Sinners Who Became Saints

A Life of "Heroic Virtue"

To become a saint under Roman Catholic doctrine, a person needs to have demonstrated a high degree of holiness; in the words of the church, they must have lived a life of “heroic virtue.”

More than 10,000 people have passed the tests and been elevated to sainthood, and a few rogues mended their ways and sneaked past the examiners.

How to Become a Saint

Most religions recognize that certain people live lives of such exceptional goodness that they are accorded special privileges after death. In the Roman Catholic Church, there is a set process that takes place before declaring someone a saint:

• There's normally a five-year waiting period after death before the process can start.
• The bishop in the diocese in which the person died must determine if they were sufficiently virtuous and holy to be considered. If the standard is met, the person is put forward to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints for investigation, where the decision on whether to advise the Pope is made.
• If the Pope gets the file, he decides whether the person has lived a life of heroic virtue. If the answer is yes, the person is declared venerable.
• Then, the person has to be proven to have performed a miracle or to have become a martyr by dying for their faith.
• Lastly, the BBC tells us, “Canonisation is the final step in declaring a deceased person a saint. To reach this stage, a second miracle normally needs to be attributed to prayers made to the candidate after they have been beatified.”

Many wonderful people have cleared all the hurdles, but a few nasty ones have succeeded in becoming saints. Here are some randomly selected saintly knaves.

Saint Longinus

He was a Roman soldier, which ought to have disqualified him from sainthood; “thou shalt not kill” and all. He was also the one who stuck a spear into Jesus Christ, i.e., God. That would seem to be as grievous a sin as it's possible to imagine in Christian eyes. It happened at the crucifixion. Jesus had apparently expired, and the nearly blind Longinus was instructed to shove a spear into him to make sure he was dead.

According to the Gospel of John, blood and water sprang from the wound, and some of the liquid splashed on the centurion's eyes and restored his sight. That was enough to persuade Longinus, if that was his name (there are doubts), to get out of the army and become a monk.

The conversion was frowned upon by the authorities who arrested and tortured him. They pulled out his teeth and cut off his tongue, but he continued to speak clearly. More drastic measures were called for, so Longinus was beheaded. This enabled him to be made a saint by dying for his faith.

The spear he used to stab God is in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Or is it? There are at least three other lances that are said to be the one that Longinus wielded.

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Saint Pelagia

She was something of a temptress in the fifth century. Well, that's putting it mildly. A contemporary of hers, Saint John Chrysostom, was uncompromisingly brutal: “Nothing was more vile than she was, when she was on the stage.”

Thomas J. Craughwell, author of Saints Behaving Badly, wrote that “The men she took as her lovers became intoxicated with her. For Pelagia’s sake fathers abandoned their children, wealthy men squandered their estates. She even seduced the empress’s brother. Trying to account for Pelagia’s power over men, St. John wondered if she drugged them, and speculated that perhaps she used sorcery.”

She is said to have heard a sermon by a bishop called Nonnus (he became a saint) that caused her to repent from her seductive ways. She gave away all her possessions, freed her slaves, and lived as a hermit pretending to be a monk.

According to the Catholic News Agency, she died “apparently as a result of extreme asceticism, which had emaciated her to the point she could no longer be recognized.”

Brief Sketches in Redemption

• Saint Mary of Egypt ran away from home and set up shop as a prostitute in Alexandria. She plied her trade in the fourth century for 17 years but did not charge her clients. She was enthralled by her power to seduce young men and said, “There is no mentionable or unmentionable depravity of which I was not their teacher.” Something compelled her to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she repented her sins and spent the rest of her life as a hermit.
• Saint Dismas was a thief who was crucified alongside Jesus. He is referred to as the Good Thief because, says ucatholic.com, he “recognizes that Jesus is innocent and has done nothing wrong. He also acknowledges that Jesus is the Messiah by saying to Him, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom'.” The other thief crucified that day, named Gestas, mocked Jesus and has not been made a saint.
• Bartolo Longo was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Italy, but he strayed into the world of the occult and became a Satanic priest. He returned to Catholicism and joined a Dominican order, built schools and orphanages and preached about the demonic evils of the devil. He died in 1926 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980, taking him one step away from sainthood.
• Jacques Fesch was a wastrel, thief, murderer, and rich atheist. The French criminal was arrested in 1954 and condemned to death. He spent three years in prison awaiting his execution, during which he found solace in Christianity. He kept a religious journal and the final entry, before he was guillotined on October 1, 1957, he wrote, “In five hours, I will see Jesus.” Controversially, he has been put forward as a candidate for beatification.
• Finally, we come to the contentious case of Eugenio Pacelli. He became Pope in February 1939 and took the name Pius XII. Despite pleas for him to speak out against the Holocaust, Pius remained silent. Writing for the Smithsonian Magazine, Theresa Machemer notes, “To critics, the pontiff’s refusal to publicly condemn the Nazis represents a shameful moral failing with devastating consequences ... Supporters, however, say that Pius’ silence was calculated to prevent German retaliation and ensure the continued success of the Catholic Church’s behind-the-scenes efforts to aid victims of Nazi persecution.” Pius XII has been proposed for canonization and, in 2007, was declared “Venerable” for having lived a life of “heroic virtues.” The process currently sits on the desk of Pope Francis while an evaluation of the action of Pius during World War II is undertaken.

Bonus Factoids

• In 1969, Pope Paul VI demoted 93 saints, saying some of the names on the list were legends and had likely never existed as people. They weren't actually booted out of sainthood, but their feast days were removed from the liturgical calendar. Some very famous names were on the list, Saint George, Saint Christopher, and Saint Nicholas among them.
• There was a movement launched to make Thomas Aquinas a saint but he hadn't died a martyr nor could any miracles be attributed to him. Then, a story emerged (there are several versions) in which the learned cleric asked for fresh herrings to eat. A fishmonger arrived with a basket of pilchards, but when he opened the lid they became, miraculously, fresh herrings. Here's another take on the yarn from the British programme Quite Interesting.

Sources

• “How Does Someone Become a Saint?” BBC News, April 27, 2014.
• “Discover St. Longinus and the 'Spear of Destiny'." Daniel Dougherty, goodcatholic.com, May 26, 2023.
• “St. Pelagia.” Catholic News Agency, undated.
• “St. Dismas.” ucatholic.com, March 25, 2013.
• “Saints Who Were Criminals or Convicts and Found Christ Anyway.” Meg Hunter-Kilmer, aleteia.org, June 20, 2020.
• “Newly Unsealed Vatican Archives Lay Out Evidence of Pope Pius XII’s Knowledge of the Holocaust.” Theresa Machemer, Smithsonian Magazine, May 5, 2020.
• “Top 10 Truly Badass Saints.” Jamie Frater, listverse.com, January 30, 2011.
• “Once a Saint, Always a Saint? Kind Of -- Unless You're Demoted.” Rheana Murray, ABC News, April 26, 2014.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

© 2023 Rupert Taylor