Saint Christopher, 1969, the Catholic Church, and All That

My son-in-law and I were talking about candles, factories, and a manufacturing robot that he and my son are developing, when St. Christopher's status came up. It's that kind of a family.

He (my son-in-law) hadn't heard of St. Christopher's 'demotion' - which wasn't so much a 'decanonization' as an official recognition of what the Church had known for - centuries. No surprises there - my son-in-law's memory doesn't go back to 1969, and there are many aspects of Catholicism that are more important than the story behind all those dashboard ornaments.

St. Christopher, Documentation, and an Ancient Church

St. Christopher had a feast day on the Roman Catholic calendar until 1969. That was when the Church essentially caught up on some bookkeeping, and officially recognized that St. Christopher - had never been a saint. Not a formally canonized one, that is.

So: no more official feast day for St. Christopher, and several others. But what I've read indicates that there's no rule against personal devotion to Christopher. He's just not on the official rolls. And never has been.

There was, almost certainly, a Christopher in the late third and early fourth century: right around the year 300. But the detailed story we've got of St. Christopher only goes back to around 1260. Yes, there have been popular devotions to St. Christopher since before the Vikings. Folks still pray to St. Christopher, and my guess is that we'll still be doing so a thousand years from now. Some of us, anyway.

But there just doesn't seem to be enough documentation on him to warrant his inclusion in the list of recognized Saints.

The formal process for canonization of Saints didn't start until - well, actually the process has been evolving for over a thousand years. It would be possible to say the current system started in some particular century - but that would involve using one of the steps along the way as the 'real' beginning. And I think that's a little arbitrary. I've put links to a few resources, under Background.

The Weird Stuff

There are some - goofy, in my opinion - notions about Christianity in general, and Catholics in particular. I was going to write about that today, but it's getting late, I've still got dishes to wash and a chaplet to pray. And anyway, I've been over that stuff before:

• "I Worship a Jew"
  (April 3, 2011)
• "Hating People? Not an Option"
  (December 9, 2010)
• "If Catholics are Superstitious, How Come We're Not Allowed to be Superstitious?"
  (August 18, 2010)
• "If Catholics aren't Supposed to Read the Bible, How Come We're Told to Read the Bible?"
  (May 31, 2010)

Now, back to St. Christopher and all that - Saint-related posts:

• "Fasting, Penance, and the 'Fun' Miracle: Many Faces of Spirituality"
  (December 14, 2010)
• "St. Mary MacKillop and Another News SNAFU"
  (October 19, 2010)
• "Food, Water, Playing Cards, a Crucifix, and Statues of Saints"
  (August 25, 2010)
• "Saints: That's so Medieval"
  (February 14, 2010)
• "Father Damien? Make that Saint Damien of Molokai"
  (May 11, 2010)

Background:

• "St. Christopher Day"
  st-christopher-medal.com (not, to the best of my knowledge, an 'official' Catholic website)
• "St. Christopher
  Question from D. Jarvis on 4/1/2003"
  Fr. John Echert on 4/2/2003, Catholic Q & A, EWTN (March 2, 2003) (again, not an 'official' Catholic website: but I've found them to be well-informed)
• "Saint Christopher
  Question from Clare Kimmel on 9/17/2001"
  Colin B. Donovan, STL on 10/3/2001 (October 3, 2001) (again, not an 'official' Catholic website: but I've found them to be well-informed)
  • The reply is well-thought-out, but assumes that most lay Catholics in America know what "sensus fidelium" means
    • See Catechism of the Catholic Church, 92
    • Glossary
• "Documents of the II Vatican Council"
  The Holy See(1962-1965)
  Particularly
  • "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium"
    Solemnly promulgated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI (December 4, 1963)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church on
  • Sensus fidei
    • 92
  • Saints
    • 823
    • 828
    • 946-959
      
    • 2156
• "The Canonization of Saints"
  Mgr. P. E. Hallett, Incorporated Catholic Truth Society, London, via Eternal Word Television Network (1952)
  
• Index of "The Golden Legend"
  Jacobus de Voragine, via Fordham University; and Medieval Sourcebook, ORB, the-orb.net (c. 1260)