Who Was the First Saint? Three Answers, Because It Is Three Questions

“Who was the first saint?” sounds like a question with one name for an answer. It is actually three questions: who was the first to die for Jesus, who was the first person Jesus promised heaven to, and who was the first person a pope formally declared a saint. Each has a different answer: Stephen, the Good Thief, Ulrich of Augsburg. A child asking this at dinner usually means a fourth one, “who got to heaven first?”, and that one has an answer too, just not the expected one.

All four are below, with a mark on each fact saying where it comes from: Scripture, history or tradition. For the basics, who the saints are and how to talk about them with a preschooler or a fourth grader, start with Saints for kids. This post goes after one word: “first”.

Why is there no single answer?

For the first thousand years nobody “made” saints. The community knew who had died for Christ, prayed at their grave and wrote their name into the local calendar. The old Catholic Encyclopedia puts it plainly: in the early ages the veneration of saints “was entirely local and passed from one church to another with the permission of their bishops” (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913) history. A papal document only appears at the end of the tenth century. So the question splits:

Question	Answer	When	How we know
Who was the first to die for Jesus?	St. Stephen	first century, Jerusalem	Acts 6–7 Scripture
Who was the first person Jesus promised paradise?	the Good Thief (tradition: Dismas)	Good Friday	Luke 23:39–43 Scripture
Who was the first saint canonized by a pope?	St. Ulrich of Augsburg, by John XV	993	papal act history
Who was first in heaven?	Scripture does not say; the Church honors Old Testament saints too		Roman Martyrology, CCC 61 history

The first martyr: St. Stephen

Stephen was one of the Seven whom the community in Jerusalem chose to look after the daily distribution of food, after the Greek-speaking Christians complained that their widows were being neglected (Acts 6:1–6) Scripture. Acts calls him “a man filled with faith and the holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5). Accused before the Sanhedrin, he gave a long speech about the history of Israel and ended by saying: “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). They threw him out of the city and stoned him. As he died he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and then, on his knees, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”; and when he had said this, “he fell asleep” (Acts 7:59–60, USCCB daily readings) Scripture. The witnesses laid their cloaks “at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58), the man we know as St. Paul.

Where does the title “first martyr” come from? From the order of the book itself: Stephen is the first disciple of Jesus whose death for the faith the New Testament records. The Roman Martyrology, the Church’s official list of saints, calls him under December 26 the protomartyr, “the first of the Lord’s disciples to shed his blood in Jerusalem” (Roman Martyrology, December 26, transcription) history. The Vatican’s own saint-of-the-day page uses the same word (vaticanstate.va). No pope gave him the title. The title is older than titles.

What Scripture does not say. The year. The “around AD 34” or “33–36” in reference works (Wikipedia) is a historians’ estimate, not a date in the text history. Nor does Acts 6 use the word “deacon”: it says the Seven were chosen to serve, and “deacon” is the early tradition of the Church (the Catholic Encyclopedia already calls them “the first deacons”) tradition.

Why December 26? The day after Christmas is the feast of St. Stephen in the Roman calendar (Vatican News, readings for 26 December); the date is linked to the moving of his relics, found in 415, to Jerusalem on that day (Wikipedia) history. In the United States it is an ordinary day; in Britain and Ireland it is Boxing Day, and it is the “Feast of Stephen” in the carol “Good King Wenceslas” (Bible Hub). If you sing the carol on the 26th, tell your child that the king in the song went out to help a poor man on the feast of a man who was stoned while praying for the people throwing the stones.

The first person promised heaven: the Good Thief

Luke describes two criminals crucified beside Jesus. One mocks him. The other rebukes the first and asks: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” The answer: “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:39–43) Scripture.

He is the only person in the Gospels who heard from Jesus, in so many words, that he would be with him in paradise that same day. That is why people say he was “canonized by Jesus himself.” It is a preacher’s phrase, not a Church term: canonization is an act of the Church, and the word of Jesus is more than that, not the same thing.

