Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxf.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!ihnp4!ihuxf!features From: features@ihuxf.UUCP (M.A. Zeszutko) Newsgroups: net.religion,net.misc Subject: Re: RE: St. Christopher Message-ID: <1984@ihuxf.UUCP> Date: Tue, 31-Jan-84 18:38:19 EST Article-I.D.: ihuxf.1984 Posted: Tue Jan 31 18:38:19 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 7-Feb-84 07:01:31 EST References: <462@uofm-cv.UUCP>, <580@sbcs.UUCP>, <532@ihuxq.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 19 (St. Christopher)..."didn't he get court-martialled and convicted in absentia by some recent pope for having been ilegitimate?" Not really. At least not if you consider "illegitimate" as being born out of wedlock. The Vatican officials had some reason to believe that belief in St. Christopher (and in a raft of other, lesser-known saints) was merely a pious myth. (Somewhat akin to belief in Superman, on the secular side.) Thus, they weren't sure whether or not these folks ever existed, or whether they were merely made up. Incidentally, the canonization process (the route one has to travel to be declared a saint) has gotten MUCH more stringent in the past 200 or so years. In the early Church (<600), saints were named by popular acclaim. (If things were done now the way they were then, Mother Theresa of Calcutta would already be sainted.) M. A. Zeszutko AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL