Is Peter a saint?

[Emmylouwho]

Is Peter a saint? What is a saint, anyway? Is it an official title?

 

[devin553344]

Is Peter a saint? What is a saint, anyway? Is it an official title?

Apparently he was a saint: Saint Peter - Wikipedia

 

[St_Worm2]

Is Peter a saint? What is a saint, anyway? Is it an official title?

What are Christian saints according to the Bible? | GotQuestions.org

 

[Not David]

Yes, he did a lot of the Gospel.

Here are some icons of him:

 

[anna ~ grace]

According to the Assyrian Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, and Methodism, yes.

With the ACoE, OOC, EOC, and CC it's a title conferred by the Church. Via popular devotion to an individual Christian known for their holiness, wonder working, nearness to God, charity, intercessory power, and theological wisdom, and formally through canonization.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Most of the early church fathers were saints (consecrated, worthy of veneration, but not worship) as are all true Christians including the present.

 

[Jonaitis]

Is Peter a saint? What is a saint, anyway? Is it an official title?

All Christians are saints, so yes he was.

It literally means "holy one," and refers to those in the church.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Is Peter a saint? What is a saint, anyway? Is it an official title?

All those who will be with God in the life of the age to come are saints.

I think you are asking if Paul was canonized as a Saint officially. What that means varies a little depending on who you ask. According to the EO Church, for example, we generally say that we can't see a person's heart and we also don't take the place of Jesus and judge any person as far as their salvation. But sometimes people give extraordinary evidence (such as proof that the Holy Spirit works through them by miracles), or perhaps dying as a martyr (which is generally evidence that they died in Christ if they are willing to die FOR Him) ... so that the Church accepts there is enough evidence that a person surely is in communion with God. Those people are then officially canonized as Saints.

All of the Apostles are canonized Saints, including the Apostle Paul.

(Note I did not say all disciples - this is not true for Judas Iscariot who betrayed the Lord. God could have had mercy on him at some point, but we don't know that for sure.)

 

[Emmylouwho]

All those who will be with God in the life of the age to come are saints.

I think you are asking if Paul was canonized as a Saint officially. What that means varies a little depending on who you ask. According to the EO Church, for example, we generally say that we can't see a person's heart and we also don't take the place of Jesus and judge any person as far as their salvation. But sometimes people give extraordinary evidence (such as proof that the Holy Spirit works through them by miracles), or perhaps dying as a martyr (which is generally evidence that they died in Christ if they are willing to die FOR Him) ... so that the Church accepts there is enough evidence that a person surely is in communion with God. Those people are then officially canonized as Saints.

All of the Apostles are canonized Saints, including the Apostle Paul.

(Note I did not say all disciples - this is not true for Judas Iscariot who betrayed the Lord. God could have had mercy on him at some point, but we don't know that for sure.)

 

[Emmylouwho]

Where does it say this in the Bible?

 

[~Anastasia~]

Where does it say this in the Bible?

If you're asking me, then I'm not sure if you mean any particular part?

But since you asked in Christian history, I will say that it was faith and practice that came before the Bible. (Not the practice of canonization of course. But the understanding of such things as - we humans don't judge the salvation of persons, and that God's grace can act miraculously through persons, especially as they are bearers of God - indwelt by the Holy Spirit.)

If you have a specific question, I'm happy to answer if I can. But from a historic standpoint (if you go all the way back to the Apostles) there was no "Bible" for quite some time, and the faith was taught in person by the Apostles and then maintained by the Ecclesia. It was that faithfulness to the teaching of the Apostles that helped the people recognize which writings were authentic (and eventually became Scripture) - among a great many false writings that were also circulated.

 

[Root of Jesse]

All Christians are saints, so yes he was.

It literally means "holy one," and refers to those in the church.

All Christians are called to be saints, but not all Christians are saints.

 

[Root of Jesse]

All those who will be with God in the life of the age to come are saints.

I think you are asking if Paul was canonized as a Saint officially. What that means varies a little depending on who you ask. According to the EO Church, for example, we generally say that we can't see a person's heart and we also don't take the place of Jesus and judge any person as far as their salvation. But sometimes people give extraordinary evidence (such as proof that the Holy Spirit works through them by miracles), or perhaps dying as a martyr (which is generally evidence that they died in Christ if they are willing to die FOR Him) ... so that the Church accepts there is enough evidence that a person surely is in communion with God. Those people are then officially canonized as Saints.

All of the Apostles are canonized Saints, including the Apostle Paul.

(Note I did not say all disciples - this is not true for Judas Iscariot who betrayed the Lord. God could have had mercy on him at some point, but we don't know that for sure.)

