The general meaning of “saint” was transformed during the period of the persecutions of Christians in the Roman Empire. The martyr, by way of the witness in blood for Christ and followers in his or her suffering became the prototype of the future ideal of the saint. Veneration of the saints began because of a belief that martyrs were received directly into heaven after their martyrdoms and that their intercession with God was especially effective. Veneration of confessors (i.e., those who had not denied their belief in Christ but had not been martyred), bishops, popes, early Church Fathers, and ascetics who had led a godlike life was established soon after cessation of the persecutions.
In the Greek Church, the saints were regarded as charismatic figures in whom the prototype of Christ is reflected in multifarious images. Veneration of the saints in the Orthodox churches is thus based more upon the idea that the saints provided instructional examples of the Christian life of sanctification. In the West, however, cultic veneration of the saints, the concept of patron saints, and the view that saints are helpers in need became predominant. The cult of the saints gradually came under the control of the papacy, which regulated cultic veneration of a saintly personality extolled in popular piety by means of a process of canonization strictly defined by canon law. The saints thus dominated the church calendar, which notes the names of the ecclesiastically recognized saints of each day of the year. They are venerated on a particular day in the prayer of intercession, and references are made to their deeds, sufferings, and miracles in the liturgy. Obviously, there is excessive veneration of saints. It is akin to Idolatry.
The Protestant Reformation sought to eliminate the cultic veneration of saints but also images and relics of the saints from many churches and homes. Although the Protestant Reformation did not theoretically deny the saints their significance as historical witnesses to the power and grace of God, through such radical measures, it virtually eliminated the meaning of saints as guiding images and examples of Christian life within its movement. Under the influence of Luther's view that all believers are saints, the veneration of the saints and their relics also was either de-emphasized or eliminated.
In modern Roman Catholicism, emphasis is increasingly being placed upon the charismatic aspects of the saints and their significance as models of a spiritual, holy Christian life.
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