But my point is, these were acts that were considered to be of good faith, and were not necessarily repented of, as the saints would have gone to their death believing that their atrocities were actually good works. Having done some research, I have read that there is dispute, for example, about whether or not Dominic personally oversaw/participated in the auto-de-fe ceremonies or whether Cyril was personally responsible for the mistreatment of the Jews… but for example, St. Thomas Aquinas believed that the act of burning heretics was justifiable because it would prevent the spread of heresy and thus prevent the damnation of many souls… however such actions are gravely contrary to the teachings of Christ… one of the requirements for sainthood is that they must be exemplary and not teach things that are incorrect, etc. and murdering someone for their beliefs is pretty gravely contrary to Christianity. Unless he repented of such a position, or such a deed (if he was ever responsible for it) then how could he be canonized a saint?
Saints were not saints while they were alive. They were sinners. Every single instance of their lives was not untouched by sin – or even by incorrect belief.
Where did you get your requirements for sainthood from? It would exclude many saints, St Paul is one outstanding example of someone murdering others for their beliefs (as Saul, he persecuted and murdered the earliest Christians before his conversion). And there are others.
Perhaps your view of the earthly life of saints is clouded by romantic, treacly notions of holiness? I’d recommend reading
Saints Behaving Badly: The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil-Worshippers Who Became Saints as a way to disabuse yourself of that notion and to see God’s grace at work even within the worst of us.
Saints are not born, they are made. And many, as Saints Behaving Badly reveals, were made of very rough materials indeed. The first book to lay bare the less than saintly behavior of thirty-two venerated holy men and women, it presents the scandalous, spicy, and sleazy detours they took on the road to sainthood.
In nineteenth- and twentieth-century writings about the lives of the saints, authors tended to go out of their way to sanitize their stories, often glossing over the more embarrassing cases with phrases such as, “he/she was once a great sinner.” In the early centuries of the Church and throughout the Middle Ages, however, writers took a more candid and spirited approach to portraying the saints. Exploring sources from a wide range of periods and places, Thomas Craughwell discovered a veritable rogues gallery of sinners-turned-saint. There’s St. Olga, who unleashed a bloodbath on her husband’s assassins; St. Mary of Egypt, who trolled the streets looking for new sexual conquests; and Thomas Becket, who despite his vast riches refused to give his cloak to a man freezing to death in the street.
Written with wit and respect (each profile ends with what inspired the saint to give up his or her wicked ways) and illustrated with amusing caricatures, Saints Behaving Badly will entertain, inform, and even inspire Catholic readers across America.
The saints were very human in many respects.