Right on, Anastasia! Even the Catholic Church can't see the heart of the saint. What happens is the Holy Spirit tells us, somehow, that they're saints. For example, in the case of a medical miracle where no other explanation can explain the cure, if the pious family prayed to St. Francis or someone for a cure, it can be investigated for verity, and counted to the saint's cause. But there must be another miracle to be known.
The Holy Spirit guides us to know that a person is in heaven.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Right on, Anastasia! Even the Catholic Church can't see the heart of the saint. What happens is the Holy Spirit tells us, somehow, that they're saints. For example, in the case of a medical miracle where no other explanation can explain the cure, if the pious family prayed to St. Francis or someone for a cure, it can be investigated for verity, and counted to the saint's cause. But there must be another miracle to be known.
The Holy Spirit guides us to know that a person is in heaven.

It's good to hear from you, and I hope things are well with you.

And I agree especially with this part: the Holy Spirit tells us, somehow, that they're saints

That's essentially what happens. Otherwise, we don't go poking our noses into people's standing with God. But sometimes the Holy Spirit makes it known to us.

God be with you.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

Everything we know about his life and the end of it indicates that he was a Saint and that we are justified in using him as a good apostolic example.

His flaws are what made him human and the repentance he displayed for his denial of Christ through the life he lived are an example to any of us who fall to temptation.

He is Saint Peter and the entire Christian world acknowledges it consciously and unconsciously by their continuing to call their children Peter, their churches Saint Peter and reading his epistles in Church.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Is Peter a saint? What is a saint, anyway? Is it an official title?

Yes, St. Peter is a saint.

The term "saint" has, generally, two uses in common Christian vernacular:

1) A general term for God's people, having been--and being--sanctified by God's grace.
2) Those who have gone before us, who as the Church we are confident are in the Lord's presence, and whose example we believe worth following.

The use of "Saint" as in St. (Saint) Peter, generally is following the second use. Its use here is an act of honor, remembering Simon Peter, the Lord's Apostle, as a blessed servant of Christ.

Some churches may have an official process by which a person is designated as a "saint", most notably the Catholic Church has a formal process of canonizing saints. In other words, of formally recognizing someone as being a saint. In the Orthodox Church there isn't a formal process as such, but is more of a grassroots thing--the Faithful remember and honor the individual, and since the Faithful so honor those who have reposed in the Lord their veneration is taken up. So Catholicism has a kind of top-down semi-bureaucratic approach, Orthodoxy has a more somewhat democratic approach.

In Lutheranism there isn't a process, rather we tend to follow historic practice of honoring the saints, though we don't "canonize" new saints as it were. So Lutherans will refer to St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Augustine, but you really aren't going to see St. Martin Luther, it will just be Martin Luther, or maybe Dr. Luther or Fr. Martin, in reference to his doctoral degree and pastoral vocation respectively.

But there is also the sense in which all who are in Christ are saints, which is how Scripture uses the term usually, and which therefore we are saints--and called to be saints--by God's grace. As a sanctified (and being sanctified) people.

Both uses of the term are correct in Christianity.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Is Peter a saint? What is a saint, anyway? Is it an official title?

All the Ekklesia, faithful born again ones, born again by the Will of the Father from heaven, and set apart by Him for Himself, were and are "saints";
but some definitions change that .... among some groups...

 

[Blade]

"How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

I think sometimes..talking to them. I can here him saying.. "I am no different then you. Christ in me.. is Christ in you". And I say.. "My brother.. this foundation we stand on? Is Christ.. and YOU! Yet.. all they do is point to Christ...never themselves.

 

[ewq1938]

Is Peter a saint? What is a saint, anyway? Is it an official title?

Rom_1:7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

G40
ἅγιος
hagios
hag'-ee-os
From ἅγος hagos (an awful thing) compare G53, [H2282]; sacred (physically pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially consecrated): - (most) holy (one, thing), saint.
Total KJV occurrences: 229

G40
ἅγιος
hagios
Thayer Definition:
1) most holy thing, a saint
Part of Speech: adjective
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from hagos (an awful thing) [compare G53, G2282]
Citing in TDNT: 1:88, 14


I would say a saint would be a real and true servant of Christ. That wouldn't mean they were perfect or sinless and had no flaws but in their hearts and souls they would be good Christians in the eyes of God. I think it would apply to a wide range of Christians but not all who say they are a Christian but that would be for God to decide.

 

[Daniel Marsh]

Is Peter a saint? What is a saint, anyway? Is it an official title?

According to Paul all born of the Spirit Christians are saints.

Psalm 30:4
Sing psalms unto Jehovah, ye saints of his, and give thanks in remembrance of his holiness.

1 Corinthians 1:2 to the assembly of God which is in Corinth, to [those] sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours:

In Catholic Circles one gains the title of saint for outstanding holiness and works for God.