How can the Church declare a canonized saint, like St. Christopher, to no longer be a saint?
This question first arose in the secular media and among many Catholics in 1969, when the revised liturgical calendar for the universal church was promulgated by Pope Paul VI. In that revision, some celebrations of the saints were removed from the calendar, others transferred to different days, and others, such as the feast days of more recently canonized saints, were added. This was not the first revision of the Church’s calendar. There have been further revisions since, and more revisions are inevitable. In the first centuries of the Church’s life, the anniversaries of martyrs’ deaths were observed, usually with the celebration of the Eucharist, by local communities of believers who cherished their memories and sought their intercession. Some martyrs were quickly recognized by neighboring communities, and lists or catalogues of martyrs quickly spread throughout the Church. St. Martin of Tours, who died peacefully around 397 A.D., may be among the first of the non-martyred saints (“co
