The Catholic church , Saints & images .

I have often wondered how the great importance of images and praying to Saints came to be of such importance to the Catholic Church .

My curiosity of this question was just that , a curiosity . I never really put the time into researching it any further , until I started dating a Catholic girl . Her and I will often get into a little discussion on religion and if such things , such as , Saints and images should hold the importance that the Catholic church grants to them .

What I have always believed is that images are forbidden , and one should pray to God and God alone . Where as her beliefs tell her , as she interprets them , that praying to Saints is a very important thing , as well as displaying images of Saints around the house .

Although I am by no means a Bible expert I do consider my self to have a fair knowledge of the Bible . She on the other hand has little or no knowledge of the Bible and only knows what she has been told . Needless to say she doesn\'t know why and how this dogma came into being , but like I she is interested to learn the answer to this question .

I did a search on Saints and found this en.wikipedia.org... .
according to Wikipedia Saint meant Holy person , and then later was the name given to those that followed Jesus .

\"The concept originates in early Greek Christian literature with the use of the word aghios (Greek άγιος meaning “holy” or “holy one”) and in the New Testament, where it is used to describe the followers of Jesus of Nazareth.[1] (In the Old Testament, the cognate is the Hebrew word qodesh, קדש)\"

I then did a search asking why the Catholic church prays to Saints and found this , matt1618.freeyellow.com... . This site seems to list a few chapters and versus of the Bible where Saints are mentioned but they also seem to list Chap. and ver. reasons not to do it as well . The the later mentioned site left me feeling that they are kind of missing the point of there bases of the hole question . They didn\'t cover the word Saint and the meaning that it has come to be , point of case , praying to the various Saints and displaying there images , from what the name may have actually meant at the time of Jesus .

I remember hearing one theory that at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire and the dawning of the Holy Roman empire they needed some thing to unite the people , as a way of holding things together . It was decided that the one way to do this would be to unite the people through a common religion . So in order to make the new religion appeal to the many different pagan religion it was decided to create a Christian version of \"The Great Goddess\" , this form being the Virgin Merry . They then decided to render it possible to pray to one of the Saints , the Saint you would pray to would depend on what kind of prayer you might be praying , i.e.. love , protection , what have you . Very similar to what the many Pagans where doing at the time and how they worshiped there many Gods at the time . Images where another thing very important to the many pagan religions at the time and the theory goes onto say that it was thought that if this things could be brought together then they might be able to unite all the different religions could be brought into Christianity .

Is there any truth to this claim ? My search then lead me to this site www.fsmitha.com... . This site says a fair amount and if you are interested in this topic I would suggest you take a look for your self as it would not be fair to just pick a quote and past it here . I will point out though , the site also give yet one more example of how Christianity was tweaked to fit the pagan practice i.e the merging of holidays such as Christmas and the day it was celebrated and the changing of the chosen day of worship from sat. to sol , the day of the sun , Sunday .

It is my hope that some of you out there might be able to add to this topic and the understanding of how these things came to be .

reply to post by Max_TO


Greatest source of motivation: Power of love!

I never really put the time into researching it any further , until I started dating a Catholic girl.

Same happened to me, when I met beautiful princess from Pakistan... "Islam, what is to be Muslim?" And soon I found my self from research. Knowledge gives you power, wisdom gives you immortality.

I'm not quite sure what you're asking here and I'm not sure where the conspiracy angle is.

Are you asking why Catholics pray to saints and why they allow graven images?

Eric

reply to post by Max_TO

Abridged version:

The reason why saints are so big in catholicism is because many saints used to actually be pagan gods. The church turned them into saints to make converting the masses easier. Calling them saints instead of gods alloud people to still pay homage while being able to accept a new god.

[edit on 2-4-2008 by riley]

reply to post by Max_TO


I think you've pretty much nailed it. The majority of what Catholics apply to to their faith stems from paganism with a Christian twist. The changing of the biblical sabbath (the 7th day - our saturday) to the pagan day of worship, SUNday, the veneration of Mary, idols, and saints, the wearing of religious robes, celebrating Christmas (formerly the winter equinox, Christ's birthday is not mentioned in the Bible), Easter (formerly the fertility festivals of Ishtar with rabbits and eggs etc - Christ was actually crucified on the day of passover), the trinity comes from Babylon, I could go on forever. They even call their leader the Holy Father or Pope wich means father (Papa), which is actually quite blasphemous.....

MATTHEW 23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

As you have pointed out, most of them don't actually have much knowledge of the Bible or they would see these errors, or those that do simply make excuses. The funny thing is the churches that call themselves protestsnt, teach and practice many of the things that came from the church they claim to be protesting. The majority of what modern Christianity teaches is directly contrary to the what Bible teaches, but that itself was prophesied...

MATTHEW 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.