Hello, I am a non-Christian. I do not believe in the miracles of Jesus, nor am I certain of the existence of God. My spirituality is derived from my culture as opposed to a religion.
Although I was raised evangelical Christian, I connect to Saint Juan Diego, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, and Tata Santiago. I don’t understand what qualifies someone for sainthood or how Saints are uplifted in the church or through the gospel.
Reading another comment section, I connected to one specific comment through scripture (for the first time). I am hoping to find a denomination that honors these individuals, or will allow me to better connect with scripture.
Edit: I realize all denominations are intended to honor Jesus above all. At this point in my religious journey, I feel the need to connect to real life individuals and scripture. Before I can truly appreciate and connect with Jesus’ story.
My apologies if this is a bit lengthy.
Historically canonical sainthood (those persons who are traditionally honored by having "Saint" prefixed to their name) are those whose memory has been preserved in the Christian Church on account of their lives of devotion to Christ. One isn't a saint because they are canonically termed "St. So-and-so", rather that honor is a memory and recognition of such a person as one of the saints, one of God's people whose lives exemplify the Christian life of devotion to Jesus Christ. How that "canonical" status is "done" depends on the church, specifically whether Roman Catholic or Orthodox. In Roman Catholicism there is actually a rather strict by the books procedure involving investigation, as to be recognized as a saint requires at least two verifiable and documented miracles attributed to the saint. Generally that process goes from being recognized as "blessed", then "venerable", then finally "saint". On the other hand, in the Orthodox Churches canonical sainthood is less bureaucratic, and a more organic process--it arises from the popular devotion and memory of Christian communities. If a person is being honored, and their honor holds among the Faithful themselves, then rather organically a recognition of canonical sainthood proceeds. To put it another way, in Catholicism it is a top-down approach, in Orthodoxy it is bottom-up.
Once we start talking about the various traditions and denominations of Protestantism, it gets fuzzier. As a rule, I am unaware of any broadly Protestant body that has any kind of process of canonical sainthood; in fact some Protestants completely eschew the whole idea of honoring the saints altogether. In my own Lutheran tradition we continue to remember and honor those who have traditionally been ascribed "St. So-and-so" which is why you'll see Lutherans often speak of St. Paul, St. Augustine, etc. But you won't, for example, see Lutherans talk about St. Martin Chemnitz, or St. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, though both Chemnitz and Bonhoeffer are profoundly important figures within Lutheran history and tradition. Even with Martin Luther himself we tend to simply refer to him by his pastoral or academic honorifics--Fr. Martin or Dr. Luther, never St. Martin Luther. The same is, best as I can tell, also true of the Anglican Communion, and other historic, traditional Protestants. Canonical sainthood is, generally speaking, just not that important within the broad tent of Protestantism, generally due to a fairly broad Protestant sense that saintliness isn't rooted in personal merit, but rather in divine grace: It is God who justifies and makes holy, and thus all who have been justified freely and have received the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ as a pure gift are saints, the saints who have come before us are worthy of honor, remembrance, and their memory should be preserved that we might imitate them in their imitation of Christ; but most Protestants (Lutherans included) do not engage in acts of personal devotion to the saints who have come before us in the same way that Catholics and Orthodox do.
That said, regardless of tradition or denomination, you'll find that it is impossible to disconnect the saints from faith in Jesus Christ; the saints are honored
because they reflect and honor Jesus Christ.
In the Apostles Creed we speak of the "Communion of Saints", the unity of all God's people together as Christ's Church throughout all ages and all times, so that even those who have died bodily are alive and united together with us in Christ. As a single family belonging to God, from every generation, across the world, in which death has ceased to be a force of division between the living and the dead; for all who belong to Jesus are alive, whether alive in the body or in bodily death--even as we look forward to the day when we and all the dead shall be raised up bodily to that future life which is to come.
As far as what denomination you should seek out, that's a difficult question to answer.
From my own Lutheran perspective I would argue for a "come and see" approach, that is, visit a church, see what it's about, hear what is being said. While you are not a believing Christian you wouldn't be able to partake in, for example, the Eucharist in most churches (though it's not like there are going to be people asking to see your baptism certificate or something), you can still visit and experience the faith and worship of the Christian community. And that is the stuff that lay at the heart of Christian life and practice, the meeting place of God and man through His Word and Sacraments. That said, while I won't tell you what churches to visit or which to avoid because I am clearly biased, I will say that yes there are good churches and bad churches, there are very toxic churches out there and I encourage you to use your common sense and ability to detect red flags guide you to avoid those.
-CryptoLutheran
