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Can Latin Catholics Venerate Eastern Catholic Saints?

Question:

Can the saints venerated by Eastern Catholics be venerated by Latin Catholics? There seems to be a handful of saints which are not recognized by the Latin church, yet are venerated in the Eastern churches.

Answer:

Today there is a common process for canonizing saints throughout the entire Catholic Church (both Eastern and Western). Saints recognized prior to schism would obviously be recognized and shared. The “gray area” would be saints venerated by the individual Eastern Churches after schism but prior to reunification with the West.

If the particular saint appears in an official liturgy of the Church then it is safe to assume that Western Catholics can also venerate the saint because the Church would not permit public liturgy to venerate non-recognized saints. Obviously there are saints that do not have public liturgies but might still have cults of veneration attached to them. These too should be fine to venerate. After all, in the early Church the cult of a saint was almost always begun at the local level without formal recognition from Rome until much later. As always, out of respect, we should be careful about attaching Western practices and ideas to Eastern traditions.

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