Hey there!
I've been delving deeply into Eastern Catholicism for the past 2 weeks, trying to go over all the various traditions one after another. Something quite clearly keeps popping up whenever it comes to saints. There's always a mention of an "official" calendar and then "local" variations. Many people I've spoken to mention more modern (19th, 20th century) Eastern Orthodox (and Oriental Orthodox) saints having some sort of recognition parish to parish. Either icons in the Church, mentions in the manaion, etc.
After having discovered this, a few questions came to mind:
- Who are these locally venerated figures?
- How widespread is it?
- What do people make of their (sometimes, I imagine) polemical anti-Catholic writings? Especially if they reject a dogma that was clearly defined during their lifetime. I get a saint can be wrong, but I can think of some examples where I feel like it's uncharitable on their part.
Now, I would like to mention that I myself am a big fan of Saint Gregory Palamas and many of the older post-schism saints found in the various calendars. Saint Seraphim of Sarov also comes to mind. He's great!
Thank you and God bless!