Abstract

The cult of saints is an integral part of the Catholic Church’s beliefs that can be traced back to the time of the early Christian martyrs. This study aims to understand the Catholic teachings about the saints as reflected in the attitude of the youth. Exploratory sequential mixed methods design was utilized to develop an attitudinal scale towards the saints for the Filipino youth. Scale development started from the initial identification of constructs using an open-ended survey questionnaire in the qualitative phase. It was followed by crafting the preliminary pool of items subjected to construct validity using exploratory factor analysis in the quantitative phase. The result of the study identifies new constructs about the Filipino youth’s perception of the saints. The constructs identified are 1) familiarity with the saints, 2) saints as intercessors, and 3) saints as models. This study hopes to show the importance of holiness that the youth can emulate from the saints. This study also recommends contextual catechesis as a model for holiness.