Thursday, January 22, 2009

Saints in the shortlist

BBC reports on a TV show that's causing quite a stir in Georgia:

"A row has erupted in Georgia after a TV show called Top Ten Best Georgians included 18 saints in its shortlist ... A spokesman for the patriarch, who is the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, said it was wrong to ask the public to put saints in rank order."

Are there canonical impediments to people favoring one saint over the other?

2 comments:

street theologian said...

Well that all depends. If you're talking about "influence" you can be somewhat objective if you can define terms and scope. For example, we can say that St. Paul had more "influence" on the Church in Rome than St. Thomas. Perhaps what the Georgian ranking was all about. In terms of "Holiness," though, there wouldn't be any concrete gauge or system.

Joe V. said...

At least this kinda makes people go and find out more about the Saints ... although the ranking of holy men really is troubling.

But, it always saddens me that in our living Indian churches we rattle off a list of numerous Saints in our Thubdens on a weekly basis, but most of the people don't even know who or what St Anthanasius and St John Chrysostom have done in the early Church