If a saint performs a miracle (two miracles, actually) in the forest and no one sees, is he still a saint?

Yes. This question came up in a class I took in spring 2009, and I think that saints can exist without being recognized (which seems to be the essence of the question). Regardless of your definition of "miracle" or of "saint," if you think that two of the first makes one of the second, then I see no other questions.

Recognition is not an inherent part of the Catholic definition of saint -- the ones they recognize are just that: recognized, but not the only ones -- and I'm inclined to follow the definition of the religion who invented the idea.

If we take that to be true, then we need to figure out what the implications are for the meaning of a saint. If a saint needn't be recognized or revered, then can I be a saint? Could you? Can we each have our own saints if we think they've fulfilled the criteria? After all, maybe the Church would recognize them if only they knew about them.

Of course, the Church would say that we shouldn't go around finding our own saints. There's the danger of idolatry, of misplacing our affections for someone who is not actually in heaven now.

But Catholic saints are arguably idolatry anyway, so that seems like a moot point to me (or at least one that would be difficult to argue well).

What purpose do saints serve, then? Should they be role models, even though their lives are the definition of perfection? Maybe living our lives as they did is not much more of an attainable goal than trying model our lives after Jesus.

Or should we just be able to pray to them for specific requests, like asking Saint Christopher for safe travels? If I were Saint Christopher, I'd be pretty sick of that request by now, and can't God grant us safe travels anyway?

I've heard that they are supposed to be like our extended family who we know to be in heaven, so we can pray to them for guidance.

But I don't see why we can't imagine personal "saints" to be a part of that extended family instead. If we thought our grandfather lived an honorable life, couldn't we aspire to be like him? He may not be sanctioned by God via the Catholic Church, but there has to be room to customize our own lives, and if we want to emanate our grandfather's generosity (for example), then why not?

Saints, whether they are "real" or not, seem to be relatively irrelevant. The Church should be able to explain what a "good life" is through the teachings of Jesus and the actions of the Pope. And then for more attainable role models, we can look to the people around us who we think possess those qualities.