Saints Who Left
Descendents
Page Excerpts
Upon finding out from reading about the genealogy of Americans, it is accepted that about one of three are descended from some type of Royalty. After examining the royal lines one must reach the conclusion that almost all the European countries are connected by marriage to royalty, and that the Holy Roman Catholic Church has canonized some of this royalty and the Church of England has recognized many people who attained the title of Saint in their life time, although many are not canonized.
This brings up the subject of sainted lineage, which means that the blood of the saints flows in the veins of one of three Americans. What defines these lines and which saints are the saints that have left descendants is the subject of this work. Using Internet and any source available I have found over 100 people who are in some way referred to as a Saint. The only requirement to be included in this book is to have a direct traceable lineage to Royalty, or Nobility.
Most people who have attained Sainthood are bishops, priests, martyrs, or common people whose lineage is either not known, or did not leave descendents. Nuns, hermits, and martyrs are all saints, but did not have children. Bishops and priests were permitted to have offspring by the church until the celibacy rules where added by the pope. So in the early church a bishop or priest could leave descendents.
The idea of attaining the title of saint leaves the reader with a view that the person led a very perfect life, and so was recognized by the church. This in most cases is true, however some saints have murdered, had illegitimate children, were illegitimate children, etc… and then because of the church recognizing the good that the person did, despite the evils that went on, attained the title of Saint.
I will attempt to draw from the ancestry that is known about the Saints and show that the lines from the Old Testament from Abraham, King David, Judah’s sons Perez and Zerah, are culminated in the royal lines. Also Joseph the Israelite, Zebulon, Benjamin, and Levi are all ancestors of King David.
There seems to be a pattern of lineage of the saints descended from the Hebrew King David (from Perez son of Judah), from Zerah the son of Judah, from Levi the father of the Aaron line of priests, from Abraham’s first son Ishmael, from Japheth the son of Noah, and so from the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament.
I will attempt to tie into the lineage of 110 or so Saints who are tied together by blood, and tracing their ancestry to the Old Testament or their descendents to English or French Kings up to the year about 1400. Considering that many Americans began coming to America in the early 1600’s, it is much more difficult to trace lineage to a Saint that is more recent. Consider also that each generation doubles the descendents, so a recent Saint has that many fewer possibilities for descendents.
Hopefully the reader can trace his line to one of the lines of the Kings or the Saints that are mentioned and so utilize this work in the tracing of his or her ancestry in relationship to a sainted ancestor.
Following is a table of the chronological order of the Saints to be identified as bloodline saints.
Included in the table are a number of the Blessed. Blessed is a term that describes a person at the time of this writing who has not been canonized a Saint, but has reached the level one step away from Canonization. In order to be fully canonized each person considered must first be a blessed, and then the Pope can canonize a blessed into being a Saint.
American documented lineages are not that difficult to trace back to the year 1600. In England where most Americans can trace their line previous to 1600 parish records were not kept prior to 1500. Thus records prior to 1500 are attainable mostly by Family Records, and royal bloodline documented histories. Many surnames go back to the year 1200, but previous to 1200 or so the surname was not used and most people were referred to by a single name. Lineages of the royalty were documented and so previous to 1200 most records do not include surnames. There are many martyrs of the early church, whose descendents are not documented and so are lost to history with only the name of the Saint and the reason for Canonization known.
Dividing the discussion into periods of history, and showing which Saints were alive at that time who may be bloodline saints, will organize this work.