Saint

Saint (Hebrew qadosh; Greek hagios, literally holy one) in the biblical sense denotes one who has been set apart by God and consecrated to his service — not primarily a category of moral achievement but a designation of relationship and calling. In the Old Testament, the "saints" or "holy ones" are the covenant people of Israel, those set apart from the nations and consecrated to Yahweh (Ps. 16:3; Dan. 7:18). In the New Testament, the term is applied universally to all believers in Jesus Christ, not merely to a special class of the exceptionally virtuous. Paul addresses his letters to the saints at Rome (Rom. 1:7), Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2), Ephesus (Eph. 1:1), and Philippi (Phil. 1:1), meaning all Christians in those communities. Sainthood is thus the normal status of every person united to Christ by faith, sharing in his holiness through justification and the indwelling Spirit. The later Catholic and Orthodox development of a formal canonization process for recognizing saints post mortem reflects a narrowing of the term not found in the New Testament.