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Sanctus and Hagios The word saint comes from the Latin word sanctus, which means “holy one.” The Greek equivalent hagios (which means “sanctified,” “set apart,” or “holy”) is used in a variety of ways in the Bible—both the Greek version of the Old Testament (known as the Septuagint) and the New Testament. For example, Christians on earth are “saints” (2 Cor. 1:1, Eph. 1:1, Col. 1:2, Phil.1:1, Rev. 5:8). The Israelites are “holy” (Lev. 20:26) and, therefore, are called “saints” …

The answer depends on precisely what is meant by saint. If saint is taken to refer to simply being united to Christ (and thus a Christian), then the answer is baptism. St. Paul teaches, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13, emphasis added). The one body Paul writes of here refers to the body of Christ (v. 27). Moreover, in Romans 6:3-5, he writes: Do you not know that all of us who have been …