08/24/2026
SAINTS AND ANGLICANISM: 15 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
What does Anglicanism really believe about saints? Do we have saints? Do saints have to be canonized before we can call them saints? Should we pray to them or ask them to pray for us? And if Anglicanism rejected the invocation of saints at the Reformation, why do we still have All Saints’ Day, St Peter’s Church, St Mary’s Church, St Augustine’s Church and St Paul’s Cathedral?
The Anglican position is richer than either extreme. We neither throw away the saints nor allow them to take the place that belongs to Christ.
Here are 15 things every Anglican should know.
1. THE WORD “SAINT” IS BIBLICAL BEFORE IT IS ECCLESIASTICAL
In the New Testament, saint is not originally the title of a tiny spiritual elite. The Greek word hagios means holy one, and St Paul repeatedly addresses ordinary Christians as “saints.”
He writes “to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints” in Romans 1:7, and “unto the church of God which is at Corinth... called to be saints” in 1 Corinthians 1:2.
That immediately tells us something important.
The Church did not invent sainthood. God makes saints by calling people into Christ and setting them apart as His holy people.
2. PETER, PAUL, STEPHEN AND THE OTHER BIBLICAL SAINTS NEVER PASSED THROUGH A CANONIZATION PROCESS
Where in the New Testament do we read about a tribunal investigating three miracles before Peter could be called Saint Peter?
Nowhere.
Nobody canonized Paul, Stephen, John, Mary Magdalene, Barnabas or the apostles through the modern Roman Catholic process. The Church received and remembered them because their witness to Christ was already known.
More fundamentally, Scripture itself speaks of the whole believing community as saints.
So Anglicanism begins with the biblical idea of sainthood, not with a later administrative procedure.
3. MANY GREAT SAINTS OF THE EARLY CHURCH WERE NEVER CANONIZED BY THE LATER PAPAL SYSTEM EITHER
Consider names such as Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Cyprian of Carthage, Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Augustine of Hippo.
These Christians lived centuries before the centralized Roman canonization procedure developed into the system we recognise today.
In the early centuries, martyrs were remembered locally at their tombs and in the Church’s worship. Later, holy confessors, bishops, teachers and ascetics were similarly received into the Church’s memory. Recognition was initially local and often arose from the Christian community, with bishops gradually exercising greater oversight. There was no modern Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints examining the apostles and early Fathers.
4. FORMAL PAPAL CANONIZATION DEVELOPED MUCH LATER
This is an important piece of history.
The first centuries of Christianity had no formal canonization process comparable to the modern Roman system. One of the earliest securely documented papal canonizations is that of Ulrich of Augsburg in AD 993. During the Middle Ages, authority over canonization became increasingly centralized in Rome. Pope Alexander III in the twelfth century asserted papal authority over such recognition, and by the seventeenth century Pope Urban VIII had firmly reserved beatification and canonization to the Holy See.
So when someone asks, “Who canonized St Augustine?” the question can already contain an anachronism.
The saints existed before the modern machinery of canonization.
5. ANGLICANISM DID NOT ABOLISH THE SAINTS
The Reformation did not suddenly declare Peter, Paul, Mary, Augustine, Cyprian and the martyrs irrelevant.
Open the Book of Common Prayer and you will find Saint Andrew’s Day, Saint Thomas the Apostle, the Conversion of Saint Paul, Saint Matthias, Saint Mark, Saint Barnabas, Saint Peter, Saint James, Saint Bartholomew, Saint Matthew, Saint Luke, Saint Simon and Saint Jude, and All Saints’ Day.
What Anglicanism reformed was not the existence of saints.
It challenged doctrines and devotional practices surrounding them that it judged to lack sufficient warrant from Scripture.
We kept the saints. We refused to make them substitutes for Christ.
6. EVERY TRUE BELIEVER IN CHRIST IS A SAINT
This is one of the most neglected truths.
Sainthood is first an identity before it becomes a historical distinction.
There are Christians still struggling, praying, serving and witnessing here on earth. Traditionally, this has been called the Church Militant.
There are faithful Christians who have finished their earthly pilgrimage and now rest in Christ. Traditionally, we speak of the Church Triumphant.
Death does not create two Churches. There remains one mystical Body of Christ. The Prayer Book beautifully describes that Body as “the blessed company of all faithful people.”
So All Saints’ Day is not merely about famous Christians in stained-glass windows.
If you are in Christ, sainthood is your calling too.
7. ANGLICANISM HAS NO ROMAN-STYLE CANONIZATION PROCESS
Why does Anglicanism not have a department investigating miracles so that the Archbishop of Canterbury can formally canonize somebody for the whole Anglican Communion?
Because that kind of canonization is simply not part of Anglican doctrine or polity.
Anglican provinces maintain calendars of holy men and women and may add persons for commemoration according to their own processes. But there is no Anglican equivalent of the papal claim to canonize someone juridically for the universal Church.
This is actually much closer to the earlier Christian pattern of recognition and commemoration than many people realise.
8. ANGLICANS HONOUR SAINTS PRIMARILY BY REMEMBERING WHAT GOD DID IN THEM
What happens on the feast of an apostle, martyr, missionary or teacher of the faith? We thank God. We remember Christian courage. We hear Scripture. We learn from their example. We ask God to give His Church similar faithfulness.
The focus ultimately returns to God because whatever was genuinely holy in them was the work of His grace.
