LITURGY · By Will Wright
The Saints of the Roman Canon
The apostles and martyrs named at Mass remind us that the Church worships in communion with heaven.
The Roman Canon, or Eucharistic Prayer I, places our worship within the communion of saints. Its names are not decorative: they recall the people through whom the apostolic faith was handed on, often at the cost of their lives. This reflection focuses on the first list of saints, in the prayer known as the Communicantes.
In Communion with Those Whose Memory We Venerate
In the Roman Canon, the First Eucharistic Prayer, in the section called the Communicantes, we are reminded of our communion with the Apostles and Martyrs. After the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph are mentioned, then many Saints are mentioned. Here is the context, in full:
“In communion with those whose memory we venerate, especially the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ, and blessed Joseph, her Spouse, your blessed Apostles and Martyrs, Peter and Paul, Andrew, (James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude; Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian) and all your Saints; we ask that through their merits and prayers, in all things we may be defended by your protecting help. (Through Christ our Lord. Amen.)”
Peter and Paul
In the next few phrases, we will explore the lives and impact of several apostles and martyrs. The first two to be listed are St. Peter and St. Paul.
The first martyr to be listed is St. Peter, whose name was once Simon. He was the son of a fisherman and was called to be an Apostle of Jesus along with his brother Andrew and his friend Philip. St. Peter was with Jesus all throughout His public ministry. St. Peter did not always say and do the right things. However, he was zealous, faithful, firm in his faith, and loved the Lord. He also speaks on behalf of the other Apostles at times when the Lord asks them a question.
Jesus changed the name of Simon to Peter (Aramaic: Cephas meaning “Rock) and says that he is the Rock on which Jesus would found His Church. He becomes the first Pope. He is the chief among the Apostles. He is given the keys to the kingdom of heaven by our Lord and given the authority: “… whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Mt 16:19b).” Before the Passion, in weakness, Peter denied Jesus three times. Yet, after the Resurrection, he was given special commission to feed and defend Jesus’ flock after he three times declared his love for the Master.
Son of a Roman citizen, St. Paul was a Pharisee and persecutor of the early Christian, consenting to the killing of St. Stephen (Acts 8:1). He had a powerful conversion upon encountering the Risen Christ. Jesus called out to Paul asking him why he was persecuting Him. Paul converted and became the Apostle to the Gentiles, traveling extensively. He even went to Jerusalem to see St. Peter. The Acts of the Apostles follows his missionary journeys as he carries the Gospel beyond its earliest communities.
Both St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred in Rome. From the Early Church, these two saints have been linked by their contributions to the shaping of the Christian Faith, faithful to Jesus Christ. They did not always see eye to eye, but both men literally gave their lives for love of Christ and His People. They also share a feast day: June 29.
Andrew, James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon, and Jude
In this next section, we will look at the Apostles as a whole. The list joins Peter and Paul to ten other apostles. Matthias appears later in the Canon, in the prayer beginning Nobis quoque peccatoribus.
St. Andrew, Peter’s brother, brings others to Jesus in the Gospel of John. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, are among the witnesses of the Transfiguration. Acts records the martyrdom of James under Herod Agrippa. Christian tradition honors John as the beloved disciple and associates him with the Gospel and writings that bear his name.
Thomas is remembered for his struggle to believe the Resurrection and for his confession of Jesus as Lord and God. The Christian communities of India preserve a strong tradition of his apostolic mission there. Philip introduces Nathanael to Jesus; tradition commonly identifies Nathanael with Bartholomew. Matthew leaves the tax booth when the Lord calls him.
The second James in the list is James the son of Alphaeus. The relationships among the several figures named James in the New Testament have been interpreted in different ways, so identifying every reference with certainty is difficult. Simon and Jude are also remembered as apostles and witnesses to Christ. Later traditions recount their missionary journeys and martyrdoms, though the historical evidence varies.
The point of the liturgical list is not to settle every historical question. It is to confess that the Church’s faith is apostolic: received from those whom Christ called and sent.
Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian
After twelve Apostles are mentioned, there are twelve more names mentioned. The first five of these names are successors of St. Peter, the popes. St. Linus, St. Cletus, and St. Clement are the first three successors of St. Peter. Sixtus can also be spelled Xystus. There were two popes in the early Church with this name. St. Sixtus II is the Sixtus commemorated in the Canon who was martyred by the Roman Emperor Valerian.
St. Cornelius was a third-century pope remembered as a martyr; he was not the immediate predecessor of Sixtus II. St. Cyprian was not a pope but he was a bishop. He was beheaded in Carthage in the mid-Third Century. St. Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of Rome and was martyred four days after St. Sixtus II, in August 258. He was in charge of the treasury of the Church and famously brought the poor of Rome before the Emperor’s representative as the true treasure of the Church. Chrysogonus and the martyrs John and Paul belong to the ancient memory of the Church of Rome. The precise details of their lives are less securely documented than their longstanding veneration. These John and Paul are distinct from the apostles of the same names. St. Cosmas and St. Damian traditionally are identified as physicians. Their tradition associates them with Syria and martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian.
Then, finally, all of the saints of God are invoked. Each Solemnity of All Saints (November 1), we celebrate not only the many named saints, but also the unnamed saints. The Catholic Church has always acclaimed that the saints are very much alive in God. A saint is one who is in Heaven with God. The Church has thousands of canonized saints, which means that they are officially named and recognized as being in Heaven.
Our Lord Jesus Himself says, “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living (Mt. 22:31-32).” We also see Moses and Elijah alive and with Jesus during the Transfiguration, in a manifestation of heavenly glory (cf. Mt. 17:1-8).
There is one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus. It is by His grace that the saints can hear our prayers and intercede on our behalf. When we ask for the prayers of our brothers and sisters in Heaven, we are asking members of His Body to pray with and for us. We are simply acknowledging that God has asked us in multiple places, especially through the writings of St. Paul, to intercede for one another. If the saints in Heaven are alive, then this role does not end with bodily death.
Sources and further reading
Eucharistic Prayer I, Vatican liturgical booklet