Why do protestants name their churches after Saints?

[flatlanderjenn]

I’ve only lived in Ohio and Arizona, and just a few years ago I moved to Texas. I am baffled at how many protestant churches around here have Saints in their church names. Examples:
Saint Paul United Methodist Church
Saint Stephan United Methodist Church
San Jacinto Assembly of God
When I lived in Arizona a non-demoninational protestant asked me why Catholics worship Saints. Aah! I said, “we do not worship Saints!” and explained we honor them as they’ve lived exemplory and holy lives and we can ask them to pray for us just as we can ask any other person to pray for us. Now I live in Texas and protestants use saint names everywhere. The Catholic Church is the one who canonizes saints, not protestants. Why do protestants name their churches after Saints?

 

[Judee]

I am soooo glad you asked this question. I have been wondering the same thing!

 

[BrianH]

I’ve only lived in Ohio and Arizona, and just a few years ago I moved to Texas. I am baffled at how many protestant churches around here have Saints in their church names. Examples:
Saint Paul United Methodist Church
Saint Stephan United Methodist Church
San Jacinto Assembly of God
When I lived in Arizona a non-demoninational protestant asked me why Catholics worship Saints. Aah! I said, “we do not worship Saints!” and explained we honor them as they’ve lived exemplory and holy lives and we can ask them to pray for us just as we can ask any other person to pray for us. Now I live in Texas and protestants use saint names everywhere. The Catholic Church is the one who canonizes saints, not protestants. Why do protestants name their churches after Saints?

Liturgical Protestant churches share many of the same views on matters. While they may not use the word “Saint” in the same manner or have the same thoughts, they are not opposed to the idea by any stretch. What would be odd is if they had “Saint” followed by someone not in the Bible.
As far as the AG use of San Jacinto, I would imagine most people are not aware of the origin of the word. In many cities, like Amarillo Texas for example, the San Jacinto area is a name for a specific part of town and before it moved, San Jacinto Baptist was located in that part of town.
There is great diversity in Protestant circles, obviously, and some of the words that mean something to Catholics, are not used in the same way by Protestants.

 

[Contarini]

I’ve only lived in Ohio and Arizona, and just a few years ago I moved to Texas. I am baffled at how many protestant churches around here have Saints in their church names. Examples:
Saint Paul United Methodist Church
Saint Stephan United Methodist Church
San Jacinto Assembly of God
When I lived in Arizona a non-demoninational protestant asked me why Catholics worship Saints. Aah! I said, “we do not worship Saints!” and explained we honor them as they’ve lived exemplory and holy lives and we can ask them to pray for us just as we can ask any other person to pray for us. Now I live in Texas and protestants use saint names everywhere. The Catholic Church is the one who canonizes saints, not protestants. Why do protestants name their churches after Saints?

The same reason you do. We don’t see sainthood as depending on a “canonization” process that did not develop until well into the Middle Ages. For that matter, obviously your Church does not as well. You don’t go back and put earlier saints through the canonization process–you accept them on the basis of the common consensus of the Church. So do we. There is no problem here.

Edwin

 

[Sr_Sally]

I think you’ll see that most of the churches with saint names are using Biblical names. No one would deny that Paul and Stephen are great saints of God. Also, they are likely to be liturgical or ‘mainline’ denominations. Usually the non-denomination churches are called things like ‘River of Life’ or ‘New Hope’. In areas like CA, AZ, and TX, many of the town or location names are Spanish. The early missionaries were Catholic and they named the areas after Saints. Today, hundreds of years later, it isn’t really considered saint name but just the town name. So “San Jacinto Assembly of God” is just the TX equivalent of “New Harbor Assembly of God”.

 

[water]

I passed by a church called something like: Saint Mary of Baptist church. (I forgot the exact wording). It’s in Texas.

Talking about Saints. Yesterday, we celebrated All Saints day!

