Is it a sin to have a crush on a Saint?

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William777

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Ermmm… I know this may sound a little strange, but - is it a sin to have a crush on a Lady Saint?

Sometimes I have this thing going on in my mind between Saint Gemma Galgani and Saint Therese of Lisieux - trying to figure out which one was prettier. :o

I think Saint Therese was obviously a woman of outstanding faith, and she was cute as a button. But, seriously, when I look at Saint Gemma of Galgani’s picture, her eyes just about make me melt. And, when I read about her life story, I really kind of fall in love with her - perhaps moreso than Saint Therese. I honestly think she’s probably one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen - taken cumulatively, that is, both inside and out…

The strange thing is - well, they’re both pretty much spoken for… They’re both three times my age… and… I dont know that it is exactly right to feel certain affections for souls so Holy… But, then, it’s also kind of difficult to not feel some sort of attraction…

Does anyone out there have any positive advice on the matter?

BTW, I am 43, disabled and unmarried, and I doubt I ever will marry. But I do wish I had a female figure to talk with. Priests have told me to talk with the Blessed Mother when I am feeling down, but I feel like too unworthy to approach the Immaculate Conception. Therese seems a bit rambunctious. I was thinking Gemma might be more the right Saint to whom to pray.

Does any of this make any sense at all?

:confused:
 
William777 said:
Ermmm… I know this may sound a little strange, but - is it a sin to have a crush on a Lady Saint?

Sometimes I have this thing going on in my mind between Saint Gemma Galgani and Saint Therese of Lisieux - trying to figure out which one was prettier. :o

I think Saint Therese was obviously a woman of outstanding faith, and she was cute as a button. But, seriously, when I look at Saint Gemma of Galgani’s picture, her eyes just about make me melt. And, when I read about her life story, I really kind of fall in love with her - perhaps moreso than Saint Therese. I honestly think she’s probably one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen - taken cumulatively, that is, both inside and out…

The strange thing is - well, they’re both pretty much spoken for… They’re both three times my age… and… I dont know that it is exactly right to feel certain affections for souls so Holy… But, then, it’s also kind of difficult to not feel some sort of attraction…

Does anyone out there have any positive advice on the matter?

BTW, I am 43, disabled and unmarried, and I doubt I ever will marry. But I do wish I had a female figure to talk with. Priests have told me to talk with the Blessed Mother when I am feeling down, but I feel like too unworthy to approach the Immaculate Conception. Therese seems a bit rambunctious. I was thinking Gemma might be more the right Saint to whom to pray.

Does any of this make any sense at all?

:confused:
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It sounds to me as if you are lonely and slightly infatuated, albeit in an innocent way, with the saints.

I don’t think it’s wrong, per se, to think they are attractive, but if you are dwelling on them and idolizing them too much, it could easily become a problem of the imagination.

We are all unworthy to approach our Immaculate Mother, but she is just that… our Mother, and we should not be afraid to approach her like a trustful child.
 
…I don’t think it’s wrong to think they’re attractive, because they are. Those are two beautiful ladies, but I think it would be a little weird to have an honest to goodness crush on them…you know? I don’t know if it would be wrong exactly, but in my opinion…it’s a little weird…but that’s just my opinion :confused:
 
William777 said:
Ermmm… I know this may sound a little strange, but - is it a sin to have a crush on a Lady Saint?

Sometimes I have this thing going on in my mind between Saint Gemma Galgani and Saint Therese of Lisieux - trying to figure out which one was prettier. :o

I think Saint Therese was obviously a woman of outstanding faith, and she was cute as a button. But, seriously, when I look at Saint Gemma of Galgani’s picture, her eyes just about make me melt. And, when I read about her life story, I really kind of fall in love with her - perhaps moreso than Saint Therese. I honestly think she’s probably one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen - taken cumulatively, that is, both inside and out…

The strange thing is - well, they’re both pretty much spoken for… They’re both three times my age… and… I dont know that it is exactly right to feel certain affections for souls so Holy… But, then, it’s also kind of difficult to not feel some sort of attraction…

Does anyone out there have any positive advice on the matter?

BTW, I am 43, disabled and unmarried, and I doubt I ever will marry. But I do wish I had a female figure to talk with. Priests have told me to talk with the Blessed Mother when I am feeling down, but I feel like too unworthy to approach the Immaculate Conception. Therese seems a bit rambunctious. I was thinking Gemma might be more the right Saint to whom to pray.

Does any of this make any sense at all?

:confused:
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St. Therese is prettier, I think.

I often pray to St. Therese and also St. Philomena, another young lady saint who died so young.

Another Saintly Beauty is St. Bernadette Soubirous. I’ve thought about it as well but try to turn those thoughts in to admiration for God’s creation.
 
Hmmm… I know a girl who’s pursuing her Masters in Theology, and she thinks PJPII was a really handsome guy, when he was a younger priest. She never went so far as to say she had a “crush” on him, but I kind of got the sense that she was attracted to him.

