Pre-General Convention: Saints on Trial
Diocesan Press Service. August 7, 1964 [XXIII-10]
Charles M. Guilbert, Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer
To the question, "What is a saint?', a pupil is said to have answered, "A saint is a dead Roman Catholic." After a slight chuckle, many an Episcopalian is likely to realize that his own information on the subject is not much less naive, even if less childishly worded. Sainthood, we have learned, is an accolade pronounced by the Pope during impressive ceremonies after an obscure investigation conducted by mysterious organs of the Roman Curia into the life and deeds of otherwise little-known persons during life and after death.
Behind the process is a theory of sainthood which developed over several centuries in Western Christendom but which did not solidify into dogma until the 16th and 17th centuries. A saint, according to this theory, is one who has passed through the cleansing fires of Purgatory into the very presence of God, where he enjoys "the beatific vision", shares to some extent in God's knowledge of the human condition, and intercedes with power for men who call upon him, as evidenced by miraculous answers to prayer.
Episcopalians are less confident than their Roman Catholic brethren about the geography of the future life. They question, if they do not deny, the propriety (indeed the possibility) of addressing prayer to any person but God himself. There can be no doubt, however, that the Roman canonization procedure has ensured that the memories of scores of saintly persons - laymen as well as clerics, women and children as well as men of affairs, - since the time of the Reformation, have been preserved in the love and devotion of Christian folk. Morever, what can be said to the Roman Catholic apologist who points to this unbroken tradition of sanctity and challenges us by saying, "If yours is a true Church, show me the saints it has produced."?
The recognition of sainthood has not always been by way of a quasi legal investigation of miracle. It began with spontaneous local observances of the anniversaries of the "birthdays" of those who, in time of persecution, sealed in that place their Christian witness with a martyr's death. Some martyrdoms involved such notable circumstances that neighboring, or even distant, places took note of them and added them to their calendars. Later, and especially after the cessation of persecution, the deaths of other local worthies - mystics, persons notable for their compassion to the poor and the outcast, Christian statesmen notable theological scholars, founders of religious orders - were likewise commemorated. The fame of local saints often led to their being commemorated in other localities, and if they came to be honored also at Rome, the gradual spread of the Roman rite carried that fame to the furthest bounds of Western Christendom. By the eve of the Reformation there was a common calendar throughout the West, supplemented by local saints in most great centers. The number of saints had grown to the point that hardly a day was vacant. (It was charged by critics that calendar makers regarded a vacant day as a challenge to their ingenuity and inventiveness.) Many days were shared by two or more anniversaries, making elaborate rules necessary to govern who took precedence over whom. Morever, in uncritical ages, not a few legendary characters gained entrance to the calendar.
The Reformation Churches dealt drastically with this historical development. Some swept away all special days except Sundays. The Church of England reduced the number by providing propers only for certain of the New Testament saints (which were considered the most eminent) while retaining much of the old list as "black-letter holy days" but with no provision for their commemoration. Also, by the several Acts of Uniformity, which imposed the exclusive use of the Book of Common Prayer with its built-in calendar, opportunity for the spontaneous growth of a distinctively Anglican calendar of saints was ruled out, not only for the Church of England, but for the regional Churches of the Anglican Communion, which received their Prayer Book and the principle of uniformity from the Church of England.
In recent years some Anglican Churches (notably Canada and South Africa) have undertaken enrichments of the basic Anglican calendar. From the nature of the case, however, both the recovery of ancient names and the addition of new names in these revised calendars were the result of historical and liturgical scholarship and not of the living worship patterns of churchmen.
Only the device of "Trial Use", which is being proposed to the General Convention this Fall, offers an opportunity within the Episcopal pattern to learn what commemorations will contribute to the faith and devotion of the Church "at the grass roots". The General Convention will be asked to authorize for a period of time, initially three years, the use of a calendar of 115 commemorations from ancient and modern times, in addition to but not displacing those in the Book of Common Prayer. Almost half of the new holy days have proper collects, epistles, and gospels; the rest have collects only, to be used with the Prayer Book propers for that week. In addition, the Convention will be asked to authorize an orderly procedure by which the experiences of the congregations and groups using this material may be collected, assembled, and studied, so that ultimately, in some future revision of the Book of Common Prayer, the Episcopal Church may have a Eucharistic calendar truly reflecting the devotional life of the Church.