The Origin of Christian Saints

Credits:
Executive Producers: Daniel Cuevas, Maritza
Co-Writers: Bailey Benson and Andrew Henry
Editor: Mark Henry

Bibliography
Peter Brown. The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2014.

Lawrence Cunningham. A Brief History of Saints. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2015.

David Eastman. “The Cult of Saints,” in The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual, eds. Risto Uro, Juliette Day, Richar DeMaris, and Rikard Roitto, 676-683. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Cynthia Hahn. The Reliquary Effect: Enshrining the Sacred Object. London: Reaktion Books, 2016.

Cynthia Hahn and Holger A. Klein, eds. Saints and Sacred Matter: The Cult of Relics in Byzantium and Beyond. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2015

Troels Myrup Kristensen and Wiebke Friese, eds. Excavating Pilgrimage: Archaeological Approaches to Sacred Travel and Movement in the Ancient World. Taylor & Francis, 2017.

David Pettegrew, William Caraher, and Thomas Davis, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Julia M. H. Smith. “Portable Christianity: Relics in the Medieval West (c. 700-1200),” Raleigh Lecture on History, 2010.

Risto Uro, Juliette Day, Rikard Roitto, and Richard DeMaris, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Robert Wisniewski. The Beginnings of the Cult of Relics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

[tdogg]

Throughout Russian Orthodox history, there was a popular folk belief that the bodies of saints would not decay and were incorruptible. When the Soviet's came to power, they initiated an anti-relic campaign which was intended to convince the public that the church had been deceiving them. While bones were found in many of the saint's tombs, some contained mummified bodies which reportedly astonished many locals. Some of the remains of the saints were taken to museums to be displayed as artifacts, but there were faithful Christians who continued to visit and pray before them. A very interesting part of Russian religious history.

[sjappiyah]

I imagine church services in literal underground catacombs to be the most surreal experience lol

[israeltovar]

Wow, I am so early that Paul is still attacking the early apostles...

[GaiusIuliusCaesar]

A interesting occurrence is also that when a Christian church replaced or took over a pagan temple, many times there is overlap in the sphere of influence of the hero and the saint that replaced him/her. Example, as shrine with a hero that was thought to say protect babies and pregnant mothers, the saint that replaced the hero will also be someone with some connection to babies and mothers. Not always, but enough times it isn't just random either.

[exoplanet]

My aunt (R.I.P.) was actually blessed by a saint! In the 1950s, she lived in Italy where she visited the famous stigmatic Padre Pio, who took her confession. She later went on to become a Catholic nun in the Carmelite order in the US. Padre Pio died in 1968 and was later canonized. More recently, other family members visited Saint Pio's shrine and returned with some holy oil, which was shared around for anointing, especially for those with injuries.

[mikaylamcfadden]

Great video as someone raised Catholic it’s fascinating to learn about different religions and practices. Even today Catholics study saints and choose a saint name. Mine was Joan of Arc when I was confirmed.

[Haedox]

You’re a fantastic creator. Learned so much! Thanks for these!!!!

[enchantingdan]

Interesting! Although one note. There are actually three classes of relics! First is the body of the saint, second is something the saint owned or used while alive and third are items that have touched first or second class relics.

[derickgabrillo]

Hi, I just wanted to say that I love this channel. Religious history is one of my favorite aspects of history, so it's sad that it's often overlooked. I blame History Channel for the common perception that history's just about warfare. Thank you and the team behind RFB for making this area of history much more accessible!

[lanskandal]

"This is no ordinary bonebox" is my new favourite quote

[jonathanmitchell]

"I just love this salad dressing! What's your secret?"
"Promise you won't tell anyone?... The oil was poured over the bones of Saint Olivia of Palermo!"
"Oh, um.... That's nice... You know, I just realized I'm full."

[vitor]

3:24 I kept hearing that Polycarp was executed after for refusing to read Kant, and it was so confusing but also funny

[jmpht]

This is a pretty common human tendency. It's interesting to look into the localized roots of specific practices a little more, but generally speaking this is fairly universal (even if the details vary from religion to religion and culture to culture).

[SagaciousEagle]

Why is this channel not at 1M subscribers yet with this quality of video and information? I don't understand.

[j.k.]

Will you ever do a video discovering Eastern Catholic Churches like the Maronites for example? I find them extremely underrated with a deep history worthy of discussing.

[LuthienAlexandra]

Thank you for this very interesting video. I am orthodox and where I'm from pilgrimages to the remains of saints are widely practiced - even during the pandemic hundreds of people would go and kiss the box containing the remains. It always baffled me, but at the same time I figured this type of behavior won't dissappear very soon because it must be very deeply imbedded in the collective mentality and it must be rooted in a very old practice. I just didn't know what that practice was. I can't believe I didn't make the corelation with the ancient greek hero cults. Again, thank you for this!

[AI-hxfx]

As a Catholic, I have exactly the same sort of thing in the introduction. A friend gave me Oil of Saint Charbel, which is a small amount of pure olive oil mixed with a smaller fraction of oil that was in contact with the bones of the Maronite monk, Saint Charbel Makhlouf.

Same principle: oil touches his relics, oil has his powers to intercede to God for miracles, power diffuses into the larger batch of olive oil for wider distribution.

[ktkatte]

This is fascinating. Thanks, once again. At this point probably my favorite YT channel.

[GameTimeWhy]

Religions are a cool way of seeing what the regional culture/s were like at that period of time. Like with Christianity being able to see how the religion changed as it met new cultures or as it changed through the centuries to meet the new cultural norms.

[johnndamascene]

Fun fact, Polycarp was a student of John the Apostle