 

[chewchoo]

there is a st. martin lutheran church near me.
did the lutheran’s canonize martin luther?

 

[Contarini]

there is a st. martin lutheran church near me.
did the lutheran’s canonize martin luther?

They don’t canonize people formally. The church will probably be dedicated to St. Martin of Tours, but with a clear implicit reference to Luther–who was called Martin because he was baptized on the feast day of St. Martin (also the day on which my daughter was born!).

Edwin

 

[mercygate]

They don’t canonize people formally. The church will probably be dedicated to St. Martin of Tours, but with a clear implicit reference to Luther–who was called Martin because he was baptized on the feast day of St. Martin (also the day on which my daughter was born!).

Edwin

Warning: off topic! One of my favorite stories is from a Priest who told us that when he was a boy, he thought St. Martin was the patron saint of travel agents: St. Martin of Tours . . .

 

[mercygate]

there is a st. martin lutheran church near me.
did the lutheran’s canonize martin luther?

I don’t know about the Lutherans, but until recently the Episcopalians recognized all the saints the pre-dated the Reformation. So they named Churches after whomever they pleased. My own parish was “St. Anthony of Padua.”

Nowadays, their calendar is littered with other names that they venerate: John Donne, Martin Luther King, et al.

 

[puzzleannie]

down here where a lot of the small towns are named for saints, because they were stops on the Oblate mission trail, local churches, even non-Catholic often have that saint in their name, but designating the town, not the saint, just as local business or schools carry the name, San Manuel, San Benito, San Juan etc.

mainline protestant denominations such as Episcopal or Lutheran do recognize as saints those from NT times like the apostles, Paul etc. and some early saints, Augustine, Basil etc.

 

[Contarini]

Warning: off topic! One of my favorite stories is from a Priest who told us that when he was a boy, he thought St. Martin was the patron saint of travel agents: St. Martin of Tours . . .

Well, he did turn the Devil into a donkey and ride him all the way to Rome, so maybe that’s not so far off!

Edwin

 

[geauxtigers]

This is OT, but I whenever I bring my little boy to the doctor, we pass through a small community named Vatican. I laugh every time I pass by the “Vatican Baptist Church”

 

[Contarini]

I don’t know about the Lutherans, but until recently the Episcopalians recognized all the saints the pre-dated the Reformation. So they named Churches after whomever they pleased. My own parish was “St. Anthony of Padua.”

Nowadays, their calendar is littered with other names that they venerate: John Donne, Martin Luther King, et al.

First of all, St. Anthony of Padua is not in the 1928 calendar (or any other pre-1979 Episcopal calendar). If you are talking about St. Anthony of Padua in Hackensack, that was founded as an “Independent National Catholic Church” by a disgruntled group of Italian immigrants (the Newark archdiocese had refused to start a parish in their neighborhood), who then united with the Episcopal Church. (If this was your parish, I’m sure you know this–I’m detailing it for the benefit of others.) If this is not the parish you are talking about, I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions. There certainly are other Episcopal churches named after medieval saints–I know of a parish near Chicago called “St. Hugh of Lincoln,” for instance.

I’m not sure how you think the addition of more recent figures to the calendar (in the Episcopal Church only Anglicans for the most part–the C of E is broader) changes the naming situation. Churches are generally not named after these post-Reformation figures.

Edwin

 

[mercygate]

First of all, St. Anthony of Padua is not in the 1928 calendar (or any other pre-1979 Episcopal calendar). If you are talking about St. Anthony of Padua in Hackensack, that was founded as an “Independent National Catholic Church” by a disgruntled group of Italian immigrants (the Newark archdiocese had refused to start a parish in their neighborhood), who then united with the Episcopal Church. (If this was your parish, I’m sure you know this–I’m detailing it for the benefit of others.) If this is not the parish you are talking about, I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions. There certainly are other Episcopal churches named after medieval saints–I know of a parish near Chicago called “St. Hugh of Lincoln,” for instance.

