(upbeat music)
KAI: Libby! Libby. LIBBY: What's up?
KAI: Hey! Well, I just want to make sure
you don't make any sudden movements.
LIBBY: Why? KAI: Apparently I
cannot negotiate with wolves. LIBBY: What?
KAI: Well, you know how we're talking about saints today?
I figured if I could demonstrate a miracle, you know,
for -- LIBBY: What about wolves?
KAI: Yeah, well, St. Francis and the wolf of Gubbio.
You remember the story, where he convinces the wolf
not to attack the town?
I figured maybe if I brought a wolf --
LIBBY: Here? (howling)
KAI: No sudden movements. (growling)
LIBBY: Kai. (growling)
(rock music)
LIBBY: Welcome to Catholic Central.
I'm Libby. KAI: And I'm Kai.
LIBBY: So, today we'll be talking about the saints --
the non-football related ones.
KAI: But more importantly, why should we care?
LIBBY: You might be thinking that long-dead people
who lived in distant times and places
could never have any effect on your life.
KAI: Except possibly to give you nightmares
about their statues coming to life
and uniting as an army to kill you.
No? Just me? OK.
LIBBY: But anyway, the saints can help us out a lot.
KAI: And yet, still remain dead. LIBBY: Because
they're alive in Heaven. Of course,
we all know people on earth
that we describe as living saints,
but this is just an expression.
KAI: Well, yeah. If your experience is anything like mine,
perhaps this is how people routinely describe you.
LIBBY: Or if your experience is anything like Kai's,
that's how people routinely describe you in your dreams.
KAI: Oh, come on, as arrogant as that might sound,
there's no problem with hoping you'll be a saint one day.
LIBBY: Actually, you're right. Technically,
sainthood is what we should all be hoping for.
KAI: The word "saint" comes from "sancti," the Latin,
which literally means "holy ones."
LIBBY: Holy meaning someone who uses their gifts and passions
in a way that reminds us of God's love,
not necessarily that they just walk around glowing.
KAI: Although, it doesn't rule out glowing, either.
Like the story of Saint Fillan,
whose left arm was said to give off enough light
to read the Bible by. LIBBY: Which brings us
to the more specific definition
of those formally recognized saints:
The saint somebodies honored by the Universal Church.
KAI: The Church describes everyone who is in Heaven as saints.
They just don't go putting the word saint
in front of every dead person's name.
LIBBY: The people formally declared saints by the Church
are people in Heaven who lived holy lives,
and had a lasting impact in the life of the Church.
KAI: So they're like the VIP list.
But even though they did amazing things
and often played a major part in history,
they were still real people, everyday real people
like you and me, with likes and dislikes, vices and quirks.
You don't have to be a perfect person to be a saint.
LIBBY: Saints get depressed, angry, frustrated,
and sometimes they think they're total failures.
They might not look or feel like saints.
In fact, as Thomas Merton says,
one of the first signs of a saint
may well be the fact that other people
don't know what to do with them.
KAI: St. Jerome, for example, was a notorious grouch.
As one theologian put it,
he "attacked just about everybody for anything."
LIBBY: But the one thing that saint somebodies, like St. Jerome,
did have to do was be radically open to God's call
to make a difference in the world,
without worrying much about whether it makes sense
or seems possible in others' eyes.
KAI: The Church describes these as lives of heroic faith,
virtue and love, and when the Church declares
someone a saint through the process called canonization,
the Pope puts a saint statue in a cannon and then,
LIBBY: No. Canonization in the Catholic Church
is recognizing whether someone is worthy enough
to be put on a formal list, or canon, of saints.
KAI: Although, the process of canonization isn't really simple.
In fact, it's amazingly complicated.
LOUDSPEAKER: Now serving B3 at window number 15.
DECEASED KAI: Hello, so I just got out of Purgatory,
and I'd like to see about becoming canonized,
so I can help people on earth get their prayers answered.
DEPARTMENT OF MAKING SAINTS ATTENDANT: You can't apply for sainthood.
Somebody has to have a reason to think you're a saint
in the first place, and bring your cause for sainthood,
as they call it, to the Vatican.
Maybe the process gets started and maybe it won't.
DECEASED KAI: And maybe it will, there are four steps to canonization,
right? DEPARTMENT OF MAKING SAINTS ATTENDANT: Right.
The process can take years, they'll need a complete
investigation of the person's activity on the earth,
an honorable life of heroic virtues,
and miracles happening after they died, yadda, yadda, yadda.
The first stage is can you read this?
DECEASED KAI: Servant of God. DEPARTMENT OF MAKING SAINTS ATTENDANT: Next level.
DECEASED KAI: Venerable. DEPARTMENT OF MAKING SAINTS ATTENDANT: What does it mean?
DECEASED KAI: Venerable? DEPARTMENT OF MAKING SAINTS ATTENDANT: I do the jokes.
The word means honorable, next level.
DECEASED KAI: Blessed. DEPARTMENT OF MAKING SAINTS ATTENDANT: Blessed, next level.
