I have already remarked on the fact that Pope Francis made a non-Catholic a Doctor of the Catholic Church. St. Gregory Narek was a monk in the Armenian Apostolic Church, who died in the early 11th century. Figures like St. Gregory, provide examples of how Eastern Churches have brought saints of their own liturgical traditions with them into communion with the Catholic Church, as I noted in a previous post. This includes figures like the Patriarch Photius, who strongly criticized the Papacy and Catholic Trinitarian theology (although who did die in communion with Rome).

Pope Francis has done something similar, although without a longstanding liturgical precedent, with the 21 Coptic Martyrs, martyred in Libya in 2015. There is no precedent for such a quick acceptance of saints from another Church. Francis explained:

I am glad to announce today that, with the consent of Your Holiness, these 21 martyrs will be inserted into the Roman Martyrology as a sign of the spiritual communion uniting our two Churches. . . . May the prayer of the Coptic martyrs, united with that of the Theotokos, continue to grow the friendship between our Churches, until the blessed day when we can celebrate together at the same altar and commune in the same Body and Blood of the Savior, ‘that the world may believe.’

Catholic News Agency, 5/11/23

Chris Altieri has pointed out at Catholic World Report that Coptic Catholics had already decided to accept the feast day:

Pope Francis’s addition also follows the recognition that Catholic Copts gave the Martyrs of Libya, whose bishops heartily welcomed Pope Tawadros’s 2015 canonization of the Martyrs in the Coptic Orthodox Church of which he is the head.

“The Church in Egypt has been strengthened by the murder of our brothers in Libya,” the Coptic Catholic Bishop of Sohag, Youssef Aboul-Kheir, told Aid to the Church in Need mere days after the mass beheading. “[T]hey are true martyrs—for us Catholics as well,” Kyrillos Samaan, the Coptic Catholic Bishop of Assiut in Egypt, told ACN in March of 2015, a little over a month after the Coptic Orthodox canonization.

“A ‘Bolt Out of the Blue’: Pope Francis Sets Off a Liturgical Earthquake.”

Pope Tawadros II, head of Coptic Orthodox Church, gifted relics of the martyr to the Pope, stating:

Today we hand over part of their relics, dipped in their blood shed in the name of Christ for the Church, so that they may be remembered in the martyrology of all the Churches of the world, and know ‘we too’ are ‘surrounded by such a multitude of witnesses. . . . Precisely because the saints are one of the main pillars of our Churches, beginning with the apostles Peter, Paul, and Mark . . . we now write in the martyrology of the Churches the new martyrs who have guarded the faith and bore witness to Christ, who did not lose heart in the face of torture and passed on to us a living example in martyrdom.

Catholic News Agency, 5/11/23

This communion through the saints points us to a unique ecumenism, recognizing and celebrating holiness in Churches that maintain the apostolic tradition. It seems to point us toward growing unity, hopefully anticipating sacramental communion. Perhaps the saints will be the ones who will bring us to the unity we have not been able to achieve on our own.

On the Coptic martyrs, I highly recommend Martin Mosebach’s book, The 21: A Journey into the Land of the Coptic Martyrs. It opens up the world of Coptic Christians in Egypt through the eyes of a Catholic visitor.


5 Comments

Chardin · May 12, 2023 at 10:05 am

Appreciate this gesture by the Pope. Authentic ecumenism (as opposed to that term being applied to non-apostolic traditions) has sorely needed a boost the last few of years. We will really need this going forward, I think, and it will pay dividends, if not in our life times.

Fr. John Higgins · May 17, 2023 at 7:33 am

Pope Francis didn’t Canonize these saints. But then we didn’t canonize Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James and many others. God did that.

Fr. Gustavo López, OSJ · September 24, 2023 at 8:09 pm

Thank you for your article, Mr. Staudt.

A correction: St. Seraphim of Sarov is NOT included in the revised 2001 and 2004 editions of the Martyrologium Romanum. If he had been, he would have been listed on January 2nd, the date of his death.

Pope Saint John Paul II did refer to him as a saint in his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, but Seraphim of Sarov has not been included officially in the Roman Martyrology.

Below are the Russian saints (from the Kyiv-Rus period onwards) who are listed:

April 26: Stephen of Perm
May 3: Theodosius of the Caves
May 7: Anthony of the Caves
July 11: Olga
July 15: Vladimir the Great
July 24: Boris and Gleb
September 25: Sergius of Radonezh

In fact, Saint Seraphim of Sarov is NOT even included in the official liturgical calendar for the Russian Greek (Byzantine) Catholic Church, which was authorized for use by Rome in the 1940s. The commision which compiled the calendar decided that no Russian saint who lived after the official rejection of the Council of Florence by Moscow in 1439 could be included. A little over twenty Russian saints are listed in the Russian Greek Catholic calendar.

Further info on this topic can be read at the following link (article in Russian): http://slovene.ru/2021_1_Semenenko-Basin_Caprio.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2XTBPnBcZIYtNlmk3mKbi0mUw5jM_28Y1fSX-ZHcBpNGpJbeCKcDPqlGE

This calendar was reprinted last year and is the official calendar for Russian Greek Catholic parishes within Russia: https://sib-catholic.ru/opublikovan-ofitsialnyiy-tserkovnyiy-kalendar-rktsvo/?fbclid=IwAR3u9yFQTCnZUvzW1BbrfiBYB_wJCgTUmCi_OkWYQfjXluyhcO6aNJwYGnE

The majority of Russian Greek Catholic parishes outside of Russia do commemorate Saint Seraphim of Sarov, since they use Russian Orthodox liturgical texts.

More Orthodox Saints in the Catholic Church – Building Catholic Culture – The Faith Herald · May 12, 2023 at 9:48 am

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