The Church does believe in the Old Testament Books as revealed and inspired by God. But the personages, even the holy ones, are children of their time, mentality, milieu and pre-christian period, which means that the CHRISTIAN SPIRITUAL AND MORAL PERFECTION, incarnated in Christ, as Supreme Model (Mt 11 : 27 ff.) and, much less perfectly, in the Apostles after the Pentecost (For St. Paul, see see l Cor 11 : 1) was not available nor possible for them. Yet, for their time and milieu, they were holy people. For us, those holy personages were people of God's, but with some limits.

St. Peter (1 P 3 : 18 - 21) states that all the souls of the Righteous were held in prison until the visit of CRUCIFIED Christ, at the eve of His glorious Resurrection. After that, they were untied, set free.

However, the Church logically takes the HOLINESS MODELS and CRITERIA provided by Christ's DEEDS and TEACHINGS, and, at an inferior level, those of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph and the Apostles and other Disciples and holy men and women.

The Church does celebrate the Nativity and the martyrdom of John the Baptist, the fore-runner of the Lord, John, the greatest among those born from women, but the least in the Kingdom, meaning the baptized Christian, is greater than he. The Church does also celebrate the feast of "the grandparents of the Lord "SS. Joachim and Ann”, on July 28. (At the beginning of July a Feast of St. Ann is also recorded).

In the Jerusalem Diocese, in the Latin rite, “proper” Feasts and Masses are celebrated : “those of the holy Patriarchs and Prophets”, in general; even St. David has his feast. We say "even" as his adultery with Batsheva was no secret, and his penance was great (Psalm 51 (50).

So, in brief, the Church "canonizes" saints according to the criteria of Christ, the Apostles, the Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church, after either a popular consensus ("Vox populi, vox Dei", meaning "the voice of the people is God's voice") or - recently- after a minutious examination of the candidates' life, heroic virtues and miracles. A real court is set in the Vatican, and the "devil's advocate" tries his best to eliminate the candidates!

On the other hand, we do not know many things about most of the personages of the Old Testament. One may not overlook the difference - in order not to say the discrepancy - between some of their behaviours and christian ethics: for example the lie of Abraham about his wife claimed to be his sister; the craftiness of Jacob...

To be concrete and practical: since Saints are models for our lives, the Christian Saints not only suit our evangelical christological mentality and meet our neeed for christian perfection but we do find some problem in many "holy personages" of the Old Testament. So, let us take their light - not dark - sides. See the Letter to the Hebrews, chapters 11 and 12.