God's chosen ones

A billboard lauding the Australian nun in Auckland's Wyndham Street. Photo / Natalie Slade

Faith, service and celebration are key components in the concept of sainthood, though the list of requirements could also include sacrifice, even death.

Tim Cooper, a senior lecturer in the history of Christianity at the University of Otago, says in the first three centuries of Christianity, followers of the religion were persecuted in the Roman Empire. "There were martyrs who died for their faith and their deaths were celebrated."

Quoting an early Christian apologist, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church", Cooper says persecution, far from curbing Christianity, actually helped it.

"After the fourth century, when Constantine [a Christian] became emperor, Christianity was no longer persecuted. That led to greater veneration of these martyrs because the possibility of martyrdom had been taken away. The dates of their martyrdom became their birth dates, in the sense of going on to eternal life. [They] kept accumulating through the next two centuries to the point where you couldn't go a day without a saint - even two or three - being venerated.

"It was one of the things that eventually had to be sorted out by the Church in the West, which happened under Charlemagne in the late 8th century. You couldn't have every man and his dog being made a saint. It was about tightening up procedures so there was some order, or selection, to it."

By this time, sainthood was a popular concept. One of the reasons, Cooper says, was because God was seen to be distant, "like a feudal lord whom you didn't approach". Thus if you sought to connect with God, it was regarded as beneficial to have an advocate, someone well-placed in heaven who would make the approach on your behalf.

"Jesus was the ultimate mediator. Mary was next because she was the mother of Christ, then you had the saints, who were closer to us," Cooper explains. "At this time Europe was vulnerable [to barbarian invasions] and bishops from the Church [were] trying to protect people.

There are, roughly, about 10,000 saints, celebrated by Catholic and Orthodox churches, but not by Protestants.

And the difference between angels and saints? "They seem to operate in the same way, except that angels are unknown as individuals. They are a generic group who somehow minister and serve, unseen, among us. The saints are more localised and personalised, they are more human."