Jewish Saints?

Toward the end of my day today, a co-worker of mine said that he thinks our hospital, "St. Mary's", should cater to the Jewish people in our community and change their name to "St. Manny's". I don't know what made him have this thought, BUT it made me wonder...Does the Jewish Faith have Saints?

I don't want to post everything I found, but basically, YES, there are Jewish Saints, although, they are not named/canonized like those in the Catholic Faith.

Here are some of the articles I found:

From: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Judaism/2000/09/The-12-Days-Of-Rosh-Hashanah.aspx

The word for saint in Hebrew is hasid, and in its original usage, a hasid was someone who followed a more rigorous spiritual path, a holy path. (That is, for instance, how Maimonides uses the term.) The analogy to Catholic saints isn't perfect--there's no official category in Judaism, for instance--but the subject of Jewish saints is fascinating in its own right.

From: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Reform-Judaism-950/Jewish-Saints.htm:

"Your question is very interesting. In many Orthodox communities, particularly Haredi and Chasidic communities, they believe in tzadikkim (righteous ones). There are reportedly thirty-six tzadikkim at any single time. No where have I encountered the implication that a tzadik must be Jewish. However, it is believed that these thirty-six righteous tzadikkim is the reason God does not destroy the world. Many in the Ultra-Orthodox communities believe their rabbis to be among the tzadikkim. The tzadik allegedly has no inclination toward evil, and is able to resist those inclinations.

It has been taught that everyone has the ability to attain the righteousness to become a tzadik. Consequently, it is not an honorific that is bestowed upon a person. Only God knows the identities of the tzadikkim. The world does not know these people as tzadikkim, nor are they aware of it themselves.

Maimonides, a prolific Jewish philosopher, physician, and rabbi, wrote this to define the prerequisite of the tzadik, “One whose merit surpasses his iniquity.” This is a very ambiguous qualification as this can be applied to almost anyone.

This topic is highly controversial and mystical lacking true foundation in the Torah, but it is an interesting cultural concept to ponder, but take this “tradition” with a grain of salt."

From: http://medievalhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/saints

Jewish and Muslim saints are much more informally established than Christian saints through simple popularity, though there are both local and international Jewish and Muslim saints. This resembles informal local Christian saints not recognized by the Church like the 13th century English rebel Simon de Montfort.