Miracles and Sainthood Persist Today, Just in Less Fantastical Forms
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "Fulton Sheen and the Saints Who Still Walk Among Us | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." September 20, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author argues that saints and miracles aren't just old legends—they're still happening today. Using Fulton Sheen's upcoming beatification as an example, the piece suggests that ordinary achievements like using TV and radio to spread faith are just as miraculous as ancient stories of saints taming bears or raising the dead, if only we have the faith to see it.
Conclusion
Saints and miracles are not relics of a mythological past; holiness and miraculous work continue among ordinary people today, as exemplified by Fulton Sheen, provided people have the faith and wonder to recognize them.
Premises
- Historical saints performed fantastical, well-documented miracles (e.g., St. Januarius's blood liquefying for 1,700 years, saints levitating, taming animals, or raising the dead), and there is no good reason to doubt these accounts occurred as described.
- Some of the greatest saints, such as Augustine and Aquinas, achieved sainthood through intellectual and spiritual contributions rather than through fantastical miracles.
- Fulton Sheen, soon to be beatified, similarly lived without fantastical miracles but used modern media (radio and television) to spread Catholic teaching to millions.
- The clarity of Augustine's writing, the brilliance of Aquinas's theology, and Sheen's use of broadcast media can be considered miraculous in their own right when placed in service of God.
- The apparent decline in saints today is likely due to a cultural loss of belief and wonder, not an actual absence of holiness or miracles.
Assumptions
- The Catholic theological worldview is true, and miracles as traditionally described (e.g., liquefying blood, levitation, animal communication) are literal historical facts.
- The word 'miracle' can be legitimately extended to cover ordinary human achievements (writing, broadcasting) that serve religious ends, equating them with supernatural events.
- Faith, humility, and 'childlike wonder' are the primary barriers to recognizing sainthood and miracles in the present day, rather than a change in the actual frequency of extraordinary events.
- Readers share or are sympathetic to a Catholic religious framework in which sainthood and beatification are meaningful categories.