Roman Catholics venerating Eastern/Orthodox Saints

  • Thread starter Thread starter pegasusu
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
P

pegasusu

Guest
I was wondering, is it acceptable for private veneration to venerate Orthodox Saints? For Example, both Roman Catholics, Eastern Catholics and Orthodox Churches share Empress Helena and Edward the Confessor as saints, but us Roman Catholics (The Latin Not Eastern) do not venerate Constantine the Great and Emperor Justinian I. I myself have an intriguing attraction to Justinian after watching Extra History’s videos about him. So I was wondering is -private veneration of Constantine and Justinian as a Roman Catholic okay?
 
Last edited:
Sure…no issues here.

It would be like asking, “is it okay to ask other people’s friends to pray for me?”

Of course it is!

Disclaimer – I am expressing my opinion and not looking for validaiton or argument, so I limit my (name removed by moderator)ut to a single post per thread. Send me a PM, and I will be happy to continue the discussion without monopolizing this fine venue.
 
Justinian is not venerated in the orthodox church he was extremely cruel He killed a whole bunch of people by tricking them he tried to escape Constantinople he was extremely paranoid and I my opinion a horrible person. Though he did build some churches so is Putin. He is a interesting guy but in my opinion definitely not a saint. Constantine is not canonized in the Catholic church and was certainly not as cruel as Justinian he did kill a couple of his relatives I do believe he is in heaven he did have a deathbed baptism which means he probably is but I do believe he is in heaven and is probably a saint for what he did for the church. But to answer your question I don’t know
 
I know that the Eastern Catholic Church does but not the Latin/Western Catholic Church
 
pegasusu said:
I was wondering, is it acceptable for private veneration to venerate Orthodox Saints?
Click to expand...
Yes it is acceptable. As a matter of fact we Byzantine Catholics celebrate Saint Gregory Palamas’ feast day on the second Sunday of Great Lent.

ZP
 
I don’t see why it wouldn’t be. When I was in RCIA, the deacon teaching the class said he was pretty sure his grandparents were in heaven and that he asks them for their prayers. Even if they aren’t in heaven, he said God would still hear his prayer requests, just like praying for someone’s soul will be used for someone else if that person is already in heaven. Private devotion is just that: private.
 
To the best of my knowledge, Gregory Palamas is not a saint. His theology of grace goes against Scripture and the teaching of the Church.
 
The late Michael Davies wrote a booklet entitled St. Athanasius: Defender of the Faith. He goes into the reasons why Constantine is not venerated in the Roman Catholic Church. You could find a used copy on Amazon fairly cheap. It’s short, easy to read; you’d probably finish it in one sitting. I highly recommend it.
 
I think you might be allowed to ask for their prayers (if they aren’t in heaven, God can certainly hear your petition anyways), but I might caution against veneration unless they were clearly Catholic.
 
I’ve heard that you can generally venerate pre-schism saints, but looking at this thread it appears that’s not always the case. I know I read that Gregory Palamas was getting a fresh look lately from the West but I’ve never heard of Constantine being venerated in the Western Church. Also, today I prayed to St. Philip of Moscow and he is post-schism but I can’t imagine anyone thinking he was anything but saintly.
 
The Emperor and Empress Sts. Justinian and Theodora are certainly venerated in the East (Catholic and Orthodox). Their feast day is Nov 14th. My avatar is an icon of St. Justinian. St. Constantine is also venerated…there are churches named after him.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
Last edited:
Would you mind explaining how does Gregory Palamas go against Scripture and teaching of the Church? Years ago, there was a Latin-gone-Melkite Catholic who would say that problem with Gregory’s theology is simply in terminology and that Palamite theology is compatible with Latin if understood properly and not with confusion of terminology. Simply said, essence and energy are differently defined by East and West which leads to confusion.

As some Eastern Catholic Churches venerate him, I can’t seem but wonder what is his real status. He either is in heaven or is not.
 
Pope St. John Paul II called him a saint once

http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-p...ments/hf_jp-ii_hom_19791130_turkey-efeso.html

And repeatedly cited him as a great theological writer, even when pointing out areas where the Western Church disagreed with the Eastern Church on his teachings.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-p...ts/hf_jp-ii_spe_20000525_jubilee-science.html

http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1997/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_12111997.html

We have had long discussions of Palamas before, and it seems clear that even if he got some things wrong when it comes to Western church teaching, he was a holy man overall.

Although the Catholic Church might not wish to officially canonize him due to the theological differences, it seems reasonable to think that he might well be in Heaven and thus a saint in the technical sense of the word. As we are allowed to privately pray to anybody we think might be in Heaven, then I don’t see a big issue with venerating him.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top