That said, the conversation is leaning a bit too much towards aesthetics, which (to me) begs the question of “What is a person?” because looking at aesthetics is only looking at a (very transient) part of a person.

In the Catholic definition, a person is an intelligent being who can will things… In a Bible study one time, we had a bit of an argument over whether angels were people or not, and - while opinions differ - I tend to think angels are people - it’s just they were not created with mortal bodies, and they are eternal beings. But they still have a personality, i.e. intelligence and will, and so we mortals have that in common with them. For a Saint, i.e. a person who has passed over to heaven, they were born into a mortal body at a specific point in time, and then they shed that mortal coil to return home. So Saints and Angels seem to have this much in common.

Anyway, what I mean is - Therese and Gemmas’ persona’s and attitudes (will, intellect, etc) are probably more appealing in many ways than their physical appearances. It’s like - on top of the way they looked - the things they talked and wrote about are more important, and those aspects of their personality will not go away. They carry it with them even now in heaven.

So, yeah, it’s a strange question, but I still wonder…
 
Bl_Pope_Pius_IX said:
St. Therese is prettier, I think.

I often pray to St. Therese and also St. Philomena, another young lady saint who died so young.

Another Saintly Beauty is St. Bernadette Soubirous. I’ve thought about it as well but try to turn those thoughts in to admiration for God’s creation.
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maybe i will check out those saints. We were wonderfully made, but everything must be done in moderation.
Peace
 
William777 said:
Ermmm… I know this may sound a little strange, but - is it a sin to have a crush on a Lady Saint?

Sometimes I have this thing going on in my mind between Saint Gemma Galgani and Saint Therese of Lisieux - trying to figure out which one was prettier. :o

I think Saint Therese was obviously a woman of outstanding faith, and she was cute as a button. But, seriously, when I look at Saint Gemma of Galgani’s picture, her eyes just about make me melt. And, when I read about her life story, I really kind of fall in love with her - perhaps moreso than Saint Therese. I honestly think she’s probably one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen - taken cumulatively, that is, both inside and out…

The strange thing is - well, they’re both pretty much spoken for… They’re both three times my age… and… I dont know that it is exactly right to feel certain affections for souls so Holy… But, then, it’s also kind of difficult to not feel some sort of attraction…

Does anyone out there have any positive advice on the matter?

BTW, I am 43, disabled and unmarried, and I doubt I ever will marry. But I do wish I had a female figure to talk with. Priests have told me to talk with the Blessed Mother when I am feeling down, but I feel like too unworthy to approach the Immaculate Conception. Therese seems a bit rambunctious. I was thinking Gemma might be more the right Saint to whom to pray.

Does any of this make any sense at all?

:confused:
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i just check st Gemma, wow! She looks great! Maybe some day in heaven i will tell her i thought she looks great and we will all have a good laugh.
Peace
 
There is nothing wrong with being attracted too or admiring the physical or inner beauty of these two saints, so long as it is not lust-induced or obsessive in nature. What you say seems to me to be rather innocent. I would only worry if it causes you distress.

We once had a young woman on CAF who had a purely physical “crush” on Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Blessed Alberto Marvelli ie these two handsome fellas:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Pier Giorgio



Alberto Marvelli

Again, nothing wrong with this since they are good looking people. God is seen through the beauty of created things, which can be admired so long as this is not taken to excess and worshipped instead of the Creator. Its natural to be attracted to people of the opposite gender, whether for their physical beauty or personal traits, even saints.

Saints are after all ordinary human beings like the rest of us, except that they have led lives of heroic virtue and received deification in Christ.
 
Bl_Pope_Pius_IX said:
Another Saintly Beauty is St. Bernadette Soubirous.
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St Bernadette was actually the one who lead me back to church.

I used to be afraid to ask for miracles. I was frightened that if I saw a miracle in my life, then how would I know whether it was from God or not? But, when I saw her in her own incorrupt state, I felt as if I were looking at an objective miracle, regardless of my own individuality.

God consoled my fear by letting me know of St Bernadette.

Another unique kind of inner beauty.
 
Ubenedictus said:
i just check st Gemma, wow! She looks great! Maybe some day in heaven i will tell her i thought she looks great and we will all have a good laugh.
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I didnt want to post the pic - but - told ya… 🙂 See what I mean? Kind of hard not to want to fall down on one’s knees and start praying real hard… honestly…

But it’s also worth noting she also had a very hard life, and died very young (23 y/o) from spinal tuberculosis. A Passionist Nun, she lived in terrible pain during her last few years, and she was known for uniting her sufferings to those of Christ on the Cross, which is the Catholic prescription for treating an illness which medical science cannot address. So she is also a healer. In some ways, I am surprised St Therese gets so much attention because St Gemma was one of her contemporaries, they died about the same age, and they died almost under similar circumstances, and they both seem to have attractive/charismatic qualities to them. So it’s kind of hard to fathom why one would be more or less popular than the other.