DECEASED KAI: Blessed. DEPARTMENT OF MAKING SAINTS ATTENDANT: I'm talking here.
Next -- DECEASED KAI: Sainthood!
DEPARTMENT OF MAKING SAINTS ATTENDANT: No canonization for you, okay?!
For now, just be happy you made it into Heaven.
Maybe they'll start your process later.
DECEASED KAI: Yeah, St. Kaiser of Hollywood.
DEPARTMENT OF MAKING SAINTS ATTENDANT: Don't hold your breath, next.
KAI: So canonization is a big deal.
LIBBY: That's why once a person is canonized, Catholics
may go crazy with enthusiasm,
especially on Feast Days, which each saint has.
A Feast Day is a specific day of the year
in which the Church remembers the saint with prayers,
readings or processions.
KAI: Or parades and parties, which might happen
when a Feast Day goes mainstream, like St. Patrick's Day,
St. Valentine's Day, or Halloween,
which comes from All Hallows' Eve,
or the day before All Saints Day.
LIBBY: The feast of all 10,000 saints and counting.
KAI: So, obviously, Catholics love saints.
But why do they matter so much?
LIBBY: One reason: They inspire.
They show the amazing things that God
can accomplish with human beings,
beginning with St. Mary, otherwise known
as the mother of Jesus and Queen of Saints.
KAI: But even the saints that didn't bear the Son of God
are inspiring, because they refused to let anything
stand in their way. Like Joan of Arc,
who fearlessly led an entire army in the Middle Ages,
despite being a teenager.
LIBBY: Some saints inspire by demonstrating
what it is to care for the most poor and undesirable
in society. Like Martin de Porres,
who advocated for social justice in Peru
for sick and radically oppressed mestizos.
KAI: Or a martyr like Maximilian Kolbe,
who gave his life in place of another prisoner in Auschwitz,
showing us the power and goodness
of putting someone else's needs before our own.
LIBBY: Saints also serve as inspiring guides
on how to use the artistic talents God gives us.
KAI: Other saints fought heroic internal battles,
like Pope St. John Paul II, who was a great pope,
despite struggling against debilitating illness.
LIBBY: God was clearly working in their lives,
and if they could do it, well, as Catholics say, so can we.
KAI: For Catholics, even when they don't feel very saintly,
they can all be inspired by how close
the saints were with God.
LIBBY: Saints show that the deeper your connection with God,
the closer you get to your own calling.
KAI: The second reason Catholics love saints:
they instruct us better than anyone
on what it means to love God and love neighbor,
not only with their lives, but with their writings,
stories and preaching.
LIBBY: Some were scholars who saw the profound connection
between faith and reason.
KAI: St. Therese of Lisieux wrote a bestselling book
on the Little Way of our everyday lives,
lived as a gift of love to God and the people around her.
The common thread with saints is a deep trust in God
for the shape and evolution of their lives.
LIBBY: And because the saints lead such different kinds of lives
and lifestyles with such different evolutions,
just about every aspect of life is covered
by what we call patron saints.
Patron saints are special protectors
over pretty much anything you can think of,
including professions, illnesses, countries and cities.
KAI: There's St. Joseph for workers and fathers,
St. Jude for hopeless causes.
LIBBY: St. Anthony for lost things. KAI: I know I've got
St. Anthony on speed dial just for my keys alone.
LIBBY: You know who I've got on speed dial? St. Genesius.
KAI: The patron saint of clowns? Libby,
you really should take yourself more seriously.
LIBBY: Funny. He's also the patron saint of actors,
which has got to mean show hosts, too.
Patron saints are perfect examples
of the third reason Catholics love saints:
They intercede. For Catholics,
saints are like their friends in Heaven
who they can ask for prayers,
just like they'd ask their friends on earth.
KAI: You might say, "Isn't praying to saints idolatry
or conjuring the dead with superstitious mumbo-jumbo?"
LIBBY: Valid questions, as we pointed out
in our episode on Mary, Catholics don't worship saints
or statues, and there's no magic spell
to get them to give us what we want.
KAI: They are people that are alive in Heaven,
because of their faith and love of God.
Since they were real, living, breathing humans on earth,
no matter what you're going through --
whether it's grief, addiction, or money problems --
well, there's a saint you can turn to
who knows exactly what it was like.
LIBBY: So, to wrap up, there are just as many paths
to sainthood as there are saints.
For Catholics, the road starts in daily life.
It's about making choices that put love at the center,
and a life that helps to move the world to a better place.
KAI: The Catholics look to saints, because,
one: They inspire. LIBBY: Two: They instruct,
and three: They intercede
from their place with God in Heaven.
KAI: It's possible for everyone on earth to one day inspire,
instruct, and intercede, just like the saints
that have come before us.
LIBBY: After all, saints are sinners that just keep trying.
I'm Libby, and this is Catholic Central.
KAI: And I'm Kai. (growling)
No sudden movements. LIBBY: Kai!
(upbeat music)