But of course that's not going to stop me seeing the same thing in heroes that the Catholic church hasn't honored in this way, whether that's Wulfstan of Worcester or Conrad Grebel or Dirk Willems or George Fox or John Wesley or Thomas Clarkson or Rhys Howells or whoever.

If Rome's use of the word saint to mean some saints but not all of them is a stumbling block, it is surely a rather small one that is quite easy to jump over…

[Btw, I understand that several of the leaders of the Celtic church are recognised as saints by the Orthodox churches but not officially by the Catholic church.]

They all emigrated to America. you can see them every Sunday by turning on your TV.

No religious group makes anyone a saint. God does. But the Christian church can and does honor the memory of individual Christians, just as we do in our own communities and families. One does not have to be Roman Catholic (big “c”) in order to recognize the exemplary lives of many of the saints that they honor, or to try and live by their example. Non-Catholic Christians also have their honored “saints,” even though they may not be given that title officially. Just think of “heroes of the faith” that you may have learned about in Sunday school, or who may have been preached about in your own church. How is that different in substance from calling them saints?

See piccolaserenata8's comment below. St. Patrick was grandfathered in.

“Catholic” (big or little “c”) make people saints usually after they are dead. But, in the 1st Century AD, EVERY person who believed in Jesus was made a saint by salvation in Jesus.

If a person is NOT a saint while they are living, no religious group can make them a saint when they are dead.

http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Mar20...

“St. Patrick died around 461 A.D. The first saint formally canonized by the pope—for which we have a record, anyway—was St. Ulrich, bishop of Augsburg, Germany, in the year 993.

For most of Christianity’s first 1,000 years, canonizations were done on the diocesan or regional level. Relatively soon after very holy people died, the local Church affirmed that they could be liturgically celebrated as saints.

That was the case with St. Patrick, whose feast has not been dropped from the Church’s universal calendar. Because it usually falls on a weekday during Lent, the opening prayer at Mass can be for St. Patrick, but everything else comes from the Lenten weekday prayers.

If St. Patrick is the patron of a diocese or a parish, the feast can be celebrated with greater solemnity. If March 17 falls on a Sunday, the feast is not observed liturgically that year. Patrick’s admirers find many other ways to celebrate!”

But…what about the snakes?

It's true, isn't it?–that Patrick was never officially canonized, that is.

Saints are not 'anointed,' they are canonized – and they are long dead before that process is complete, so you'd have to dig up the body to anoint it. Besides, Catholics anoint the sick, not the dead.