Saints

They believed that the spirit of the dead saint, though in heaven, was present in a special way thorough his remains. This was proven before their eyes. There were many miracles at these tombs of the martyrs. People started keeping relics to have a part of this saint because they were seeking miracles with their own eyes. They would see first hand how the communion of saints’ worked because even after death the saint would intercede for them when asked too.

This is the inscription of the tomb of St Martin of tours:
“Here lies Martin the Bishop, of holy memory, whose soul is in the hands of God but he is fully here.” It is present and made plain in miracles of every kind. To the early church and even now it was common for God to manifest the unusual through prayers to and of the saints. Over time the joining of tomb and after even more explicit as saints tombs became places of pilgrimage – Churches were built on the spot of the tomb, to house the relics and ensure a more appropriate celebration of the local Saint. Vatican Hill was once a cemetery outside of Rome where the Basilica of St Peter was erected over his Peter’s Grave. all through Europe there are many Basilica located over the Graves of Saints. These became shrines.
For the first three hundred years of the Church becoming a Christian would give you excellent chances of becoming a martyr, because of the severe persecution. In the fourth century the church entered into a new era of peaceful relation with the Roman State and new models of Sainthood emerged alongside the old. Solitaries, hermits and monks initiated a new form of imitating Christ. They would abandoned the world and deny themselves of all worldly things and all forms of companionship especially marriage. They secluded themselves in fasting and prayer. To the church the slow white martyr of the ascetic was the virtual equivalent of the earlier red martyr who actually shed their blood.

Continue to next page for more information on how saints are canonized.