View Full Version : Your national saints
I guess every nation of Christian origin has some national saints so I think it could be nice f we sare our saints...
Post name of your most important national saints and if possible also little description of who they were.
Our (Czech) main saints are:
1) Saint Venceslas (svatý Václav)
Przemyslid duke of Bohemia in the first quater of 10th century, one of first christianizators of Bohemia. He was very peacefull ruler, but his brother Boleslav (the true founder of Bohemian state) ordered his assassination in Stará Boleslav in order to end subordination to the East Franks and found independent Bohemian state.
Paradox is that it was the "murderer" Boleslav who was very interesten in canonization of his brother
Saint Venceslav became a symbol of Bohemian monarchy, patron of the kingdom and then also of the republic.
2) Saint Vojtech (Svatý Vojtěch)
One of the first bishops of Prague, member of second most important bohemian house in 10th century. He was one of the first missionaries in Prussia where he was killed and then buried in Poland.
3) Saint Constantine and Saint Method
Macedonian/Byzantine brothers who in 863 came to Moravia in order to teach here priests and spread christianity. Creators of slavic alphabet and slavic liturgic language
4) Saint John of Nepomuk (Svatý Jan Nepomucký)
his cult was important especialy during re-catolization of Bohemia and Moravia after 1620. A priest in court of "hussite" king Václav IV. (1378-1419). He was a confessor of Queen of bohemia and king ordered to torture him in order to get a secret from queen's confession but during this torture he died.
FrankishHero
05-01-2007, 11:26
Believe me when I say I have no idea. I don't even know whether we have any.
Largefry07
06-01-2007, 04:06
America doesn't have any saints to my knowledge. The closest that we have are George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards. Both of whom were preachers/ revivalist during the Great Awakening of the first half of the 18th century. I don't know much about either, but what little I do know of Edwards is his famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. What he did was he tried to scare people to follow God by teling the the horrors of Hell.
Perhaps the most know Evangelist is Billy Graham. His ministry has touched millions from about the 1950s to the persent day.
I know for certain of Saint Lawrence, but I think he is more a patron saint. Of course it is because of the river that runs from the Atlantic Ocean down through the gulf of Saint Lawrence, forms into the Saint Lawrence river, which passes by Quebec City and smack into Montreal.
From what I remember he was a saint back from the earliest of Catholicism, and he so opposed to certain views of the early church that he shouted, while he was being burned at the stake, that he was cooked well enough and that they could feast on him. So, by complete coincidence, the modern Catholic world honours him on August 10th with a feast of celebration. Makes you wonder doesn't it?
Traveller
06-01-2007, 16:27
1. St. Tsar Boris I (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_I) (852-889/†907)
Son and successor of Khan Persian, ruler of Bulgaria from 852 till 889, initially a khan and later a kniaz. Convertor of the Bulgarian people to the Christian faith in 864. After skillful negotiations with the Papacy and the Patriarchate Boris I achieved an autocephalous archbishopric for Bulgaria in 870. He welcomed the disciples of St. Cyril and St. Methodius in 886, giving them all the assistance they would need to spread the work of the Saints brothers and thus making Bulgaria the spiritual centre of the Slavic writing and culture. In 889 he abdicated the throne and became a monk, leaving the power to his first-born son Vladimir Rasate. But after Rasate's attempt to return the nation to its old pagan ways, Boris overthrew him and on a Nation's Council in 893 appointed Simeon I as his successor, as well as he also moved the capital from Pliska to Veliki Preslav, declared the Slavic language to be the Church's official language and replaced the Byzantine clergy with a Bulgarian one. After that he returned to the monastery and resumed monastic life (with one exception in 895 when he helped Simeon I to fight off the Magyars) till his death on the 2nd of May 907 at around 80 years of age. The Bulgarian church canonized him as a saint right after his death, by praising him "with miracles and healings, which were done by God's will through his relics".
