The first stained-glass window that visitors see after entering St. Paul's Episcopal Church is a panel to the right, a scene of the church's namesake on the road to Damascus.
It depicts Paul's conversion and is a reminder that God can turn any life or circumstance around, said the Rev. Richard Sanders, St. Paul's rector.
Sunday is All Saints' Day, a day for Christians to honor the lives of saints, prophets and martyrs such as St. Paul.
The day has its origins in the early Christians who gathered to commemorate the day of a martyr's death. Although many feast days are still observed in the name of individual saints, they have been remembered collectively since the fourth century.
All Saints' Day is observed by Western Christians, especially Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans and Methodists, each Nov. 1. Orthodox Christians remember saints on the first Sunday after Pentecost.
"In the Middle Ages, the association of a church with a saint meant that person protected the church, or interceded for them," the Rev. Sanders said. "Sometimes the bones of that person were kept there or built into the church, or the church would preserve and share a relic from that person."
St. Paul's letters in the New Testament are the closest thing to a relic kept at the Augusta church, but saints still play an active role in church life.
Read on for more about the saints that give area churches their names.
Reach Kelly Jasper at (706) 823-3552 or kelly.jasper@augustachronicle.com.
St. Bartholomew
St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in North Augusta is named for this saint, better known as St. Bart around the church.
He was one of Jesus' 12 disciples and is believed to have preached in India and Armenia.
St. Catherine
St. Catherine Orthodox Church in Aiken is named for St. Catherine of Alexandria, Egypt, the patron of philosophers.
She converted to Christianity but was offered marriage into a royal family if she turned away from her faith. After she refused, Catherine was put to death.
St. Thaddeus
The namesake of St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church in Aiken was one of the 12 apostles.
Thaddeus, according to the church, seems to be synonymous with the names Lebbaeus and Jude.
Those who believe him to be St. Jude identify him as author of the New Testament book and a relative of Jesus. St. Thaddeus is patron saint of those suffering and of desperate causes.
St. Ingatios
St. Ignatius, or Ignatios in some spellings, was bishop of Antioch. In 107, he was taken to the Coliseum in Rome and fed to lions in the presence of 50,000 spectators.
"In preparation for this honorable witness to the love of Jesus Christ he proclaimed, 'I am the wheat of God. I must be ground by the teeth of wild beasts to become the pure bread of Christ,' " said the Rev. Damian Higgins, a Ukrainian Catholic priest in residence at St. Ignatios of Antioch, Melkite-Catholic Church in Augusta.
He was chosen in the church's naming 25 years ago because its founders believed in the need "for a renewed witness to the original Orthodox-Catholic truths taught in the early church. The bold love of St. Ignatios inspired the Christians of his day to live boldly the Christian faith and the hopes of our original founders is that we would do the same," the Rev. Higgins said.
St. Helena
The Convent of St. Helena, an Episcopal order in Augusta, is named for this saint, who married a Roman general and bore a child, Constantine the Great, but was disgraced by a divorce, according to the convent.
It was likely then that she became a Christian.
Helena's son also converted and, becoming emperor, gave his mother the title "Augusta," meaning empress. She spent the rest of her life on pilgrimages, starting churches.
PATRON SAINTS AND THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS
Saints also play a role at churches not named for them.
At The Church of the Most Holy Trinity, St. Patrick is the primary patron saint, chosen by a vote of the clergy and the people on Easter Sunday 1863 as an advocate in heaven for the church and its people. St. Vincent di Paul is a secondary patron saint for the church, said the Rev. Michael Lubinsky.
Though churches often use the names of more popular saints, at Sunday's Feast of All Saints, saints known and unknown are remembered.
The number of "known" saints canonized in the Roman Catholic Church is estimated at 3,000. The word "saint," however, has a dual purpose in many faiths; it is often applied to the community that exists on Earth in the church, he said.
The canonized saints, he says, illuminate holy living and saintly virtue on this side of eternity for the benefit of the church -- a "communion of saints," as it's written in the Bible and church creeds.
"This goes straight to the heart of Jesus' call for us to be holy," he said. "These men and women exemplify in word and action how they are so close to us in our own journey to be holy and beloved in God's sight each and every day."
In Orthodox churches, the name of a saint is received at baptism.
"The role of a saint or holy person in our tradition is to be held up as a light of transformation, or transfiguration," the Rev. Damian Higgins said. "Every Christian is called to be like unto Christ, to proclaim as St. Paul did that it is 'no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.' "
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