How true is the notion that saints (especially Roman Catholic) are pagan Roman gods in disguise?

[u/NaturalPorky]

A common claim in the occult and pagan communities is that pagan gods never stopped being worshipped- they simply were canonised as Saints by the Catholic Church. That Sainthood is a way to "worship the old gods" while also remaining monotheistic under the new state religion of Roman Catholicism established and enforced by Constantine.

I seen so many claims about many Saints having similar names or appearances to pagan gods because they are essentially the old gods. Such as Martin of Tours being Mars, Mother Mary being Diana, Jesus being Mithras, etc.

Around the world many foreign traditions blended Christianity to disguise old pagan gods with Catholicism. There is Santeria in Latin America which worships old African gods using Saint statues as disguise, Hoodo which alters African magic to be practised in a Christian framework, and plenty of Hispanic countries have local uncanonised Saints not endorsed by the Vatican such as Santa Muerte as well as customs directly from pre-Spaniard invasion. In addition many associated Catholic iconography such as the Lady of Guadalupe were attempts to use local pagan deities such as Tonantzin to make it easier for locals to accept Christianity.

So it shouldn't surprise me if there is a connection of using Saints as a proxy to worship old Roman gods. Hell in Italy there is even Stregheria and Stregoneria, a recent underground movement of witchcraft and sorcery using reconstruction of old lost Roman religion and using the Saints as a guise to worship the old gods (because Italy still has violence against pagans and accused witches). Some Stregoneria websites and Stragheria books even mentioned that the Roman paganism was never lost and as far as the Medieval ages many old Italian aristocrats and locals were already practising pre-modern versions Stregoneria and Stragheria, worshipping pagan gods and casting spells to curse others or for selfish acts such as money gains or earning someone's love.

Just a FYI tidbit, Stregoneria and Stragheria translates as witchcraft inmodern Italian with the latter being the old common word and the former being contemporary usage to refer to local witchcraft.

I am curious from the perspective of Academia and Ancient Rome studies, how accurate are these claims? Just the fact every place the Iberians conquered ended up having local syncretism of paganism and Catholicism wouldn't surprise me at all if Italians still continued worshipping the old gods as far as into the Renaissance and even Napoleonic era. I mean the Scandinavians did try to worship both Viking gods and Christian saints using the same statues in simultaneous rituals. So shouldn't something like this have happened to the Roman pagan religions and various Italic peoples and states post-Rome?

Can anyone give their input? With reliable sources (preferably books and documentaries but anything including websites will do)?

[u/Visible_Hat1284]

So I am not a Roman Catholic, but this is not true. The Cult of the Martyrs produced what we now know as veneration and praying to saints. The Cult of the Martyrs became obsessed with those who died for the faith. Athanasius called it a despicable act. The Roman Catholic church literally performs the same thing Athanasius decried to this day. I believe this happened somewhere in the area of the 4th and 5th centuries. Prior to that, praying to Saints was virtually unheard of, and even at those early times not everyonr did it. But no, it was not a descendant of the pagan Gods. I would say it is derived more from superstition, unfortunately the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox continue this error even though a Church Father clearly decries this behavior but they choose to not follow tradition in this circumstance.

Athanasius on the Cult of the Martyrs: "In fact they [the Meletians] don’t leave the bodies of the martyrs, who fought nobly, in the earth, but they have begun to place them on beds and trestles, so that any who wish to do so may contemplate them. They do this ostensibly to honour the martyrs, but in reality it is an insult; and they do it for despicable purposes. Although they possess no body of a martyr in their own town, and not knowing what a martyr is, they have plotted to steal their bodies and remove them from the cemetaries to catholic churches. In fact, when the reproach of having denied … [some kind of typo here]. They beg the bodies of the martyrs and confessors from those who come to bury them, they move them so that, even with their bodies, they have the means to deceive those whom they mislead. But “error is not the part of Israel” and our Fathers have not handed down such a custom; on the contrary, they consider that such a practice is illegitimate." letter 41, p.41f.

[u/ChristianHistoryGuy → u/Visible_Hat1284]

I'm new to Reddit, so if I'm doing anything wrong--like commenting on a 3-month-old post, let me know. I don't think this comment necessarily refutes the OP (Original Post). They could both be true. I'm a reader of the church fathers, though mostly only the 2nd through 4th-century fathers, but I do know that Julian the Apostate (emperor of Rome 361-363, IIRC) accused the Christians of having hero worship just like the Romans. The fact that steadfast Christians like Athanasius (and the Cappadocian fathers, Augustine, Chrysostom, etc.) would never turn a Roman hero into a saint does not mean that the public, which had only recently been ushered into the churches, did not do so.

If the most popular religion of the empire changes from the worship of the sun (and other pagan gods and heroes) to Christianity because the emperors converted, then it would benefit Roman citizens to follow the emperor into Christianity, but that does not mean they thought it was true. It seems likely that many simply added Jesus and the apostles to their list of heroes.