Remains the best among saints (5)
I believe the answer is:
stops
'remains' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to change as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'best among saints' is the wordplay.
'best' becomes 'top' (top can mean the very best).
'among' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are placed among others).
'saints' becomes 'ss' (an abbreviation for saint written twice).
'top' going inside 'ss' is 'STOPS'.
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stops that I've seen before include "Halts" , "Prevents" , "Checks" , "Discontinues" , "Ends" .)