Drawn to a saint, can't think of her name..help

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lotus_in_bloom

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I am learning more and more about Catholicism and have started learning about the saints, I must admit it is overwhelming for a potential convert. One day I did a quick study through all the saints and found one that appealed to me. I will try and describe my memory of her and see if anyone has a clue.

For starters a female who was inclined to get into all sorts of scandals and mischief and seemed apathetic towards the church until later establishing a deep faith(apparently if she is a saint). I am pretty sure she wouldn’t make the list of top 25 patron saints.

Again sorry for the vagueness, her story from what I remember I felt apathetic towards but now her image and story keep popping in my head and I think there is something there spiritually I need to draw on.

thanks very much
 
lotus_in_bloom said:
I am learning more and more about Catholicism and have started learning about the saints, I must admit it is overwhelming for a potential convert. One day I did a quick study through all the saints and found one that appealed to me. I will try and describe my memory of her and see if anyone has a clue.

For starters a female who was inclined to get into all sorts of scandals and mischief and seemed apathetic towards the church until later establishing a deep faith(apparently if she is a saint). I am pretty sure she wouldn’t make the list of top 25 patron saints.

Again sorry for the vagueness, her story from what I remember I felt apathetic towards but now her image and story keep popping in my head and I think there is something there spiritually I need to draw on.

thanks very much
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Hello Lotus and welcome…

Do you have any recollection as to when about she lived? Or the country?
 
sadly no…I know it’s overwhelming but what struck me about her was the fact that unlike many of the female saints she didn’t come right off the start as ‘loyal and faithful’ to Christ, that appeals to me as I did not grow up Catholic I am 27 years old and traditional saints like Agnes and Lucy don’t as of yet appeal to me. I was aware of the Church but felt apathy to it and did what I want, I have been rebellious and lustful and struggle with that but I now have a desire to live a holy life, I want a saint I can relate to. All the saints are wonderful but I like the ‘bad girl gone good saints’ while many of the female saints seem ‘good’ from the start…I know it’s not Mary Magdalene other then that that’s all I have.
 
lotus_in_bloom said:
I am learning more and more about Catholicism and have started learning about the saints, I must admit it is overwhelming for a potential convert. One day I did a quick study through all the saints and found one that appealed to me. I will try and describe my memory of her and see if anyone has a clue.

For starters a female who was inclined to get into all sorts of scandals and mischief and seemed apathetic towards the church until later establishing a deep faith(apparently if she is a saint). I am pretty sure she wouldn’t make the list of top 25 patron saints.

Again sorry for the vagueness, her story from what I remember I felt apathetic towards but now her image and story keep popping in my head and I think there is something there spiritually I need to draw on.

thanks very much
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Are you thinking about St. Theresa of Avila, who was an apathetic Carmelite until a deep conversion at age 40. If it is her from you description, she is one of 3 female Doctors of the Church and a major force in the reformation of the Carmelite order. I think that is what you are describing.
 
What section did you find this particular saint? I did see some books, but have no idea of where to look. And I can’t think of any saint that fits your description. :confused:
 
Are you perhaps thinking of Dorothy Day? She had a rather checkered past, was an atheist, a communist, had a lover, had an abortion and then a child out of wedlock.

Then she converted, started the Catholic Worker Movement, is now up for canonization. I believe she is a Servant of God (the first step in canonization).

If she is not the one you were thinking of, she still is a fine example of how God can work in a person’s life.
 
Perhaps St. Margaret of Cortona? catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=234
newadvent.org/cathen/09653b.htm

Also, St. Teresa of Avila was pretty apathetic about the faith for quite some time, as robwar mentioned. There’s also St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), who was raised Jewish and was an atheist until her conversion in her 30s. She converted after reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila

And, while I know you were looking for a female saint, you also might want to read about St. Augustine – another late convert and Doctor of the Church.
 
