Saints who struggled to become saintly

[ktp]

I’d love some ideas for a project I’m working on. I’m looking for saints who really struggled to become holy. As I read their stories, it seems so many of them had an unusual thirst for God from very early on, such as St. Rita, St. Therese or St. Catherine of Sienna. And of those who became saintly later, it often seems there was a dramatic and instantaneous turn around, such as Saul on the road to Damascus.

Did any of them really struggle with saying the Rosary, reading the Bible, being charitable and forgiving? I’m sure they must have, but could really use specific examples.

Thank you.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

I’d love some ideas for a project I’m working on. I’m looking for saints who really struggled to become holy. As I read their stories, it seems so many of them had an unusual thirst for God from very early on, such as St. Rita, St. Therese or St. Catherine of Sienna. And of those who became saintly later, it often seems there was a dramatic and instantaneous turn around, such as Saul on the road to Damascus.

Did any of them really struggle with saying the Rosary, reading the Bible, being charitable and forgiving? I’m sure they must have, but could really use specific examples.

Thank you.

St. Therese of Lisieux had quite a struggle and with ordinary everyday things like stopping herself from crying due to her sensitive nature, struggling with a nun near her in prayer time who rattled her rosary beads, a nun in the laundry who was rather careless and tended to splash her with laundry water…there are other incidences too of St. Therese and her struggle for holiness although she was endowed with a thirst for God from an early age, she still had many struggles against quite rather ordinary things. She wrote that her life was strewn with thorns and ‘p(name removed by moderator)ricks’ as she struggled with her own nature. Her autobiography is quite beautiful to read.
There are other saints too I know who had a struggle…St. Augustine who wrote “Lord, make me celibate, but not yet”. St. Therese is my favourite because her outward life to all and sundry was so very ordinary with nothing outstanding. Had she not been asked to write her life story by her prioress prior to her death, we probably never ever would have heard of her. God had other plans.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

They all struggled in their quest for holiness, just as we all do.

As mentioned, St. Theresa struggled with the distractions around her. St Teresa of Avila, would fall asleep during prayers.

Mostly, they struggled with detachment from their own desires, but again, its what we all struggle with.

BTW, most of them did not know that they were holy and would be declared saints.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, perhaps knew he would become a saint, because when the Blessed Mother appeared to him, when he was a young man, she held out two crowns for him. One was the white crown of holiness, the other the red crown of martyrdom. Maximilian told the Blessed Mother, “I’ll take both,” and so he did.

Jim