World Orthodoxy: The Creation of a “Facebook Saint”
We’ve seen some strange things before, but not this.
It appears there is a concerted attempt to create a public saint for veneration on Facebook, the popular social networking site. The authors of the page are attempting to foster devotion to a handicapped individual who, while pious, apparently has no clear signs of sanctity to demonstrate the rank of sainthood (i.e., there is no definition of his faith, et cetera) nor any miracles.
In fact, it’s pretty tricky just to know what his last name was unless you look at the photos of him.
Kevin McCarty (1963-2008) apparently suffered from a rare condition known as retinoblastoma, and was known as a pious Orthodox layman throughout his short life due to his debilitating illnesses.
Sadly, this was the basis upon which the Facebook entry was created: there are no miracles, no teachings. The unwitting subject is labelled a “fool-for-Christ” even though he, outside of his handicaps, seems no different from the average Orthodox layman.
Based on the photographs, this appears to be the work of an overzealous friend. Yet there is no evidence to make the man a saint; he appears in semi-monastic garb though never tonsured a monastic; this is little different from painting an “icon” of one’s grandmother. The “life” written for him seems to confuse the terminology commonly used in the lives of the Saints to describe everyday occurrences: “[Kevin] hoped to eventually live in a monastery and translate the Services and Holy Fathers into Braille for blind Orthodox Christians. But once again, Kevin died to his self will, and submitted himself to God”– means in fact only that he grew more ill and could not leave his home.
The site goes so far as to include prayers to ask for his intercession. If this group did not already have 150 followers, it would not be worthy of report.
But it is, and the editor of this site was invited to comment. Alongside his wife, he commented on the madness of such a “glorification”– and his comments were, alongside those much more circumspect comments of his wife, deleted! (Strangely– as well as the glowing comments from the one who invited him, an erstwhile contributor to NFTU).
In the end, we here at NFTU hope Kevin is among the saints. But for now, we have no reason to believe that in fact he is– our Xenia Suaiden said it best, as she pointed out the hypocrisy of the deletions: “After joining a very odd page, and posing a question, I came back later and found that not only was my comment deleted, but the comment of the friend who invited me as well as my husbands. Questions are only taboo for the occult and for those wrapped up in a cult like thinking… “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (1Pe 3:15) Therefore, “To every man that asketh you”, be ready and do not shun yourself away from him, lest in doing so, you reap an empty fold… Eternal memory dear Kevin, may the Lord have mercy on us all.”