That is why contemporary Anglican calendars may commemorate people as diverse as Augustine of Hippo, Cyprian, John Chrysostom, Francis of Assisi, Richard Ho**er, Charles Simeon, John and Charles Wesley, William Temple, Mary Slessor, Ajayi Crowther, Apolo Kivebulaya, Janani Luwum, and many others.
We honour the vessel, but we glorify the God who filled it.
9. HONOURING A SAINT IS NOT THE SAME THING AS WORSHIPPING A SAINT
This distinction matters.
I can honour St Paul without believing Paul is divine. I can thank God for Augustine without worshipping Augustine. I can name a church after St Stephen without making Stephen the head of the Church.
Scripture itself tells us to remember faithful leaders and “considering the end of their conversation”, imitate their faith in Hebrews 13:7.
Christian remembrance becomes dangerous only when the servant begins to obscure the Master. The saint should always point beyond himself to Christ.
10. CLASSICAL ANGLICANISM DOES NOT INVOKE THE SAINTS
Here the Thirty-Nine Articles speak very plainly. Article XXII rejects the “invocation of Saints”, describing the Romish doctrine associated with it as lacking warrant in Scripture and being contrary to God’s Word.
So the classical Anglican pattern is not: “St Paul, hear my prayer.”
It is: “Almighty God, we thank you for the grace you gave your servant Paul. Give us grace to follow his faithful example, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Notice the difference. We remember the saint, but we address God.
11. OUR ACCESS TO THE FATHER IS THROUGH CHRIST
Why is Anglicanism so careful here?
Because the New Testament places enormous emphasis on the unique mediation of Jesus Christ. “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" - 1 Timothy 2:5.
We approach the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our confidence before God rests upon the merits of Christ, not upon a treasury of merits accumulated by exceptionally holy Christians.
This is why Anglican prayers repeatedly conclude: “Through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The saints can inspire us. Only Christ redeemed us.
12. BUT THERE IS SOME DIVERSITY WITHIN MODERN ANGLICANISM
This should be acknowledged honestly.
Some Anglo-Catholic Anglicans do ask departed saints to pray for them. Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians in ARCIC have even stated that such requests need not necessarily compete with Christ’s unique mediation, provided they do not obscure the believer’s direct access to God. The same document admits, however, that such invocation is not directly taught by Scripture as a required element of Christian life. (ARCIC, Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ, paragraphs 68-70, 75.)
That ecumenical statement does not erase Article XXII or suddenly make invocation obligatory Anglican doctrine.
So an Anglican can confidently say: "I believe in the communion of saints. I thank God for the saints. I believe the departed faithful are alive in Christ. But my prayers are addressed to God through Jesus Christ."
That remains deeply rooted in classical Anglican spirituality.
13. ANGLICANS CAN COMMEMORATE CHRISTIANS WHO WERE ROMAN CATHOLICS AFTER THE REFORMATION
This surprises some people.
Modern Anglican calendars may contain figures such as Francis de Sales, Vincent de Paul, John Bosco and Martin de Porres, all belonging to post-Reformation Roman Catholic history. The same calendar can also commemorate John Calvin, George Fox, John and Charles Wesley, William and Catherine Booth and other Christians outside the institutional Anglican fold.
Why?
Because commemoration does not mean that Anglicanism retrospectively accepts every doctrine that person or that person’s communion held.
It means we can recognise the grace of God displayed in a Christian life.
For the same reason, where proper ecclesiastical authority permits it, an Anglican church can be dedicated in honour of a Christian figure recognised as a saint in another tradition, including someone recognised by Rome after the Reformation. That does not mean the Anglican Church has submitted to the Roman canonization process.
Recognition of holiness is not the same thing as recognition of papal jurisdiction.
14. WE NEED MEMORIALS OF OUR FOREBEARS, NOT MONUMENTS THAT HIDE CHRIST
There is a difference between a memorial and monument.
A memorial says: “Remember how God used this person.”
A monument can become: “Look how great this person was.”
The Church needs memory. A Church suffering from spiritual amnesia will keep believing that Christianity began with its present generation.
We should teach our children about Polycarp’s courage, Augustine’s theology, Athanasius’ defence of Christ’s divinity, the missionary labour of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the evangelical passion of the Wesleys and the witness of countless martyrs.
But Christian memory must always end in doxology: “Thanks be to God.”
The greatest saint is still a sinner saved by grace.
15. THE PURPOSE OF REMEMBERING SAINTS IS TO PRODUCE MORE SAINTS
This may be the most important point.
Why celebrate All Saints’ Day? Why name churches after apostles and martyrs? Why preserve calendars, biographies and feast days? Not because Christianity is a museum.
The saints are not merely people to admire. They are witnesses telling us what the grace of God can do with an ordinary human life surrendered to Christ.
Hebrews 12 describes us as surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses”, and immediately tells us to run our own race, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
That is perfect Anglican sainthood.
Remember the witnesses.
Imitate their faith.
But keep your eyes on Jesus.
So, does Anglicanism believe in saints? ABSOLUTELY.
Do we believe only people officially canonized by Rome can be saints? NO!
Do we honour faithful Christians who have gone before us? YES.
Do the classical Anglican formularies direct us to invoke them? NO!
Do we believe we remain united with all the faithful, living and departed, in the one mystical Body of Christ? YES.
And should every Christian aspire to holiness? ABSOLUTELY.
Let’s keep learning Anglicanism.
