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Google honors Nicolas Steno.

https://www.google.com/

Eventually it will be moved here: http://www.google.com/doodles/finder/2012/All%20doodles

Many creatonists will tell you that evolution assumes a fossil record and ordering that doesn't exist anywhere in the world, oblivious to the fact that the relative order of fossils was established several centuries before Darwin - by creationists.

The wiki entry for Saint Nicolas is interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Steno

Getting ahead of the Vatican there, TFF.



Nice one, I wish I'd thought of that a few day ago when I was talking to a creationist.

According to wiki, he was beatified 23 October 1988 in Rome, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II.

This is a reason to drop in here! I had never heard of this guy.

What an amazing life he had though he doesn't sound very saintly really, if the wiki entry is correct and he really did became a priest because Duke Someone told him to! But what amazing insight he gained-- the shark tooth example is very compelling. What a mind!

Beatifiction makes him "The Blessed.....". Canonization would be needed to promote him to "Saint...."

Ahhh ... never knew there was a difference. Thanks.

Would he need to have miracles in his name now? I know there was huge publicity last year when Australia got its first saint canonised and the hitch had been that a certain number of miracles had to be authenticated. Won't that be hard to do after so many years for Steno? Is there a procedure for this? Do modern prayers in his name count.

I like the sound of this guy and would like to see him get over the line!

As far as I understand the process, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints which took over part of the role of the Sacred Congregation of Rites when that august body was dissolved in the late 1960s, does require the "authentication" of some miracles in the name of a beatified person before they will recommend to the Pope that he should proceed to canonisation.

I don’t think time is a limiting factor. The miracles do not have to date back to the lifetime of the person in question. If, for example, you had prayed to N S for a cure for yourself or someone else, and that cure came about in a way that could not be accounted for by the medical profession, you could have this investigated as a possible miracle. Personally, I think that if you, as an atheist, made such a claim, it should be taken very seriously, but I’m not at all sure it works that way. So, yes, modern prayers would count. As far as the procedure is concerned, I assume one would start at Parish level by presenting evidence to one’s Parish Priest, who would, I imagine, pass it on to his Bishop.