The number of people to whom the title of “saint” is given, those who are on the honours list of the Church, so to speak, runs into many hundreds, and is being added to all the time. Most of the names mean nothing to us, for apart from those of universal interest, such as the Apostles and national saints, they are known only in their local area. While the lives of a few saints, such as S Paul or S Francis of Assisi are well documented, the majority are very shadowy figures. Our Patron Saint, S George, has suffered from this, since not very much is known about him, and the gaps in knowledge have been filled in by legends. We do know that he was born in Lydda, in Palestine, about the year 280AD, and that he became a high-ranking officer in the personal guard of the Roman Emperor. After his successful fight with the wild beast outside the town of Silene in N Africa, which released the town from this source of terror, S George eventually suffered martyrdom at the hands of Diocletian for refusing to renounce his Christian faith in favour of the Emperor’s pagan gods. The story of S George portrays simply and vividly the virtue of courage used to help others, and used on the side of good against evil. This is true of most of the stories of the saints, even those where little is known about their lives. In these stories, we are given pictures of these faithful followers of Our Lord displaying great qualities such as self-sacrifice, loyalty, generosity, dedication, all things that we can admire and try to emulate.
It would be a mistake to think of the saints of long ago as unworldly figures, entirely devoted to prayer and meditation, and having no experience of real life. Several of the Apostles were fishermen, one was a tax collector, S Paul was a tent maker, S. Luke and S. Damian were physicians, S Crispin a shoemaker, S Brendan a sailor, and S Margaret of Antioch an actress. Before any of these gave up their everyday occupation to devote themselves entirely to the service of Christ, they had already learned a great deal about day to day life, with its joys and sorrows, its pressures and frustrations. In this way, the lives of the saints remind us that the place most of us can serve God best is among our fellow human beings, and that in every honest occupation, however unskilled it may be, or however little esteemed, we can find opportunities there for the service of God.
The stories of the saints show us the colourful and romantic side of religion, something that tends to be denigrated in present times. Especially in the Middle Ages, the lives of the saints provided much of the material for stories told around the fireside in cottage and castle, in monastery and palace. The medieval equivalent of a best-seller was “The Golden Legend”, a collection of hundreds of stores about the saints. And following on from these stories, many of the events described in them were then painted by artists on the very walls of the churches, so that the congregation would have a permanent reminder of the deeds of these heroic men and women of faith. Religion is not frivolous, but it is a pity if colour and mystery are not allowed to have a place in worship. Sadly, many of these medieval paintings were destroyed at the time of the Reformation, or during the later years of puritan rule.
How can we feel closer to the saints? One way is to take a special interest in those who are personal to us. By this I mean, those saints whose name we bear, or who are our natal saints, that is, connected to our birthday. In saying to S Peter and the other Apostles, “Follow me”, Jesus appealed to the instinct within them to go after something that was clearly good and worthwhile. It is this same instinct that has prompted the saints all down the ages to follow in Christ’s footsteps, and in the end to attain His glory. We too must find our fulfilment in the footsteps of Our Lord, and as we go along, that great cloud of witnesses, all the saints who have gone before, reflect back to us the glory of Christ to encourage us on our way.
‡ Michael Windlesham
