Theme: Saints
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| Design: Westminster Unitarian Church, RI 2014 |
March 17th is the feast day of St. Patrick in the Roman Catholic Church. St. Patrick was a 5th century Romano-Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland whose life, legend, and memory is held dear in the hearts and minds of the Irish people and is celebrated annually by people within and outside Ireland regardless of religious affiliation.
While the names of various saints, particularly Christian saints, are well known to many Unitarian Universalists, our tradition, unlike our Catholic friends, for example, does not have a formal process by which we recognize or canonize people as saints. Nonetheless, we do have a long history of women and men who some UU’s consider the saints of our faith, even if unofficially so. Some of them are named in the image above, whose design comes from Westminster Unitarian Church, RI.
Reflection:
* What makes someone a saint?
* Take a look at some of the names listed in the image above. Who among those listed, whether you're a UU or of another tradition, might you consider a saint?
You're invited to post your response below.
Continue your exploration of this theme here:
Click the play button on the image below to watch a YouTube tribute to notable Unitarians and Universalists.
I enjoyed the video. I did not know that Paul Newman and his wife Joanne were Unitarians. Fits though..
ReplyDeleteToo much Catholic baggage for me to think of a "saint." But if I had to pick, it would one who helped out the poor and disaffected such as Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton, Dorothea Dix, and others who went places women weren't supposed to go and showed great courage. Donna Sullivan
How do I post (Publish) a comment with my name? I didn't recognize what would do that under the Select Profile menu choices.
ReplyDeletedonna sullivan
Thank you for your posts, Donna. To post/publish with your name you need to log in using one of the platforms listed under "Comment as". If you don't have an account with any of those, your post will show as "Anonymous" in which case you can sign your post with your name as you did.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to your comment about saints, while saints are often associated with Catholicism, many other religious traditions, including non-Christian faiths, recognize saints, whether formally or informally. The common strand they seem to share, and thus allows them to transcend the bonds of clime and creed, is that they live on as sources of inspiration for people. Not that they were perfect or flawless people. Indeed the stories of the lives of saints often more closely resembles a tabloid article than some lofty tome about righteous living. What I find most remarkable about both official and unofficial saints is that they were generally ordinary people who were extraordinarily, profoundly human.