Folk saint in the context of "Saint"

⭐ In the context of religious studies, a 'folk saint' is distinguished from officially recognized saints primarily by…

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⭐ Core Definition: Folk saint

Folk saints are dead people or other spiritually powerful entities (such as indigenous spirits) venerated as saints, but not officially canonized. Since they are saints of the "folk", or the populus, they are also called popular saints. Like officially recognized saints, folk saints are considered intercessors with God, but many are also understood to act directly in the lives of their devotees.

Frequently, their actions in life, as well as in death, distinguish folk saints from their canonized counterparts: official doctrine would consider many of them sinners and false idols. Their ranks are filled by folk healers, indigenous spirits, and folk heroes. Folk saints occur throughout the Catholic world, and they are especially popular in Latin America, where most have small followings; a few are celebrated at the national or even international level.

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👉 Folk saint in the context of Saint

In Christian belief, a saint, also known as a hallow, is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term saint depends on the context and denomination. Official ecclesiastical recognition, and veneration, is conferred on some denominational saints through the process of canonization in the Catholic Church or glorification in the Eastern Orthodox Church after their approval. The saints are honored in the liturgical calendars of Evangelical Lutheranism and Anglicanism. In other nonconformist denominations, such as the Plymouth Brethren, and following from Pauline usage, saint refers broadly to any holy Christian without special recognition or selection.

While the English word saint (deriving from the Latin sanctus) originated in Christianity, historians of religion tend to use the appellation "in a more general way to refer to the state of special holiness that many religions attribute to certain people", referring to the Hindu rishi, Sikh bhagat or guru, the Shintoist kami, the Taoist immortal or zhenren, the Jewish tzadik, the Islamic walī/fakir, and the Buddhist arhat or bodhisattva also as saints. Depending on the religion, saints are recognized either by official declaration, as in Roman Catholicism, Oriental Orthodoxy or Eastern Orthodoxy, or by popular acclamation (see folk saint).

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Folk saint in the context of Gauchito Gil

The Gauchito Gil (literally "Little Gaucho Gil") is a folk religious figure from Argentina. His cult is inspired by the purported historical figure of Antonio Mamerto Gil Núñez (c. 1847–1878), whose existence is not reliably documented. He is currently regarded as the most prominent folk saint in Argentina, although sanctuaries devoted to his cult are also found in Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Spain.

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Folk saint in the context of San La Muerte

San La Muerte (Saint Death) is a skeletal folk saint that is venerated in Paraguay, Argentina (mainly in the province of Corrientes but also in Misiones, Chaco and Formosa) and southern Brazil (specifically in the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul). As a result of internal migration in Argentina since the 1960s, the veneration of San La Muerte has spread to Greater Buenos Aires and to the national prison system as well.

Saint Death is depicted as a male skeleton figure, usually holding a scythe. Although the Catholic Church has rebuked the devotion of Saint Death as a tradition that mixes paganism with Christianity and is contrary to the belief of Resurrection of Jesus defeating death, many devotees view the veneration of San La Muerte as part of their Catholic faith.

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Folk saint in the context of Robert Grosseteste

Robert Grosseteste (/ˈɡrstɛst/ GROHS-test; Latin: Robertus Grosseteste; c. 1168–70 – 8 or 9 October 1253), also known as Robert Greathead or Robert of Lincoln, was an English statesman, scholastic philosopher, theologian, scientist and Bishop of Lincoln. He was born of humble parents in Suffolk (according to the early 14th-century chronicler Nicholas Trivet), but the association with the village of Stradbroke is a post-medieval tradition. Upon his death, he was revered as a saint in England, but attempts to procure a formal canonisation failed. A. C. Crombie called him "the real founder of the tradition of scientific thought in medieval Oxford, and in some ways, of the modern English intellectual tradition". As a theologian, however, he contributed to increasing hostility to Jews and Judaism, and spread the accusation that Jews had purposefully suppressed prophetic knowledge of the coming of Christ, through his translation of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

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Folk saint in the context of Don Pedro Jaramillo

Don Pedro Jaramillo was a curandero and folk saint from the South Texas Valley region. He was known as "the healer of Los Olmos Creek" and "el mero jefe" (English: the real chief) of the curanderos.

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Folk saint in the context of Santa Muerte

Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte (Spanish: [ˈnwestɾa seˈɲoɾa ðe la ˈsanta ˈmweɾte]; Spanish for Our Lady of Holy Death), often shortened to Santa Muerte, is a new religious movement, female deity, folk-Catholic saint, and folk saint in Mexican folk Catholicism and Neo-Paganism. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees. Despite condemnation by the Roman Catholic Church and Evangelical Protestant denominations, her following has become increasingly prominent since the turn of the 21st century.

Santa Muerte almost always appears as a female skeletal figure, clad in a long robe and holding one or more objects, usually a scythe and a globe. Her robe can be of any color or pattern, as more specific images of the figure vary widely from devotee to devotee and according to the ritual being performed or the petition being made.

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Folk saint in the context of Canonization of Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc (1412–1431) was formally canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on 16 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV in his bull Divina disponente, which concluded the canonization process that the Sacred Congregation of Rites instigated after a petition of 1869 of the French Catholic hierarchy. Although pro-English clergy had Joan burnt at the stake for heresy in 1431, she was rehabilitated in 1456 after a posthumous retrial. Subsequently, she became a folk saint among French Catholics and soldiers inspired by her story of being commanded by God to fight for France against England. Many French regimes encouraged her cult, and the Third Republic was sympathetic to the canonization petition prior to the 1905 separation of church and state.

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