Why are Catholic churches always named after Saints?

Question

Catholic churches are always St. edward, st. mary, st joseph where as Protestant and Lutheran have names like Immanuel Lutheran, New Hope Baptist, Prince of peace... can someone explain this to me?

Answer 1

Catholic churches tend to be named after saints because inside the altar there is supposed to be the relic of some saint. The church is then named after the saint whose relics are there. My Church is named St. Irene's for that reason. Admittedly, I'm sure a lot of those relics aren't really from the saints, but were only sold as such. Some churches, however, are really just dedicated to a specific saint, put under their patronage. This is why there are so many St. Mary's.

Protestant denominations, by and large, shy away from the saints. I believe they feel that naming a church after a saint would be dedicating it to their worship - in other words, blasphemy. Thus you come up with a lot of churches named for Jesus - Immanuel, Christ is with Us, Prince of Peace, etc. - as well as some that are named for virtues or gifts of the Holy Spirit - Faith, Hope, Grace, and so on.

Answer 2

Churches Named After Saints

Answer 3

Tradition, mostly. A few Catholic churches are not named after saints: e.g., Holy Rosary, Holy Family, Holy Cross, Holy Spirit, Vera Cruz, Assumption, Blessed Trinity, Immaculate Conception, Sacred Heart,

Answer 4

In a broader sense of the word, Protestant came to be used as the collective name for those individuals and churches who advocated a formal separation from the Roman Catholic Church such as John Wycliffe and Jan Hus. The term "Catholic Church" is usually associated with the Church that is also called the Roman Catholic Church, and whose over one billion adherents are about half of the estimated 2.1 billion Christians.

Answer 5

Candra Torres,
Roamn Catholics worship their saints. They deify them by praying to them. This is counter to what God wants. That is, they act as if God cannot handle it. As if He is too busy for them, and as if the Pope was someone they had to go through. That is heresy, according to the Bible.

2 Kings 21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzibah.
2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
3 For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

It's not new, as you can see.

Answer 6

In the medieval era, to have a church one had to have a relic of a saint residing in that church. So the church was named after the saint who's relic was there.
Of course most of these relics were nothing more than chicken bones or the bones of some anonymous corpse dug up for the occasion.
Anything to distract the sheep.

Answer 7

In the Catholic faith, saints are people who are honored for their holy lives on Earth. Catholics believe that because saints are in heaven, they can intercede on our behalf to God. In other words, when Catholics say something like "St. Elizabeth, pray for us," they are asking St. Elizabeth or whatever saint to sort of talk to God for them. The idea is that you can never have too many people praying for you. Naming a church after a saint is just as a sign of admiration/respect/devotion for/to that particular saint.

Answer 8

We name our churches after family members that we admire.

Catholics share the belief in the Communion of Saints with many other Christians, including the Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Episcopal Churches.

The Communion of Saints is the belief where all saints are intimately related in the Body of Christ, a family. When you die and go to heaven, you do not leave this family.

Everyone in heaven or on their way to heaven are saints, you, me, my deceased grandmother, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Mother Teresa.

As part of this family, you may ask your family and friends here on earth to pray for you. Or, you may also ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Andrew, or your deceased grandmother in heaven to pray for you.

With love and prayers in Christ.

Answer 9

Because as Catholics, we look to the Saints as our heros, our role models.....

Protestant churches don't believe in that, which I don't get. The only saints the prottys believe in are the apostles and the 4 evengelists.

Answer 10

The Catholic Church take their saints in high regard, where as the Lutheran churches and such dont regard sainthood as such a high prestige.