Child saints are

child A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

ren who died or were

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

ed and have been declared

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

s or

s of the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

Oriental Orthodox The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysitism, Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 50 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches adhere to the Nicene Christian ...

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Episcopalian Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protes ...

, or

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Churches or have been beatified.

Early Christian Saints

Orthodox Church

Episcopal Church

Catholic Church

Group Martyrs

Martyrs of China Chinese Martyrs ( zh, t=中華殉道聖人, s=中华殉道圣人, first=t, w=Chung1-hua2 hsun4-tao4 shêng4-jên2, p=Zhōnghuá xùndào shèngrén) is the name given to a number of members of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox C ...

Martyrs of Japan The were Christians, Christian missionaries and followers who were persecuted and executed, mostly during the Tokugawa shogunate period in the 17th century. The Japanese saw the rituals of the Christians causing people to pray, close their eyes w ...

Martyrs of Korea

Martyrs of Kosheh

* Al-Amir Helmy Fahmy * Maysoon Ghatas Fahmy * Refaat Fayez Awad Fahmy * Wael El-Dabai Mikhail

Martyrs of Nag Hammadi

* Mina Helmy Said * Bishoy Farid Labib * Dina Hamalni * Boula Atef Yassa * Abanoub Kamal Nashed

Martyrs of the Nazi regime

Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War During the Spanish Civil War Catholic people faced persecution from the Republican faction of the war, in part due to their support of the nationalists and the recently abolished monarchy. The Catholic Church venerates them as martyrs. More t ...

Martyrs of Vietnam

* Andrew Trong Van Tram * Anê Dần * Giuse Túc * Thomas Thien Tran

Other Catholic Martyrs

Dubious or fictitious

William of Norwich William of Norwich (died 22 March 1144) was an apprentice who lived in the English city of Norwich. He suffered a violent death during Easter 1144. The city's French-speaking Jewish community was blamed for his death, but the crime was never so ...

was a twelve year old English boy whose unsolved murder was, at the time, attributed to the Jewish community of Norwich. It is the first known medieval accusation against Jews of ritual murder. E. M. Rose points out that road robberies and kidnappings gone wrong were a frequent cause of death in the region during the period of

The Anarchy The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Duchy of Normandy, Normandy between 1138 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a war of succession precipitated by the accidental death of William Adel ...

when the Crown struggled to safeguard the roads. This was followed by a similar allegation regarding the unexplained death of

Harold of Gloucester Harold of Gloucester (died 1168) was a supposed child martyr who was falsely claimed by Benedictine monks to have been ritually murdered by Jews in Gloucester, England, in 1168. The claims arose in the aftermath of the circulation of the f ...

. An attempt to establish a cult of Harold seems to have been unsuccessful. It was never officially supported and died out long before the Reformation.Hillaby, Joe, "The ritual-child-murder accusation: its dissemination and Harold of Gloucester", Jewish Historical Studies, vol. 34, (1994-1996), pp. 69-109. However, it established a pattern. Any unexplained child death occurring near the Easter festival was arbitrarily linked to Jews in the vicinity. In some instances promotion of a cult may have been influenced by the interest of local clergy to enhance the prestige of their church with a shrine. Anthony Bale suggests this, and local politics, may have been contributing factors to the cult of

Robert of Bury Robert of Bury (died 1181) was an English boy, allegedly murdered and found in the town of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in 1181. His death, which occurred at a time of rising antisemitism, was blamed on local Jews.Patricia Skinner ''The Jews in M ...

Simon of Trent Simon of Trent (; , also known as ; 1472–1475), also known as Saint Simon (or Simeon) of Trent, was a young boy from the city of Trento, Trent, in the Prince-Bishopric of Trent (now Trentino, Italy), whose disappearance and death were blamed on ...

and Werner of OberweselThe Attitude of the Catholic Church towards Jewish Ritual Murder
/ref> are other examples of individuals who died under unknown circumstances, but whose deaths were nonetheless attributed to the Jews.

Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln Hugh of Lincoln (1246 – 27 August 1255) was an English boy whose death in Lincoln, England, Lincoln was blood libel, falsely attributed to Jews. He is sometimes known as Little Saint Hugh or Little Sir Hugh to distinguish him from the adu ...

was never actually canonised, making the moniker "Little Saint Hugh" a misnomer. He was for a short while acclaimed by local people as a saint but never officially recognised as one. Over time, the issue of the rush to sainthood was raised, and Hugh was never canonised, nor included in Catholic martyrology. In the case of Dominguito del Val,Gil, Sergio Martinez. "The Martyrdom of Santo Domenguito de Val", Historia de Aragon
/ref> and Andreas Oxner,Blessed Andreas (Oxner) of Rinn
/ref> and the Holy Child of La Guardia it is not clear that the alleged victim ever existed in the first place.

References

External links

Hagiography Circle

Saints.SQPN.com
Partial list of saints who died as children.

Asian Saints Photostream

Flickr Flickr ( ) is an image hosting service, image and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a co ...

page containing the images of some Asian child saints.

Saints In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...

Children A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

Child saints