Relative importance of saints

[Yarb]

In a novel we are told that a member of an organization rises at a meeting to introduce a motion that the organization adopt Saint George as its patron.

Another member proposes that they should choose Saint Patrick because he is “a more important saint”.

The first member says “Since when?”

The second says “Since always, you limey—”

This is amusing because both are being so parochial while recognizing only the other’s parochialism.

But it raises a question: Are there authoritative positions on the relative importance of saints? I would guess Saint Mary is considered more important than all others. Is Saint Patrick “a more important saint” than Saint George?

 

[Ioana]

The only answer I could give is that Mary is given hyperdulia (so yes Mother Mary is more important so to say) but I don’t know about anybody else and I’d guess the answer is “no” for hierarchy among other saints.

 

[JamalChristophr]

You need to ask the Old Colonel because he is most schooled on ranks around here.

I would say St. Catherine of Siena is equivalent to a 4 star general.

The Holy Virgin would either be commander in chief of a 5 star general. Not sure.

 

[Ioana]

Lol that’s a 5 star answer

 

[JamalChristophr]

I think St. Patrick would also be a 3 or 4 star general, but I’m not certain.

 

[Elf01]

If you’re Irish I’d guess St. Patrick is more important. If English I would imagine St. George would be.

With many people of Irish heritage in the UK and America I’d give the edge to St. Patrick but St. George may have more influence than I know about.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Mary is considered more important than the saints, as she receives hyperdulia. “Mariology” is an important area of theological study.

There is also a good argument that the Church recognizes St. Joseph as the next most important saint after Mary. Pope Pius IX named St. Joseph the Patron Saint of the Universal Church in 1870. “Josephology” is also an area of theological study.

After that, I think things get a bit unclear as to the “importance” of saints as determined by the Church magisterium (as opposed to laypeople’s judgments on popularity of one or another saint). In terms of the Gospels and New Testament, it’s pretty obvious that the saints who interacted frequently with Jesus in the Gospels such as Peter, James, John, John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene are important, since we hear and are taught about their doings at many Masses. Likewise, the saints who wrote the New Testament scripture such as Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are clearly very important because we hear and are taught about their writings at many Masses.

The Church has also named certain saints as Doctors, recognizing that they had a big influence on theology. However, there are no martyrs in the list of Doctors of the Church. There are also other saints who had a huge influence on important aspects of the Church other than theology, who are not in the list. For example, St. Benedict, St. Dominic, and St. Francis of Assisi had a huge influence on monasticism, and the list of Doctors of the Church includes several Benedictines, Dominicans, and Franciscans, but nether St. Benedict nor St. Dominic nor St. Francis is a Doctor of the Church.

In the end, I think that the importance of a saint is measured more by the influence the saint has over the Church and its faithful - which can increase or decrease over time and depending on which geographical area we’re talking about - than by any sort of official Church recognition.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I think St. Patrick would also be a 3 or 4 star general, but I’m not certain.

Being Irish, I am 100 percent certain he is at least a 4 star general if not more

 

[Vico]

…
But it raises a question: Are there authoritative positions on the relative importance of saints? …

The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom includes this hymn:

It is truly proper to glorify you, O Theotokos, the ever-blessed, immaculate, and the mother of our God. More honorable than the cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim; who, a virgin, gave birth to God the Word, you, truly the Theotokos, we magnify.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Merit (excerpt)

The object of supernatural merit is an increase of sanctifying grace, eternal life (if the person dies in divine friendship), and an increase of heavenly glory.

Note below from the Council of Florence “and see clearly the one and triune God Himself just as He is, yet according to the diversity of merits, one more perfectly than another.”

Council of Florence [Denzinger, Sources of Catholic Dogma]

693 [ De novissimis] * It has likewise defined, that, if those truly penitent have departed in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction by the worthy fruits of penance for sins of commission and omission, the souls of these are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments; and so that they may be released from punishments of this kind, the suffrages of the living faithful are of advantage to them, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, and almsgiving, and other works of piety, which are customarily performed by the faithful for other faithful according to the institutions of the Church. And that the souls of those, who after the reception of baptism have incurred no stain of sin at all, and also those, who after the contraction of the stain of sin whether in their bodies, or when released from the same bodies, as we have said before, are purged, are immediately received into heaven, and see clearly the one and triune God Himself just as He is, yet according to the diversity of merits, one more perfectly than another. Moreover, the souls of those who depart in actual mortal sin or in original sin only, descend immediately into hell but to undergo punishments of different kinds [see n.464].