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Maurice Timothy ReidyOctober 07, 2012
Photo by Jenny Marvin on Unsplash

From its earliest days of publication, America has published frequent reflections on the saints, both longstanding and soon-to-be. Here we offer a selection of those articles. Not all of the individuals below have been canonized, but someday we hope they will be.

"Holy Men and Women," Drew Christiansen, S.J., October 29, 2007

"10 Best Films and Documentaries about the Saints," James Martin, S.J., October 30, 2006

"Five Years with Dorothy Day," Robert Ellsberg, November 21, 2005

In My Soul," James Martin, S.J., September 24, 2007 (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)

Of Many Things, James Martin, S.J., May 28, 2007 (On intercession)

"The Most Infallible Sign," James Martin, S.J., April 2, 2007 (The saints and humor)

"Believe Me If You Like," James Martin, S.J., May 22, 2006 (St. Joan of Arc)

"Friends in the Lord," Mark A. Lewis, December 5, 2005 (St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier and Blessed Peter Faber)

"The Saint of the Sock Drawer," James Martin, S.J., January 3, 2005

"United in Happiness," Lawrence S. Cunningham, February 23, 2004

"Holy Terrors," John W. Donohue, S.J., May 13, 1995

More: Saints
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Craig McKee
14 years 5 months ago
Karl Rahner, S.J. has a great quote about why the saints matter:

"Herein lies the special task which the canonized saints have to fulfill for the Church. They are the initiators and the creative models of the holiness which happens to be right for, and is the task of, their particular age. They create a new style; they prove that a certain form of life and activity is really a genuine possibility; they show experimentally that one can be a Christian even in 'this' way; they make such a type of person believable as a Christian type."

from K. Rahner, THE PRACTICE OF FAITH: A HANDBOOK OF CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY, p. 157; cited in Kenneth L. Woodard, MAKING SAINTS, p. 224.

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