenants
St. Michael the Archangel, Prince of Heaven and protector of the Church
Sts. Peter and Paul and the Apostles
Melchizedek and Father Abraham
The Seraphim

St. Francis would be way up there to. I once heard a tradition that St. Francis is destined to inherit the throne that would have been Lucifer’s had he not rebelled against God.
 
I will not rank the Saints, but I will list my favourites:


  1. *]Our Lady, the Blessed Mother
    *]St. Philip Neri
    *]St. Dominic
    *]St. Francis of Assisi
    *]St. Francis Xavier
    *]St. Thomas Aquinas

    There are many other Saints that I could mention, but these three are at the forefront of my mind when I think of the Saints.
 
Dempsey1919, so will I.

Blessed Mother is not in the list as this is obviously a no contest.
  1. St Peter
  2. St Anthony
  3. St Therese of Lissieux
 
You have to leave things clear.
Comparing sanctity is prohibited by the Church.
Comparing the greatness of vocations could be.
Saying your personal devotions is ok as well.

The greatest saints are yet to be cannonized.

Signed St. Louis Grignon de Monfort.

I personally like St. Elias the Prophet. He hasn’t died yet!!!
He will come back before the end of the world…
He killed 400 pagans with his own hands…
He sent fire upon the troops that tried to arrest him…
But most of all he was the first to have devotion to Our Lady.
 
I am not worthy to “rank” their holiness, but I can share those special saints who have touched my life
  1. Our Blessed Mother, Mary
  2. St Peter
  3. St Maximilian Kolbe
  4. St Francis
  5. St Bonaventure
  6. St Maria Goretti
  7. St Jerome
  8. St Monica
  9. St John of the Cross
  10. St Padre Pio
I am sure my list will change as I learn more about the lives of the saints! Their stories are one of the treasures of the Church
 
A tad off topic, but…

Poor St Stephen.

A search of all CA forums produced only two threads with his name in the title. 😦

St Stephen, pray for us.
:signofcross:

Same regarding St Alphonsus. 😦

Wow.
 
AJV said:
How could he have a devotion to our Lady if she wasn’t born yet? :confused:

Is this something to do with the Carmelites?
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When the episode of the little cloud to bring the great rainfall after the drought happend, he saw that it was a symbol of Our Lady.
She, being humble was going to bring forth the greatest events of history. From a little cloud came the tremendous flood.

Many theologans and the Carmelites sustain this is what happend. That is why that link between the Carmelites and Our Lady is so strong. It started many millenia ago.
 
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