St. Margaret of Cortona is the closest I have found…yet I don’t believe it is her at all…If God wills it I will find her again. I am certain this woman was sent young to a religious order but it did not have much impact on her until later in life.
 
St. Lutgarde?

She grew up in a convent but had zero interest in becoming a nun until her late teens. She was flirting with a suitor for her hand when Jesus appeared to her. She immediately repented of her lukewarm faith and said to the suitor, “Get away from me, you bait of death. I have found another Lover.” Thomas Merton made St. Lutgarde more well known by his biography on her.

I thought of St. Margaret of Cortona, too, but you have said it is not her.

Or perhaps St. Angelo of Foligno? She was never a nun, though, but a wife and mother who was very into society, food and entertaining. I think she even had an adulterous affair- but it’s been awhile since I read her writings. She converted later in life and became a Third Order Franciscan and mystic.

St. Catherine of Genoa also was very lackluster in her faith- she was married to a philanderer who gambled all their money away so that they were destitute. She had a conversion experience in the confessional and eventually converted her husband to the faith as well. She had visions, especially of the Souls in Purgatory.

St. Clare of Rimini also led a dissipated life until a voice told her during mass to say at least one Our Father and one Hail Mary fervently. She repented and eventually entered the Poor Clare’s.

These are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.
 
Oh- I just thought of St. Gertrude as well. Also sent as a child to a convent where she grew up to have a great love of secular learning and books. I don’t think she was so much of a bad girl as she was mostly interested in worldly knowledge, which made her more lukewarm to the faith. At the age of 25, she began having visions of Our Lord…we have her writings and more stories about her life under the compilation “Revelations of St. Gertrude”. She was elected Abbess of her order and is known as St. Gertrude the Great. Her prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory is her most famous contribution to the Church.
 
Saint Angela? She was from Italy, was very unfaithful to her husband and had a ton of issues. However she turned her life around became a Saint. She’s not well known, either.
 
wild_thing said:
St. Lutgarde?

She grew up in a convent but had zero interest in becoming a nun until her late teens. She was flirting with a suitor for her hand when Jesus appeared to her. She immediately repented of her lukewarm faith and said to the suitor, “Get away from me, you bait of death. I have found another Lover.” Thomas Merton made St. Lutgarde more well known by his biography on her.

d.
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LOL of all the harsh rejections, that one had to sting.
 
CB_Catholic said:
Are you perhaps thinking of Dorothy Day? She had a rather checkered past, was an atheist, a communist, had a lover, had an abortion and then a child out of wedlock.

Then she converted, started the Catholic Worker Movement, is now up for canonization. I believe she is a Servant of God (the first step in canonization).

If she is not the one you were thinking of, she still is a fine example of how God can work in a person’s life.
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Yeah, that’s who I was thinking of as well…particularly since she lived in recent history and not hundreds of years ago.
pianist
 
I didn’t realize Angela of Foligno was now a Saint. She was my confirmation saint, while still a Blessed 🙂

I love, love, love her story. A somewhat shallow, partying, scandalous woman who made a fascinating, interior journey towards sainthood. I so identified with her beginning self, so identified with her baby steps back to God (includimg being so ashamed of certain sins that she withheld them in Confession, only to go back and make a good and complete confession), and hope to someday be precisely where she is- in the presence of God.

Love her.
 
Oh! And I forgot to add: I hope you are immensely blessed in your own journey, OP!
 
FreciaMarie said:
I didn’t realize Angela of Foligno was now a Saint. She was my confirmation saint, while still a Blessed 🙂

I love, love, love her story. A somewhat shallow, partying, scandalous woman who made a fascinating, interior journey towards sainthood. I so identified with her beginning self, so identified with her baby steps back to God (includimg being so ashamed of certain sins that she withheld them in Confession, only to go back and make a good and complete confession), and hope to someday be precisely where she is- in the presence of God.

Love her.
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And an OFS 🙂
 
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