For centuries, Christians have looked to the saints as God’s intermediaries, and prayed to them for protection, comfort, inspiration, and miracles. The first Christian saints were martyrs, but in the ensuing centuries people have called on saints to protect everyone from alcoholics and juvenile delinquents to field mice and whales. We think of Catholicism as centralized and hierarchical, but saints are as likely to be created by popular movements and localized boosterism—and the Church doesn’t even know how many saints there are in total. How did the saints emerge as a powerful force throughout Christian history, and who were they? And, what needs do they fulfill? Unless we know who the saints were, we won’t be able to understand how they’ve been depicted. As the Getty Museum presents the exhibition “Miracles and Martyrs: Saints in the Middle Ages,” Cabrini College folklorist Leonard Norman Primiano, UC Riverside art historian Conrad Rudolph, and University of Notre Dame theologian Candida Moss visit Zócalo to talk about why the cult of saints came to be, and what they’ve offered to those who love them.

 

Photo: Saint Jerome Extracting a Thorn from a Lion’s Paw, second quarter of 15th century, Master of the Murano Gradual. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 106, recto.