Hello Father Angelo. 

I hope you are well, first of all.

I am writing to you today to ask about Adam and Eve.

I have learned that they are considered saints by the Catholic Church, which I honestly did not know. Do you confirm this?

On this subject, if that is the case, I have blasphemed against them several times, thinking they were not saints.

Should I confess this?

God bless you.

Luca.

Response from the priest

Dear Luca,

  1. I looked in the martyrology, the official collection of saints recognised by the Catholic Church, to see if it mentions Adam and Eve. But their names never appear.
  1. However, the unanimous thought of the Holy Fathers placed our progenitors in Paradise because they were deeply repentant of their sin and full of hope in the redemption promised by the Lord in Genesis 3:15 in the so-called protoevangelium (the first announcement of the Gospel): “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hershe will strike your head, and you will strike his heel”
  1. The imprecation against Eve, although it is not made out of malice but almost to express indignation for something that is not going the right way, should be avoided in any case. We would never find it on the lips of a Saint.
  1. Some like to remember our progenitors on Christmas Eve because the Gospel presents the genealogy of Jesus. Not that all the people mentioned there are saints, but because they represent humanity waiting for the Redeemer.
  1. Silvanus of Mount Athos, a monk of the Orthodox Church venerated as a saint, wrote moving words about Adam’s weeping. Here is an excerpt:    “The whole desert echoed with his sobs. His soul was tormented by a single thought: ‘I have embittered the God I love.’He did not mourn Eden, nor its beauty, but the loss of the love of God who at every moment irresistibly draws the soul to God. Thus, every soul that has known God in the Holy Spirit and then lost grace experiences the same pain as Adam. The soul suffers and torments itself for having embittered the Lord it loves. Adam groaned, lost on a land that gave him no joy; he longed for God and cried out: ‘My soul thirsts for the Lord, in tears I seek him. How could I not seek him?               

“When I was with God, my soul rejoiced in peace and the adversary could do me no harm. Now the evil spirit has taken possession of me and torments my soul. That is why my soul languishes for the Lord until death and accepts no comfort; my spirit longs for God and nothing earthly consoles it; I have a burning desire to see God again (cf. Psalm 42:2 ff.), to enjoy him until I am satisfied.   

“Not even for a moment can I forget him, my soul languishes for him, I groan with great pain. Have mercy on me, O God, mercy on your fallen creature.”

Thus, Adam groaned, and a river of tears ran down his face, flowed on his chest, and fell to the ground. The whole desert echoed with his sobs. Beasts and birds were silenced by grief. And Adam groaned: because of his sin, all had lost peace and love.

Adam’s pain was great after the expulsion from paradise, but even greater when he saw his son Abel killed by Cain.For the immense suffering he wept, thinking: “Then from me peoples will come forth, they will multiply on the earth, but only to all suffer, to live in enmity and kill each other.”

Like an immense ocean was his pain: only souls that have known the Lord and his ineffable love can understand it.”

  1. God willing, may the pain of our sins resemble that of Adam!
  1. Regarding your question, you can say in confession that you have blasphemed Adam and Eve without thinking that they were considered saints. However, it is not a serious sin and perhaps not even venial because you did not think it was a wrong thing.

There was no full awareness in your mind.

I bless you and remember you in prayer,

 Father Angelo May

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