Many saints are venerated for specific reasons, professions or even nations. There are saints who are believed to provide assistance in selling a property.
COVID-19 is changing how people go on pilgrimages.
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The pandemic has inspired new forms of pilgrimages – some do-it-yourself, in which people are walking in their backyards or nearby spaces and finding meaning.
Josaphat sits Dreaming in a Landscape, from the Workshop of Diebold Lauber, c 1469.
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It was only in the 19th century the West became aware of Buddhism as a religion in its own right – but the Buddha had been a Christian saint for centuries.
Two manuscripts of the visionary, writer and composer St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) survived the Dresden bombings after a librarian stashed them in a bank vault.
(Avraham Pisarek/Deutsche Fotothek/Wikimedia)
Two precious manuscripts hidden in a bank vault survived the Allied bombing of Dresden, but one wound up in Soviet hands — until it was smuggled home.
Deaf worshippers sign a hymn while following sign language interpreter Diely Martinez at Holyrood Episcopal Church-Iglesia Santa Cruz in New York City, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019.
AP Photo/Emily Leshner
Deaf Christians can often feel excluded in churches. But the Christian contemplative tradition that celebrates silence and considers it a form of prayer can bring a new understanding of faith.
Sculpture of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, on the campus of Boston College.
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At times we just don’t know what’s the right thing to do. St. Ignatius, who founded the Society of Jesus, developed a method of discernment that can be useful even to those who are not religious.
Lisa Bitel, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
There are many myths associated with St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. But Patrick’s own writings and early biographies reveal the person behind the legend.
Pious drinking.
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For those wondering whether it is sinful to drink, even moderately, a scholar goes into the history of alcohol and its distillation to show how early monks and priests contributed to it.
Pope Francis talks with bishops during the Liturgical Week at the Vatican in August 2017.
AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis
A liturgy expert explains that until the 12th century local bishops made decisions on Catholic liturgical practices even though the Catholic Mass was celebrated in Latin until 1970. How did that change?
A monument to St Dwynwen at Llanddwyn on Anglesey.
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Mother Teresa will become a saint on Sunday, on the basis of two miracles of healing. But let’s not remove our thinking caps and go all medieval: we should be wary of uncritical endorsement of claims to the miraculous.
Popes John Paul II and John XXIII were declared saints by Pope Francis last Sunday. So what were the “miracles” necessary for John Paul’s sainthood, and how likely was it they really occurred? Almost 40…
Professor of Public Theology in the Department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Theology, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam