Who is the greatest saint after Saint Joseph

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edjlopez23

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Is it Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Peter the Apostle, or Saint John the Baptist or a different saint?
 
There’s a good argument for both St. Michael the Archangel and St. John the Baptist.

St. Michael the Archangel is the Prince of the Heavenly Host, so designated by God. But he is an angel, not a human soul.

Among human souls, Scripture has Jesus saying, "Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist. " (Matthew 11:11) Note that he qualifies “born of women” which would exclude St. Michael and the rest of the angels. Of course, Jesus goes on to say that even the “lesser in the kingdom of heaven” is greater than John the Baptist, which at the time Jesus said it, would have to refer to angels, because no humans had gone to Heaven yet as Jesus had not yet died and descended into Sheol to open the gates to Heaven for all the just men who had died. So Heaven at that point only contained angels and God.
 
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I’m not sure there’s a list.
But St John the Baptist was justified in his mother’s womb.
 
No mention of Mary, is that because you consider her to be “before” Saint Joseph or did you not include her because we do not refer to her as “Saint Mary”
 
Yes, I believe Mary immaculate is greater than Saint Joseph.
 
The Eucharistic Prayers list the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, her Spouse, and “your blessed Apostles and Martyrs, Peter and Paul, Andrew…”
Our Lord said, "I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John [the Baptist]; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:28), and he was martyred, too.

As @godisgood77 put it, I don’t think there is a competition. The Apostles are usually listed immediately after Our Lady, though, and Sts. Peter and Paul are listed immediately after St. Joseph, so perhaps there is an order of mention, at least.
 
Xystus said:
No mention of Mary, is that because you consider her to be “before” Saint Joseph or did you not include her because we do not refer to her as “Saint Mary”
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It is assumed she came before St. Joseph on the list, for she has a unique place in the work of the Redemption.
 
I don’t see how this question can be answered without a definition of “great.”
 
edjlopez23 said:
Yes, I believe Mary immaculate is greater than Saint Joseph.
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IMHO, Mary, the Mother of God, is the greatest saint.
In the OT, Moses would have to be one of the greatest prophets, if not the greatest.
 
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I’m a little confused, why if Jesus said there is none greater than John the Baptist is St Joseph being put ahead of John the Baptist? I can’t imagine anyone overriding who the Lord declared to be the greatest among those born of women. He didn’t mention His earthly father St Joseph as the greatest among women.
 
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I think St. Louis, Missouri is a little larger than St. Joseph, Missouri.🤨😉😜
 
Not having thought very much in depth I always thought the greater saints we’re the ones who shared the Lord’s suffering on the cross the most. This would include Mary and then several of the apostles, who Jesus directly told would share in his “cup of suffering” (perhaps “bitter cup” but you know what I mean.) And it should be no debate St. Peter is first among apostles.

I know that people like Moses aren’t quite saints at least not in the same way. But in terms of total honor in heaven they ought to be up there. King David too.

Kinda a silly debate. I doubt the saints care who’s the greatest. Still fun to think about.
 
That still rings off a bit. I know nothing of baseball but I’d like to try an analogy.
Joe Smith hit 100k homeruns, no one ever broke his record. He died 100 years ago. Mike Jones comes along and hits 80k and the most knowledge baseball person says there was none greater in home runs than Joe Smith. That makes sense because he knows everything.
Then comes someone else less knowledgeable and says…Mike Jones was the greatest.

Who is the one that went above Jesus’ own words? Was it the CCC?
 
Martha, if you read the link I posted above, you’ll see that the theology behind it is that John the Baptist is considered the greatest saint of the OLD covenant.

Once the NEW covenant came along, not only Joseph, but also Mary - who was most definitely alive when Jesus was making his pronouncement, and was also most definitely “born of woman” (her mother St. Anne), were above John the Baptist.
 
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