The Church did not rely solely on the sacramental system
as a means to salvation. It was believed that holy persons, called saints, [5]
who had died and gone to Heaven, offered to God their prayers for men. Hence
the practice arose of invoking the aid of the saints in all the concerns of
life. The earliest saints were Christian martyrs, who had sealed their
faith with their blood. In course of time many other persons, renowned for pious
deeds, were exalted to sainthood. The making of a new saint, after a rigid
inquiry into the merits of the person whom it is proposed to honor, is now a
privilege reserved to the pope.
[5] Latin sanctus, "holy."
DEVOTION TO THE VIRGIN
High above all the saints stood the Virgin Mary, the
Mother of God. Devotion to her as the "Queen of Heaven" increased
rapidly in the Church after the time of Gregory the Great. The popularity of
her cult owed not a little to the influence of chivalry, for the knight,
who vowed to cherish womanhood, saw in the Virgin the ideal woman. Everywhere
churches arose in her honor, and no cathedral or abbey lacked a chapel
dedicated to Our Lady.
