An Acolyte's Thesis on the Importance of the Lives of the Saints

[Ramon 3965]

AN ACOLYTE’S THESIS
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS
 

 

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In the Holy Mother Church, we are each called to learn about the saints. We tend to quote their sayings and are encouraged to study the lives of all the saints who have gone before us. But have we ever taken a moment to consider why we are encouraged to do this? Have we ever taken a moment to consider what value there could possibly be in learning about the life of someone who lived so many years before us? In this thesis I aim to stress the importance of studying the Lives of the Saints or Legenda Sanctorum thoroughly by answering said question.

By reading the Lives of the Saints we can see they struggled too, we can observe the ways in which the saints succeeded (and at times failed) and learn from them. What is important is not victory or the position of a victor, but rather the labor of striving towards God and devotion to Him.

By looking into their hagiographies we can use the saints’ lives as a guide and measuring stick to help ourselves stay on the right track. As Canonists we must look to the saints for clear likeness to virtuous living, we must look to them for real, practical examples of how to live.

Just as painters, in working from models, constantly gaze at their exemplar and thus strive to transfer the expression of the original to their own artistry, so too he who is eager to make himself virtuous in life must gaze upon the Lives of the Saints as upon statues, so to speak, that move and act, and must make their excellence his own by imitation.

To give an example: a saint most dear to me is St. Tara of Paradisus, patron of captives, wives and the wilderness and wife to St. Joren of Paradisus. “It came that Joren Son of Horen found a wife of virtue and dignity, who came from Aaun. Her name was Tara, and her kindness warmed the halls of Joren’s keep, and he resolved to wed her.” (Gospel 4:6-7) A saint known from Scripture itself, St. Tara would be beaten, chained and captured alongside her husband and yet, she would still hold her resolve in her captivity through prayer and faith for the seven years she was captured until the defeat of Harren by Exalted Owyn.

By reading of her life do we learn that we should remain steadfast in our faith even when all hope seems lost. Let all involuntary suffering teach you to remember GOD, and you will not lack occasion for repentance. Her life shows that one should not claim to have acquired virtue unless they have suffered affliction, for without affliction virtue has not been tested.

Thus can be concluded that the value of the Lives of the Saints lies in its use to the Faithful, it being a form of guidance to aid ourselves in remaining on the path to virtue as we try to imitate those virtuous living of the saints that came before us to the best of our abilities as we all strive to serve our Lord best.

Amor vincit omnia. In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas. Soli Deo Gloria.

 

Signed,

Acolyte Otto

 

[Viggen92 325]

Cardinal Providentia read through the thesis with a smile on his lips "An excellent thesis, good Otto!" He nodded a couple times before setting the parchment aside, going to sign the Lorraine cross.