2. St. Konstantin-Kiril Philosopher and St. Methodius (Strahota) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sts._Cyrill_and_Methodius)
Two brothers born in Thessaloniki in the house of a Bulgarian mother and a Byzantine official. Konstantin received a brilliant education in Constantinople and was used in a number of times as a "flying diplomat" for the Byzantine Empire. They finished creating the Glagolitic alphabet ("for all Slavs to read") around 855 at the Polychronos monastery and in 863 went to Velikomoravia by the request of Prince Rastislav to propagate Christianity. After many peripeties there, Konstantin became a monk with the name of Cyril in Rome, while on a mission to defend the Slavic writing in front of the Pope, and died there in 869. Methodius continued his work till his own death in Velikomoravia in 885. The Bulgarian nation celebrates their feast day as an official national holiday on the 24th of May. Pope John Paul II declared them Co-Patrons of Europe together with St. Benedict in 1980.
3. St. Kliment Ohridski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_of_Ohrid) and the Sveti Sedmochislenici (http://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%B8%D1%81%D 0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B8) (St. Cyril, St. Methodius, St. Clement, St. Naum, St. Sava, St. Gorazd, St. Angelariy)
Sv. Sedmochislenici is the collective term for the Saints Brother Cyril and Methodius and five of their disciples, namely Kliment, Naum, Sava, Gorazd and Angelariy. Of them Kliment and Naum are probably the most famous ones and it is considered that one of them is the creator of the Cyrillic alphabet, an issue which is not yet absolutely certain.
4. St. Ivan Rilski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Rilski)
A Bulgarian hermit and founder of the Rila Monastery, supposed to have performed a multitude of miracles in order to help the people. His fame has quickly spread far accross Bulgaria and beyond. It is said that even Tsar Petar I himself travelled over 500 km to meet him, but the saint did not agree to it, possibly offended by the gold he was offered by the tsar. He is today honoured as the patron of Bulgarian people and one of the most important saints of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. His feast day is celebrated on the 19th of October.
5. St. Patriarch Evtimiy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Evtimiy_of_Bulgaria)
The last head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the Second Bulgarian Empire, arguably the best esteemed of all Bulgarian patriarchs. Evtimiy was the one charged with the defence of Tarnovo against the Ottoman Turks in 1393, which he led heroically, but lost after a three-months siege. According to the legends, he was supposed to be executed after the fall of the city, but God froze the arm of the executioner, which made Sultan Bazyezid I to only send him to exile. His feast day is celebrated on the 20th of January.
Jolly Roger
10-01-2007, 18:01
.... I don't really think we have any special saints here :confused: No. Really not. Never heard about that... :bash:
Largefry07
10-01-2007, 22:34
You know that it might be nice to respect other people's views on such things. Now I'm not going to get into a big arguement or anything, but please be considerate of other people beliefs.
.... I don't really think we have any special saints here :confused: No. Really not. Never heard about that... :bash:
If I am not mistaken you are from Germany, and there are many German saints!
You will find a large list of German saints here (http://www.angelfire.com/mi4/polcrt/GermanSaints.html)!
Mircoslavux
11-01-2007, 10:30
slovak saint from history is going from Great Moravia, through Hungarian Kingdom , Czechoslovakia to Slovakia:
-Saint Constantine and Saint Method (same as by Elvain)
-St. Ladislaus I of Hungary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladislaus_I_of_Hungary
- St. Stephen I of Hungary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_I_of_Hungary
- Saint Bystrík,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Bystr%C3%ADk
-St. Alexis Toth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Toth
further infos in Slovak:
-St Benedikt and St Andrej Svorad
http://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedikt_pustovn%C3%ADk,
http://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sv%C3%A4t%C3%BD_Svorad
- St Marek Križin
http://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marek_Kri%C5%BEin
-St Melichar Grodecki
http://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melichar_Grodecki
-St. Maurus
http://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurus_%28Nitra%29
-St. Štefan Pongrác
http://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0tefan_Pongr%C3%A1c
St. Mojsej Uhrín
http://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sv%C3%A4t%C3%BD_Mojsej_Uhr%C3%ADn
For sure a saint is someone who truly speaks to us in the spirit of God and has done much in His work to bring the rest of us to belief and fellowship in Jesus. The U.S.A. has many saints on this account but my favorite contemporary is Charles Stanley of Atlanta, Georgia whose message brought me out of a slump in my 20's and set me on the right path.:go:
For sure a saint is someone who truly speaks to us in the spirit of God and has done much in His work to bring the rest of us to belief and fellowship in Jesus. The U.S.A. has many saints on this account but my favorite contemporary is Charles Stanley of Atlanta, Georgia whose message brought me out of a slump in my 20's and set me on the right path.:go:
In the traditional sense of the term Saint, as is the tenor of this thread, there are no national saints for the USA. The starter of this thread is speaking to the tradition of those Sainted by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. As the US was founded by Protestants and not Catholics, the Catholic Church was not prominent until later in the history of the US and The Orthodox Church has never gained prominence in US, there are no national Saints for the US. Many in the US claim the national Saints of other countries for their own needs or benefits.
