Bronze Saints
The Bronze Saints are the lowest class of Athena's Saints.
Power
Bronze Saints wear Bronze Cloth and posses the basic skill of a Saint. Their consciousness of Cosmo is limited and allows them to express superhuman skills that are less impressive than those of higher ranked Saints. They are for example able to reach Mach 1, the speed of sound and to shoot 100 hits per second, things that while being impressive feats for a human, represent only a small part of the power that is hidden in human beings.
Role
The number of the Bronze Saints is 48, so this makes them the largest in number among the 88 Saints. Their role during Holy Wars is of mere support to assist higher Saints or to accomplish missions involving gathering intelligence or defending civilians, but also fighting against enemy soldiers that wear supernatural armor, impossible to being defeated by common troops. Although Bronze Saints have usually limited powers, some of them overcome their status raising their Cosmo to superior ranks, sometimes even above Gold Saints themselves.
Silver Saints
The Silver Saints are the Saints that wear the second most powerful Cloths.
Overview
Silver Saints are specialists in battle often equipped with powerful equipment; either tools and/or weapons to strengthen their capacity, although the general rule of Saints prefer unarmed combat. When they receive an assignment from the Sanctuary, they go to any part of the world to fulfill it and at whatever cost, using all their power and sometimes bringing some Bronze Saints as support. While the Bronze Saints are somehow novices, the Silver Saints represent the true concept of a Saint of Athena, with respectable strength and Cosmo, although the most fearful menaces are possible to fight only with the aid of the Gold Saints.
Power
The power of Silver Saints overcomes greatly that of the Bronze Saints with the weakest Silver Saint being at least twice as strong as a Bronze Saint but they can be three, four or five times stronger with the power to reach the speed of Mach 5. Their Cosmo is not completely awakened but they have a wider knowledge of it. Despite many Silver Saints being far from the power of a Gold Saint, there are a few of them who are said to be even stronger than the Gold Saints.
Role
All the masters seen in the story, if not Gold Saints, were Silver Saints, sometimes even really powerful ones and to find a successor worthy of a Cloth is part of the work of these Silver Saints in most cases have because they have a high enough skill and knowledge needed to being able to train new cadets. As many Saints and Cloths were lost in the last Holy War, to train new Saints and to increase to the power to fight are the important tasks to be fulfilled before the next Holy War. In total there exists 24 Silver Saints.
Gold Saints
The Gold Saints (Gōrudo Seinto, 黄金聖闘士) are the most powerful Saints in Athena's army, almost invincible among them since the mythological ages.
Power
The Gold Saints have mastered the Seventh Sense, the essence of Cosmo, which grants them miraculous abilities, such as the capacity of attaining the speed of light. While they are all known to dominate the Seventh Sense, a few of them are so powerful to have reached the Eighth Sense (Arayashiki). The Gold Saints are capable of overcoming their limits in time of crisis up to accomplish miracles. Not only the power of the Gold Saints is incomparably superior to all other Saints, except for a few cases, but also their notions of honesty, ethics and righteousness and is therefore, very respected by the other Saints and in many cases the Grand Pope chooses his successor amongst them.
If the Gold Saints with two equivalent forces waging a struggle, the battle is so fierce, that ends up lasting forever. In this confrontation, which is called the "War of a Thousand Days," they can both die or fight forever without a winner. The Gold Saints dominate a legendary technique known as Athena Exclamation, where 3 Gold Saints join their Cosmo to form a single blow. This power is so immense that it releases an energy similar to the explosion that gave birth to the universe, the Big Bang. When Two Athena Exclamation collide, they will not only double or multiply, but increase infinitely. Athena banned all Gold Saints to use this technique because, besides being considered cowards because of three Saints attacking a single enemy, they can also cause terrible damage to both the opponent and the surroundings. Who dares to make use of this technique, is regarded as a barbaric, horrible, and dishonored person that can never be called a Saint anymore.
However, the most powerful and destructive technique for this class of Saints is the one that can be referred as the "sacrifice of the Gold Saints." In it, the twelve Gold Saints raise their Cosmo and release an energy as strong and bright as the sun. All who come in contact with this energy, including the Gold Saints themselves, die.
Role
They wear the 12 Gold Cloths that correspond to the zodiac constellations, the most powerful among the 88 Cloths. Their duty at Sanctuary is mainly to defend the 12 Zodiac Temples, one for each sign, but they are also the trump cards at the disposition of Athena and the Grand Pope to accomplish the most difficult missions and they represent the main war potential during the conflicts with the other deities armies. They are protected by the twelve zodiacal constellations that are on the ecliptic thus containing the energy and light of the sun.
When the 12 Gold Cloths are near one another, they shine and produce very loud sounds, this phenomenon is called resonance but it's not a common event, because the reunion of all the 12 Gold Saints is an event that happens rarely and when Athena and the Grand Pope summon the Gold Saints to a reunion in view of an upcoming crisis.
Subject: Saints Hierarchy 
Thu Sep 22, 2011 10:55 pm