saint
century recognized as an early saint because of his martyrdom. Those
individuals who suffer but do not die for their faith are called confessors.
Beginning in the sixth century, diptychs (lists of names) of martyrs and
confessors find a place in the liturgy of the Latin church, and the lives of
saints are retold during matins from the eight century. By the late twelfth
century, the Pope begins to exercise control over sainthood by claiming
sole authority over it instead of the previous popular acclamation of a
person made by ordinary people. Christian saints manifest contemplation
on the presence of God, a life of asceticism, which possesses a purgative
affect by ridding a person of vices and passions, and action such as help-
ing others. The candidate for sainthood is expected to endure suffering and
pain, often self-inflicted, that can take the form of wearing hair-shirts or
by self-flagellation. The various features constituting a saint are deter-
mined by whether or not they imitate the life of Christ.
The other major monotheist religions are suspicious of saints. In Judaism,
the saint is incompatible with the Jewish emphasize on the people. The
Muslim Qur’an does not refer to the holiness of persons but only of God.
A term that later refers to a saint (walī) in the Islamic tradition means
friend, patron, benefactor, protector, or helper in the Qur’an. From the
Islamic perspective, a prophet is superior to the saint because he is bearer
of a special message from God to humankind, is sinless, and performs dif-
ferent types of miracles. The miracles performed by a prophet are called
mu’jizāt and confirm his mission, and those performed by a saint are called
karāmāt or gifts of grace. It is believed that God selects those to become
saints. In Muslim history, saintliness and Sufism, Islamic mysticism, are
closely related, and the shrines of such saints are locations of pilgrimage.
From the perspective of ordinary people, the saint is a wholly other
person unlike others. The saint also gives the impression of existing on a
different plane of reality. Traditionally, saints have inspired admiration
and veneration more than imitation. Within the Christian and Islamic
traditions, saints function as patrons, protectors, wonder-workers, and
intercessors with God. Moreover, the relics of saints in Christianity and
Islam are associated with healing.
The lives of saints are preserved in literature called hagiography, which
functions to preserve the memory of the sacred figure. In the Christian
context, these stories are considered most effective if they imitate the life
of Christ. This suggests that hagiographers borrow from a common cul-
tural source of religious motifs and patterns to construct their tales. By
using historical, mythical, and legendary elements in the construction of
their narratives, hagiographers create “mythohistorical” products that are
invitations for others to imitate and/or revere the depicted subject. These
sacred narratives can be found cross-culturally, although their different