Saints with a small "s"

A retablo in any antique Church (that is, built during the Spanish era) around the country is can be a treat for hagiographers, people who study saints. A group touring these churches can come up with guessing games: Who is this saint? Who is that saint? These saints who have been given the privileged of being venerated in our Churches are called saints with a BIG S. This means that they have been recognized by the Church as saints by canonizing them. This, of course, after a tedious process of researching about their exemplary and holy lives, the great things they did for God. And a miracle attributed to them is required for them to be finally canonized.

But I wonder whether your lola or my lola, or your mother, or my grade school teacher, all of whom have already passed away, also deserve to be venerated as saints, because they, too have lived equally noble and God-centered lives. The only difference is that they are ordinary folks who have not been noticed by those who begin and carry out this process of saint-making. But they can not be as less holy as San Isidro or San Pablo.

They are the saints with a small "s". They are the ones we honor on November 1, All Saints' Day, of course, including the saints with a big S. In the end, it is God whom we honor and adore for giving us these great cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1). It is our hope that we too will join them when our time comes.