Who was the first Christian saint?

Answer 1

Some might say St. Dismas "the good thief", for he died just hours after Our Lord did on the cross. The first Christian martyr was St. Stephen, a deacon. The exact person who first went to heaven for their Faith in Christ after He opened the gates of heaven is not known outside of the Biblical account.

Answer 2

In the early Church there were two main ways people became renowned as saints; by living a holy life or by dying a holy death (martyrs especially). Since there was no congregation appointed by the Church to seek out and verify reports of a saint, saints were determined by the people that had known them and reviewed by the local bishop and priests.

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 faithful believed that dying a martyr's death purges one of all temporal punishment for sin and thus the martyr is surely in heaven. At their martyrdom, the martyr was automatically considered a saint by the Church and their story and name was transmitted by word of mouth, thus quickly establishing cults in multiple towns and nations.

Answer 3

There are many black female saints in the Catholic Church. There are many included in this directory but it does not distinguish between male and female. For a list click on this link.

Answer 4

We really do not know who the first black saint was. In the early Church there were a number of African saints, even popes. However, no mention is made of their race. They could have been black, dark skinned or caucasian.

In recent centuries there is St. Martin de Porres from Peru who was black.

Answer 5

Undoubtedly, the first female saint in order of importance is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus and thus the mother of God, and mother of the Church.

Answer 6

That question is difficult to answer. However, the first saint who was a martyr was saint Stephen.

Answer 7

The first Christian saint is traditionally recognized as Saint Stephen, who was stoned to death for his faith in the early days of the Christian church. He is considered the Church's first martyr.