How did the early Catholic Church name saints?
Saints in life were often Churchmen, devout faithful or pious confessors who gained a local reputation, especially among the Catholic community. When such a person died, usually there was a unanimous movement among the people that the person was surely in heaven and they would begin to even pray to them, asking their intercession. If the local Church authorities concurred that the person was indeed worthy of such veneration, they would encourage the local cult. If not, they would suppress it. Because of the popularity of the person while living, the spread of the cult was swift; once it was known the person had died, people would automatically begin venerating their memory. In the case of martyrs – people who were publicly executed for the Faith – perhaps they were not well known in life, or perhaps they had been arrested and taken to a major city where few knew them, yet nonetheless, they became instantly popular for displaying their will to die for the Faith. Then, as now, the faithf