Whereas we might hold many, such as Charles Stanley or Billy Graham, in great esteem, and consider them Saints of God, they could never be Sainted by the Catholic or Orthodox Church. And I think it is those that actually have the title of Saint as prescribed by the Sainting tradition of the Catholic and Orthodox Church's that Elvain was asking about.
Traveller
12-01-2007, 07:34
In the traditional sense of the term Saint, as is the tenor of this thread, there are no national saints for the USA. The starter of this thread is speaking to the tradition of those Sainted by the Catholic Church. As the US was founded by Protestants and not Catholics, the Catholic Church was not prominent until later in the history of the US there are no national Saints for the US. Many in the US claim the national Saints of other countries for their own needs or benefits.
Whereas we might hold many, such as Charles Stanley or Billy Graham, in great esteem, and consider them Saints of God, they could never be Sainted by the Catholic Church. And I think it is those that actually have the title of Saint as prescribed by the Sainting tradition of the Catholic Church that Elvain was asking about.
Eh-em, Catholic Church? Only Catholic Church? ... :rolleyes:
Mircoslavux
12-01-2007, 09:36
Eh-em, Catholic Church? Only Catholic Church? ... :rolleyes:
Protestants "have no saints"...but orthodox have...so naturally you should post them...
Eh-em, Catholic Church? Only Catholic Church? ... :rolleyes: Sorry Traveller, I sometimes forget about the Orthodox Church, there are not any Orthodox Churches in the area I live, so the only time I think about the Orthodox Church is when playing KoH! I went back and edited my thread to include it!
Actualy the thread isn't about "Who in your country do you personaly find as saint" or "Who are your personal saints" or "Do you believe in saints/God"!! but about National saints, no matter if you respect them or not. All of European nations have them(even atheist nations like Czechs!), I wondered which and if also non-europeans have some.
The role of saints is that the people ask them for help in their hard times (this thread is not about question if they help them then!!).
"National saints" are those who are respected in country's tradition as guardians of the country. Requirement to be considered as Saint is that he was canonized by some church. As far as I know most of churches respect saints (all Eastern churches, Orthodox and Catholic) but Protestants don't, right?
This thread isn't about your personal beliefs but traditional saints. It's not about religion (if you are or are believer or non-believer) or if you respect saints as YOUR personal spiritual guardians, about your country's traditions
The Protestant Churches and offshoots to the Protestants do not canonize Saints as far as I know, at least I have never heard of such.
Well I didn't think there had ever been anyone canonized in the US, but I was wrong. I did find some, all were canonized in the last century however, but none the less I would say they would be US national saints.
Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini (http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintf07.htm) - was born Maria Francesca Cabrini on July 15, 1850 in San Angelo, Italy. She became the first American (naturalized) citizen to be canonized a saint in the United States by Pope Pius XII in 1946. She died on Dec. 12, 1917. Her feast day is Nov. 13. She is known as the "Patroness of Immigrants".
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=180) - born on August 28, 1774 in New York City, was the first native born American saint. She was canonized by Pope Paul VI on Sept.14, 1975. She died on Jan.4, 1821. Her feast day is Jan. 4. She is known as the "Patron Saint of Children Near Death".
Saint John Nepomucene Neumann (http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj08.htm) - was born in Bohemia (the Czech Republic) on March 28, 1811 and became the first (naturalized) American male saint. He was canonized on June 19, 1977 by Pope Paul VI. He died on Jan 5, 1860. His feast day is Jan. 5.
Saint John Nepomucene Neumann (http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj08.htm) - was born in Bohemia (the Czech Republic) on March 28, 1811 and became the first (naturalized) American male saint. He was canonized on June 19, 1977 by Pope Paul VI. He died on Jan 5, 1860. His feast day is Jan. 5.
What? Saint John Nepomucene? It's our medieval Saint (Svatý Jan Nepomucký) :lol: born in 14th century :wink:
oh, but this guy was "Newman" Neumann, ok then :go:
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