Am sorry if I am talking of her too much, but, again, I really like St Gemma… and just would like to share finding the “Gem of Christ” (as she is sometimes called) with others…
 
Ha, I can’t believe I’m reading this. I just about died when you said St. Gemma Galgani. I’ve been praying to her every day, many times a day, for a couple months now. And I was seriously thinking the exact same thing. I almost feel an infatuation towards her. AND I WAS HONESTLY WONDERING THIS SAME EXACT QUESTION! But my attraction is not because of her appearance. I honestly never thought she was the least bit attractive physically (I hope she doesn’t get mad at me for saying that, ha). But I just feel such a connection to her.

I’m only 22 by the way. I’m a student, a very very hard working student, and I’ve had some serious back pain every single day for over a year now because of fractures in my spine. I pray to her for assistance in my studies and for healing of my spinal injuries. I pray to her when I work out every day, for protection and stabilization of my spine. I have between 2 and 4 fractures in my L4-L5, yet I’m somehow able to lift an inhuman amount of weight for my body size. When I don’t pray, when I forget to pray, I am noticeably weaker. My doctor has told me that as long as weight lifting doesn’t further aggravate my spine, that it’s ok for me to keep doing it.

Sometimes I honestly feel like she’s my best friend. I literally have a love for her the way we love our friends on earth. Thinking about her makes me smile. I seriously feel like I know her, and she knows me. And when I think of all this, I can’t help but feel infatuated. I think it speaks volumes of her influence and her spiritual activity this very day, that other people share this feeling towards her.

Pray to this woman, she is a magnificent Saint. She was a mystic in life and is too in death.
 
FaithBuild18 said:
I honestly never thought she was the least bit attractive physically.
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Really? She looks gorgeous to me 😊

However I agree that it is her soul which is the real beauty, her devotion to Christ, her innocence, her goodness etc.
 
Vouthon said:
Really? She looks gorgeous to me 😊

However I agree that it is her soul which is the real beauty, her devotion to Christ, her innocence, her goodness etc.
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Haha. I tried google imaging her to see what it is I’m not seeing that the rest of you guys apparently are seeing. After seeing other pictures of her that I hadn’t seen before, I guess she’s kind of attractive… if I look really hard. I will say that her eyes are almost paralyzing. But I find that more so cool and spiritually engaging than attractive.

I’ve been destroyed by our culture. Going through high school, and college this past decade… and seeing the way girls present themselves… I’ve been completely destroyed by it. I’ve lusted myself so deep into sin that I feel… just disgusting…rotten, trashy, unworthy… so far gone. My eyes have been so tainted by evil that I probably can’t even recognize authentic beauty when it’s right in front of my face. 😦
 
FaithBuild18 said:
Haha. I tried google imaging her to see what it is I’m not seeing that the rest of you guys apparently are seeing. After seeing other pictures of her that I hadn’t seen before, I guess she’s kind of attractive… if I look really hard. I will say that her eyes are almost paralyzing. But I find that more so cool and spiritually engaging than attractive.

I’ve been destroyed by our culture. Going through high school, and college this past decade… and seeing the way girls present themselves… I’ve been completely destroyed by it. I’ve lusted myself so deep into sin that I feel… just disgusting…rotten, trashy, unworthy… so far gone. My eyes have been so tainted by evil that I probably can’t even recognize authentic beauty when it’s right in front of my face. 😦
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😊 No worries my dear brother. I find your story and special devotion to this saint very inspiring. I will keep you in my prayers, for your studies and your weightlifting. You remind me of Samson lol 😛 ie when his hair was cut off he lost his strength, when you cease praying you lose your strength.

I agree that modern culture has made girls feel that they have to act in a certain highly sexualized manner.

I am 20 by the way, so we are similar in age 🙂

Back pain is a terrible ailment. I’m suffering with lower back pain myself. My brother has it too. So, I know what its like. :o

The kind of spiritual relationship which you have with Saint Gemma, is very similar to the one I have always had with Saint Joan of Arc.
 
Well I don’t see how just finding someone from the past to be pretty or to have a beautiful soul could be bad. I’ve had little, innocent crushes on certain men in history. As long as you don’t have purposeful impure thoughts or feelings about them, I don’t think its bad (anyone, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).

Your admiration for them is actually kind of sweet, but I think you should try to find a good woman in the present to talk to as well. Even if she’s just a friend, it’s just nice to have someone of the opposite sex to talk to.

God bless you William 🙂
 
Gemma is definitely a looker, Saint Therese…I really would like to hang out with, she just looks like she would be a lot of fun to talk to.
 
I’ve never heard of St Gemma so of course I did a bing search to see pictures of her. She was beautiful inside and out. If the eyes are the window to the soul, her’s are wide open.

Now I know who to pray to about my back. Thanks
 
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