The name. The Gospel does not give one. “Dismas” comes from apocryphal writings, an early Greek version of the Acts of Pilate and the Latin Gospel of Nicodemus (Wikipedia) tradition. The day. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on March 25, the Annunciation, as the holy thief “who, confessing Christ on the cross, deserved to hear from him: ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’” (Roman Martyrology, March 25, via Magisterium AI) history.

For a child this is the most important of the three answers. The Good Thief did nothing good in his life that we know of. He only managed to tell Jesus the truth about himself and ask. That is the sentence worth giving a child: it is never too late.

The first papal canonization: St. Ulrich of Augsburg, 993

Ulrich (Udalric) was born around 890, became bishop of Augsburg in what is now Germany at the turn of 923 and 924 (the Catholic Encyclopedia gives his consecration as December 28, 923; Britannica says 924) and died on July 4, 973. In 955 his courage kept the city going through a Magyar siege until Otto arrived and beat the invaders at the Lechfeld on August 10 (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912; Britannica) history. Twenty years after his death Pope John XV declared him a saint at a synod in the Lateran on January 31, 993; the papal bull itself is dated February 3, 993, and it is the earliest canonization bull that survives (Fiejdasz, 2013, p. 92; Hägele, Augsburg University Library) history. Britannica calls Ulrich “the first person known to have been canonized by a pope,” and says of John XV that his “solemn canonization of Bishop St. Ulrich of Augsburg in 993 was the first recorded” (Britannica, John XV) history.

The disagreement you should know about. Some historians point to an earlier act, St. Swidbert in 804; Ulrich is, in Aleteia’s words, “the first undisputed example of papal canonization” (Aleteia, 2018) history. So the correct sentence is: Ulrich is the first recorded papal canonization, not “the first saint.”

When did canonization become the pope’s job?

Before 993 a person was “canonized” by the local bishop, and a bishop has authority over one diocese only, so the veneration stayed local (Aleteia) history. On July 6, 1171 Pope Alexander III issued the decretal Audivimus, reserving canonization to the Apostolic See (some English references give 1170) (Misztal, 1996, p. 92; Fiejdasz, 2013, p. 93) history. The rule that no one may be revered as a saint “unless with the authority of the Roman Church” bound the whole Church once it was written into the Decretals of Gregory IX, issued under a bull dated September 5, 1234 (Wikipedia, Decretals of Gregory IX; Misztal, p. 92) history. Urban VIII’s constitution of July 5, 1634 reserved beatification to the Apostolic See as well (Wikipedia, Canonization; Fiejdasz, p. 95) history.

What does the process look like today?

A cause normally cannot open until five years after death; a diocesan tribunal studies the person’s life, or the martyrdom; the pope approves a decree of heroic virtue and the person becomes Venerable; one proven miracle makes a Blessed (a martyr needs none); a second miracle, after beatification, makes a Saint (NCRegister/CNA). The rules in force are John Paul II’s Divinus perfectionis Magister of January 25, 1983 (Wikipedia, Canonization; Misztal, p. 101) history. The Catechism gives the meaning of the whole procedure in one sentence: “By canonizing some of the faithful, i.e., by solemnly proclaiming that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God’s grace, the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors” (CCC 828) history.

A recent example of the same procedure, a thousand years after Ulrich: Carlo Acutis, canonized by Pope Leo XIV together with Pier Giorgio Frassati on September 7, 2025 in St. Peter’s Square, before about 70,000 people (EWTN News; date set at the consistory of June 13, 2025, Vatican News) history. We wrote about him separately: Carlo Acutis for kids. The first and a recent one make a good pair for a ten-year-old: Ulrich defended a city, Carlo built websites, and the Church says the same sentence about both.

Are Noah, Abraham and Moses saints?

