In every time and place, there have been those whose holiness and insight have marked them out as an example to be followed. Their reach has been universal, like rain falling upon the seeds of spiritual growth, both for their con-temporaries and the generations that came after them. They provide timeless guidance for living a life of wholeness that encompasses body, mind, and spirit in the service of God and in solidarity with our fellow man, springing up through the ages to confront the conditions that faced them, and continue to face us.
Sometimes they helped change the world through actively advancing caus-es of social justice; other times they did so through the contemplative preser-vation of wisdom. We hear their stories, and read their writings, as if they were still among us today, pointing the direction of the pilgrim’s path. They shape our collective consciousness, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. They take us by the hand and lead us out into the desert, or far across the sea, or to any “thin place” where heaven and earth, temporality and eternity, can meet.
Within the Catholic Church, the canonization of a saint follows a grueling process to determine the heroic virtue of the candidates, as well as to verify miracles said to be obtained through their intercession. This process does not “create” saints, but rather recognizes that as such and raises them to the full honors of the altar. Yet even those faithful departed who are not officially can-onized, but do enjoy the splendors of heaven, are considered saints as a part of the “great cloud of witnesses.” There are similar concepts held, though in a less official context, in other Christian branches, including within Eastern Orthodoxy and various Protestant denominations. It might be accurately said that sanctity is the universal vocation of all Christians.

Other faith traditions have their own figures who they hold as being worthy of honor and emulation in religious life, having become “friends of God” or attained “oneness with the universe”. There is the Jewish tzadik, the Islamic walī, the Hin-du rishi or Sikh guru, the Shintoist kami, and the Buddhist arhat or bodhisattva.
We can find areas of common ground in the wealth of wisdom literature either composed by or involving these figures.
In this issue, we explore the lives and legacies of various saints and sages who have inspired our contributors. We explore the rich body of work they have bequeathed us, both through their lives and writings, from which we may under-stand who they were and who we may become. The articles featured here aim to offer new perspectives on figures you may know, while introducing new ones, in the spirit of interfaith dialogue and fellowship.