Why are the Gospel writers not referred to as Saints?

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In the Mass, the readers will say “A reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans” or “A reading from the first letter of St. Peter”, etc. However, the priest or deacon will say “A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew (or Mark, Luke, John).” Why are the Evangelists not referred to as Saints, when they most certainly are Saints who have been canonised by the Church?
 
Good question!👍

I only wish I knew the answer.

Thank you for this thread.
 
lak611 said:
I thought this thread was necessary because nobody gave a satisfactory answer on the other one.
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Someone will.

I have much hope and faith that we are all learning, and from those who have gifts we dont have.

I will never despair!

Neither will you!👍
 
Hellisreal said:
Someone will.

I have much hope and faith that we are all learning, and from those who have gifts we dont have.

I will never despair!

Neither will you!👍
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I agree. I know that someone will have an answer in this forum. 🙂
 
Thta’s a good question - and one that will probably get a response if sent to EWTN Q&A.

ewtn.com/vexperts/conference.htm

I’ve had success asking questions directly to the USCCB on issues related to Mass. (It seems only in the context of the Mass that we don’t use the term St. John or St. Luke, etc…)

You referenced an earlier thread - what were some of the reponses that didn’t measure up?
 
StephenB said:
You referenced an earlier thread - what were some of the reponses that didn’t measure up?
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And more importantly, what rendered them* invalid* answers (as opposed to unsatisfactory or unconvincing answers which declaring them such don’t do a whit of damage to the answers themselves).
 
lak611 said:
In the Mass, the readers will say “A reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans” or “A reading from the first letter of St. Peter”, etc.
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The reader is adding the St on their own initiative. The St. doesn’t actually appear in the lectionary.
lak611 said:
However, the priest or deacon will say “A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew (or Mark, Luke, John).”
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The priest or deacon is reading from the lectionary as written.
 
Scottgun said:
And more importantly, what rendered them* invalid* answers (as opposed to unsatisfactory or unconvincing answers which declaring them such don’t do a whit of damage to the answers themselves).
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It was a thread in Non-Catholic Religions. Someone else asked why Protestants do not call persons saints, and I added my question there. Naturally, more posters in that thread would be Protestant, not Catholic, and there were no answers to my question. Rather than further derail the thread, I started this one.
 
diligamus said:
The reader is adding the St on their own initiative. The St. doesn’t actually appear in the lectionary.

The priest or deacon is reading from the lectionary as written.
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Is the actual lectionary available on-line, or will I need to look at the lectionary in my church to verify that? I was a reader when I was in high school over 20 years ago, but I do not remember what was actually in the lectionary. Then again, the lectionary used now is probably not the same as the one I read from back then. For instance, I can remember that the reader used to say “This is the Word of the Lord”, and the priest used to say “This is the Gospel of the Lord”, because that was in the lectionary. I know that was changed to “The Word of the Lord” and “The Gospel of the Lord”.
 
lak611 said:
Is the actual lectionary available on-line, or will I need to look at the lectionary in my church to verify that? I was a reader when I was in high school over 20 years ago, but I do not remember what was actually in the lectionary. Then again, the lectionary used now is probably not the same as the one I read from back then. For instance, I can remember that the reader used to say “This is the Word of the Lord”, and the priest used to say “This is the Gospel of the Lord”, because that was in the lectionary. I know that was changed to “The Word of the Lord” and “The Gospel of the Lord”.
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I happen to have the lectionary - diligamus is correct. And the change to the end was to place the Word on the same par with the Eucharist - took place around '93 or '94…
 
StephenB said:
I happen to have the lectionary - diligamus is correct. And the change to the end was to place the Word on the same par with the Eucharist - took place around '93 or '94…
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Thanks. Do you remember if “Saint” preceded the names of the Gospel and Epistle writers in the old lectionary? I do not remember. I just remember what I used to say after I completed the reading.

Then again, I may be looking at the lectionary again in the near future. My parish is having a shortage of readers, so I may be a reader again.
 
lak611 said:
In the Mass, the readers will say “A reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans” or “A reading from the first letter of St. Peter”, etc. However, the priest or deacon will say “A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew (or Mark, Luke, John).” Why are the Evangelists not referred to as Saints, when they most certainly are Saints who have been canonised by the Church?
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First we would have to know exactly who the authors were before we go glorifying them very much. Sure there is some tradition behind the names but there is no solid evidence and the Church has not made definitive statements on this.
 
patg said:
First we would have to know exactly who the authors were before we go glorifying them very much. Sure there is some tradition behind the names but there is no solid evidence and the Church has not made definitive statements on this.
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So are you saying that the epistles were written by the authors whose names are given but the gospels are not?
 
lak611 said:
In the Mass, the readers will say “A reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans” or “A reading from the first letter of St. Peter”, etc. However, the priest or deacon will say “A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew (or Mark, Luke, John).” Why are the Evangelists not referred to as Saints, when they most certainly are Saints who have been canonised by the Church?
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My guess is that the Lectionary was after it’s revision intended to be a Common Lectionary used by many different Christian Communities. The introductions of the books simply as the Gospel of Matthew or Luke was simply because it was an ecumenical project.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
My guess is that the Lectionary was after it’s revision intended to be a Common Lectionary used by many different Christian Communities. The introductions of the books simply as the Gospel of Matthew or Luke was simply because it was an ecumenical project.
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When I went to a Lutheran service, the minister did say “Saint” before the name of the Gospel writer.
 
patg said:
First we would have to know exactly who the authors were before we go glorifying them very much. Sure there is some tradition behind the names but there is no solid evidence and the Church has not made definitive statements on this.
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We know exactly who wrote the Gospels, this has been clarified in several Church documents. St.Matthew wrote the Gospel of Matthew, St. Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke, St. Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark, and St. John wrote the Gospel of John.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
We know exactly who wrote the Gospels, this has been clarified in several Church documents. St.Matthew wrote the Gospel of Matthew, St. Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke, St. Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark, and St. John wrote the Gospel of John.
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I know this. I wanted patg to tell us what his source was for his erroneous information.
 
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