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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

The Saintliness of Simon of Cyrene

Question:

Why is Simon of Cyrene not a saint?

Answer:

As Catholic historian Matthew Bunson notes, we know very little about Simon of Cyrene, aside from several passages in Scripture (Matt. 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26), and there is no tradition of his being honored as a saint

Of course, he is known for helping Jesus carry his cross to Calvary and thus has an honored place in salvation history. But just because the Church hasn’t formally recognized someone as a saint doesn’t mean that person isn’t in heaven and thus a saint. That’s the eternal bottom line for which we all strive—attaining heaven while not necessarily making it onto the Church calendar.

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