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Folk saints are dead people or other spiritually powerful entities (such as indigenous spirits) venerated as saints but not officially canonized. Since they are saints of the "folk", or the ''populus'', they are also called popular saints. Like officially recognized saints, folk saints are considered intercessors with God, but many are also understood to act directly in the lives of their devotees. Frequently, their actions in life as well as in death distinguish folk saints from their canonized counterparts: official doctrine would consider many of them sinners and false idols. Their ranks are filled by folk healers, indigenous spirits, and folk heroes. Some are as likely to receive a request to curse an enemy or protect a drug runner as to heal a family member. Folk saints occur throughout the Catholic world, and they are especially popular in Latin America, where most have small followings; a few are celebrated at the national or even international level. ==Origins== In the pre-Christian Abrahamic tradition, the prophets and holy people who were honored with shrines were identified by popular acclaim rather than official designation. In fact, the Islamic counterparts of the Christian saints, associated most closely with Sufism, are still identified this way.〔Michael Frishkopf. (2001). "Changing Modalities in the Globalization of Islamic Saint Veneration and Mysticism: Sidi Ibrahim al-Dasuqi, Shaykh Muhammad 'Uthman al-Burhani, and the Sufi Orders," ''Religious Studies and Theology'' 20(1):1〕 Early Christians followed in the same tradition when they visited the shrines of martyrs to ask for intercession with God. It was not until the end of the first millennium that the sanctity of martyrs and other venerated people was formally recognized by the Catholic Church. Thus, there is a long tradition for the veneration of unofficial saints, and modern folk saints continue to reach popularity in much the same way as ever. Tales of miracles or good works performed during the person's life are spread by word of mouth, and, according to anthropologist Octavio Ignacio Romano, "if exceptional fame is achieved, it may happen that after his (her ) death the same cycle of stories told during life will continue to be repeated."〔Octavio Ignacio Romano V. (1965). "Charismatic Medicine, Folk-Healing, and Folk Sainthood," ''American Anthropologist'' 67(5):1151–1173. p. 1157.〕 Popularity is likely to increase if new miracles continue to be reported after death. Hispanic studies professor Frank Graziano explains: ()any folk devotions begin through the clouding of the distinction between praying ''for'' and praying ''to'' a recently deceased person. If several family members and friends pray at someone's tomb, perhaps lighting candles and leaving offerings, their actions arouse the curiosity of others. Some give it a try — the ''for'' and the ''to'' begin intermingling — because the frequent visits to the tomb suggest that the soul of its occupant may be miraculous. As soon as miracles are announced, often by family members and friends, newcomers arrive to send up prayers, now ''to'' the miraculous soul, with the hope of having their requests granted. This initial rise to fame follows much the same trajectory as that of the official saints. History professor Kathleen Ann Myers writes that Rose of Lima, the first canonized American saint, attracted "mass veneration beginning almost at the moment of the mystic's death." Crowds of people appeared at her funeral, where some even cut off pieces of her clothing to keep as relics. A lay religious movement quickly developed with Rosa de Lima at the center but she was not officially canonized until half of a century later.〔Kathleen Ann Myers. 2003. ''Neither Saints Nor Sinners: Writing the Lives of Women in Spanish America.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 23.〕 In the meantime, she was essentially a folk saint. As the Church spread, it became more influential in regions that celebrated deities and heroes that were not part of Catholic tradition. Many of those figures were incorporated into a local variety of Catholicism: the ranks of official saints then came to include a number of non-Catholics or even fictional persons. Church leaders made an effort in 1969 to purge such figures from the official list of saints, though at least some probably remain. Many folk saints have their origins in this same mixing of Catholic traditions and local cultural and religious traditions. To distinguish canonized saints from folk saints, the latter are sometimes called ''animas'' or "spirits" instead of saints. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「folk saint」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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