Yes, and it is not pious exaggeration. The Catechism says the patriarchs, prophets “and certain other Old Testament figures have been and always will be honored as saints” in all the Church’s liturgical traditions (CCC 61) history. The Roman Martyrology commemorates on October 9 “Saint Abraham, patriarch and father of all believers” (Aleteia) and on September 4 “St. Moses, prophet,” who “died on Mount Nebo in the land of Moab in front of the promised land” (Aleteia) history. Nobody canonized them, because papal canonization only appears in the tenth century; they are in the calendar on the same basis as Stephen: the Church believes they are with God. And yes, you may ask them to pray for you, the way you ask any saint (Catholic Answers). If a CCD teacher raises an eyebrow at “St. Moses,” CCC 61 is the paragraph to point to.

What “saint” means: sentences for your child

Ages 3–6

• “A saint is someone who loved God and people very much, and is now with God in heaven.”
• “Stephen was the first person who died for Jesus. While he was dying he asked God not to be angry with the people who hurt him.”
• “The Good Thief asked Jesus on the cross: remember me. And Jesus said: today you will be with me.”

Ages 7–12

• “Canonizing is not making a saint. A saint is a saint because they are with God. The pope just says it out loud, for sure, after a long check.”
• “The first person a pope declared a saint with a document was a bishop called Ulrich, in 993. But Stephen, Peter, Paul and Abraham were saints long before, without any document.”
• “The Good Thief had time to do one good thing: he told the truth about himself and asked Jesus. It was enough.”

Questions children actually ask

• Can I be a saint? Yes. Heroic virtue and fidelity to God’s grace (CCC 828) are not reserved for bishops and nuns. For a child: “Are you a big brother? Be a saint by sharing.”
• Is Grandpa a saint? “We don’t know for sure, but that’s what we pray for. There are many more saints in heaven than the ones on the calendar.” If this comes up around November 1, All Saints’ Day vs Halloween has more sentences for that week.
• Who got to heaven first? “The Bible doesn’t say. It does say who was the first person Jesus promised it to: the Good Thief.”

Cheat sheet: who was first

For the fridge, the car or the religious-ed folder. Each answer carries a mark saying how we know it.

Question	Answer	Source	Kind
First martyr	St. Stephen, stoned in Jerusalem	Acts 7:54–60; Martyrology, Dec 26	Scripture
First person promised paradise	the Good Thief, on the cross	Luke 23:43	Scripture
The Good Thief’s name	Dismas	apocrypha (Acts of Pilate, Gospel of Nicodemus)	tradition
First recorded papal canonization	St. Ulrich of Augsburg, by John XV: Lateran synod January 31, 993, bull dated February 3	Fiejdasz; Britannica	history
An earlier, disputed case	St. Swidbert, 804	some historians (Aleteia)	history, disputed
Canonization reserved to the pope	Alexander III, Audivimus, 1171; Decretals of Gregory IX, 1234; Urban VIII, 1634	Misztal, Fiejdasz; Wikipedia	history
Newest canonization kids know	Carlo Acutis, Sept 7, 2025	Vatican News, EWTN	history
Old Testament saints	Abraham (Oct 9), Moses (Sept 4)	Roman Martyrology; CCC 61	history

Five questions for the family (answers below, each checked against a source above):

1. What did Stephen say, as he was dying, about the people throwing the stones?
2. What did Jesus answer the Good Thief, and which word did he use about when?
3. In what year did a pope first declare Bishop Ulrich a saint, and what was that pope’s name?
4. Is Abraham a saint, even though he lived before Jesus? Where can you check?
5. What does the pope do to “make” a saint: create one, or declare one?

Answers: 1. “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). 2. “Today you will be with me in Paradise”; the word is “today” (Luke 23:43). 3. In 993, Pope John XV. 4. Yes; the Roman Martyrology commemorates him on October 9, and CCC 61 says so. 5. Declare: the Church recognizes that someone is with God and offers them as a model and intercessor (CCC 828).

If your child asks why new saints keep being added: because the list is not closed. That is the best news in this whole post.

As of October 2026. Scripture quotations from the New American Bible, Revised Edition.