Member of BannerPower Rotation System

---

Saints Christianity The souls of those who have lived a life consistent with the teachings of Christ. The Catholic Church attempts to identify and name those who have achieved this heavenly honor: the two criteria that it uses are martyrdom for the Faith or the proof of three miracles. (The Anglican and Orthodox churches also make saints, though by different processes. The word is also used to speak of Muslim holy men and Buddhist boddhisatvas.) The Church admits its fallibility when it comes to its ability to discover every person crowned in Heaven, so it has created the Feast of All Souls for the celebration of the lives and works of these unknowns. In 1969, the Church announced its finding that certain popular saints (including Saint Barbara and Saint Christopher) were fictions and removed them from the liturgical calendar. The devout pray to saints in the belief that they can cure sickness or help them with other problems. The Church holds that saints do not work the miracles themselves but intercede on their supplicants' behalf in the Heavenly Court. God, theologians explain, is the author of the god that lay people usually credit to the saints. Some deceased persons who do not meet Church requirements for sainthood have, nevertheless, attracted unofficial followings. Examples of this include anti-semitic cults like those of Little St. Hugh in England and St. Werner in Germany. (Neither of these is now active.) Tijuana's Panteon Number 1 features two chapels dedicated to "Juan Soldado" ("Soldier John"), an otherwise unnoteworthy local resident who was falsely accused of murder and killed by an angry mob. His shrines, though not approved by the church, attract pilgrims from all over the city and beyond. Their walls are covered with signs attesting to his intercessions.