SANTO DOMINGO, ARCIDIOCESI DI

and continues for those consecrated to the worship of God. Thus we see how in the New Testament and among the Apostolic Fathers all the faithful indiscriminately, without regard to their personal moral qualities, but solely because they were baptized, are called *s.*: they belong to Christ, the Son of God, by whom they have been redeemed and of whom they form the Mystical Body; they are the new chosen people, the heirs of the promises made to the Jewish people. Gradually, however, the word came to be used more specifically to designate those who were truly Catholic Christians, to distinguish them from the followers of various heretical or schismatic sects: these are *s.* because they bear the seal of God as they serve Him in the purity of faith and doctrine. After death, these enjoy eternal beatitude because in life they adhered to Christ and bore witness to His Gospel, and thus they are *s.* But among these witnesses of Christ a special place is occupied by the martyrs, who sealed their testimony and attachment to Christ with their blood. In the early centuries of the Church, therefore, *s.* does not indicate personal moral perfection, but is attributed collectively to persons who have a special relationship with God. As an individual qualifier, the term *s.* was initially applied to persons invested with ecclesiastical dignity, particularly bishops, and then gradually to the lower clergy; this, however, does not indicate any moral quality, but rather the etymological meaning of the word. Only toward the 4th century did the word also acquire a sense of moral perfection, after having first had a common laudatory meaning. The first to be called *s.* in this new sense were the martyrs, whose memory and annual commemoration acquired what would later be called the cult of the *s.*