High churches are the ones that follow the liturgical calendar where each church service is tied to events in the life of Christ or other significant events. They also tend to recognize saints as special class of dead believers. This is different from the low churches which don't follow a specific liturgical calendar and that believe in the sainthood of all believers.

 

Saints as a special class are the best of the best dead believers. In some cases they are martyrs but in all cases they have a special in with God. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches kind of take this to an extreme and don't pray to God, since the average Christian isn't good enough to get his attention, so they pray to a saint and then that saint will talk to God about the living believer's request and if they're lucky God will allow the saint to work a miracle. Candidates for sainthood in the Roman Catholic church are confirmed by the church verifying miracles that happened when they prayed to the candidate. When sainthood is bestowed, it's not making that person special, it's recognizing that person's special relationship with God and telling everyone that they can pray to that saint.

 

Some saints become patron saints when they are closely identified with a place, organization, or cause. Organizations will also pick a saint to align with, such as in the naming of Catholic churches, hospitals, and schools. Saints also often become the patron of traits that they were known for such as Jude, the Patron Saint of Lost Causes or the focus of today, Thomas, the patron saint of doubters.

 

John 20:24-29