I’m not sure how you think the addition of more recent figures to the calendar (in the Episcopal Church only Anglicans for the most part–the C of E is broader) changes the naming situation. Churches are generally not named after these post-Reformation figures.

Edwin

Indeed, Hackensack. And our daughter graduated from a good Episcopal school: St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s – HIlda of Whitby and Hugh of Lincoln. And also yes: Anglican Churches are much more likely to be named for English Saints than for “foreigners”. Edward the Confessor. But then, there’s St. Ignatius of Antioch in New York.

 

[Contarini]

Indeed, Hackensack.

I regret never making it down there when I lived in New Jersey. I thought about going down there for Confession one year (Anglo-Catholics are thin on the ground in New Jersey, as you no doubt know), but I never did.

And also yes: Anglican Churches are much more likely to be named for English Saints than for “foreigners”. Edward the Confessor. But then, there’s St. Ignatius of Antioch in New York.

Well, he was an early Father–that’s different!

Edwin

 

[mercygate]

I regret never making it down there when I lived in New Jersey. I thought about going down there for Confession one year (Anglo-Catholics are thin on the ground in New Jersey, as you no doubt know), but I never did.

Well, he [Ignatius] was an early Father–that’s different!

Edwin

Indeed, The Early Church Fathers were ALL English, of course!

Just thought of St. Alban’s. And I’m not counting English churches that have been standing since before the Reformation. My mentor’s private chapel was St. Elphege.

 

[flatlanderjenn]

Thank you for all the informative responses. I have learned a lot. I never made the connection that the Saints used are those from the Bible. That makes sense since protestants believe in scripture alone.
But there is an Anglican church in New York named St Ingatius of Antioch? How can an early church father and a doctor of the Catholic Church be honored and used in the name of a protestant church? St Ignatius wrote and preached that we receive the flesh and blood of Christ (not just a symbol) during communion. But that’s something protestants, including Anglicans, protested when breaking away from the church. It would be like a Catholic Church being named after John Kerry (who claims he is Catholic but is pro-abortion).
How can protestants use early Catholic Church fathers in their church names?

 

[mercygate]

Thank you for all the informative responses. I have learned a lot. I never made the connection that the Saints used are those from the Bible. That makes sense since protestants believe in scripture alone.
But there is an Anglican church in New York named St Ingatius of Antioch? How can an early church father and a doctor of the Catholic Church be honored and used in the name of a protestant church? St Ignatius wrote and preached that we receive the flesh and blood of Christ (not just a symbol) during communion. But that’s something protestants, including Anglicans, protested when breaking away from the church. It would be like a Catholic Church being named after John Kerry (who claims he is Catholic but is pro-abortion).
How can protestants use early Catholic Church fathers in their church names?

Anglicans highly honor the ECF’s and until the last 30 years or so were careful to acknowledge the first 4 Ecumenical Councils.

If you go to Mass at St. Ignatius, you will hear the Gregorian choir singing the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin. If you are a Catholic traditionalist, who has been attending NO Masses, you might think you had walked into a Catholic Church as it was 40 years ago. IOW, High Church Anglicans, in the form and practice of their liturgy and lives, are often “more” Catholic than most Catholics are today.

When I came across the Tiber, the RCIA director asked me, without a trace of irony or sarcasm, “Is the Catholic Church Catholic enough for you?” I told him I would try to adjust.

I still haven’t adjusted fully and attend a TLM up the road once a month, just to remind myself of what I left behind.

 

[Contarini]

Indeed, The Early Church Fathers were ALL English, of course!

Of course! How could I ignore this!

Just as we know that medieval English Catholicism was basically independent of Rome, except for the occasional wicked attempt by the Pope to exert hegemony. . . .

(NOTE: in case anyone is missing this, mercygate and I are satirizing some of the sillier Anglican attitudes.)

Edwin