Saints with SSA

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confusedcatholic1

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Are there any saints with SSA who powered through it with God’s Grace? I am wondering because I suffer SSA and am trying to choose a Confirmation Saint.
 
No but St Joseph would be good as he would have to have lived extremely chastely with Mary.
 
St. Mary of Egypt is said that, before her conversion, aside from men she had also been with women and not just for money but also for pleasure. Actually the writings about her state she told St. Zosima that her sinful behavior with both men and women was not just for money but for pleasure. So amidst all that she definitely must have had SSA too and caved in to it but then found remorse for it all and is Graced by God to help people who are facing challenges regarding looseness of body and soul.
 
You don’t need a saint with ssa, there are many saints who fought chastity.
 
There are several who are suspected of having it, including St. John Henry Newman, St. Ailred of Riveaulx, some other monastics, and some male pairs of early Christian martyrs who were living in some sort of strong relationship before their conversions. It can be difficult to tell however, since in some eras and cultures people wrote very flowery expressions of romantic love for friends with no expectation or thought of sexual attraction to them.

There’s no reason to think any of these saints were un-chaste. St. John Henry Newman especially would not have been canonized if there’d been any evidence he was not chaste. I believe he said before he died that he didn’t think he had ever committed a mortal sin, and I’m sure in the context of his times he would have definitely thought of gay sexual relations as a mortal sin (it was illegal then as well as immoral).
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
It’s not somehow wrong to suggest that some past saints probably struggled with this sort of temptation.
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I never said it was. I myself have been looking for a married male saint who struggled with chastity but cannot find one so I found some women who were never married but have chastity as their patronage.
 
Fair enough, then. If I run across any married male saints who struggled with chastity, I’ll let you know. I am always looking up saints.
 
Ok, in my opinion and from everything I’ve read about him I would not be at all surprised if he had this struggle. It’s actually ok if he did, he led a holy and exemplary life. There is nothing wrong with saints having SSA if they did
 
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Our modern society screams bloody murder if someone has a sexual inclination, yet cannot act this out physically — “every itch must be scratched”. I myself have to live in perfect continence, in that I am divorced with no annulment. That has not always been to my liking — and all of society outside of faithful, orthodox Catholics would have been “cool and the gang” with my finding an illicit spouse and marrying invalidly outside the Church — but it is what it is, and I can either embrace it, or reject it and damn my soul. Simple as that. Unpleasant as it might be, anyone who has a longing that can never be satisfied without committing sin has to do likewise. We need to be very, very supportive of these people’s struggle to live chastely.
 
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I think for historical reasons, people didn’t publicly discuss experiencing SSA until so recently that no such person has yet been identified as a saint. I imagine the first saints we’ll know about for sure who experienced SSA are those from our generation. You might find yourself a future Confirmation Saint for others 🙂

In the meantime, St. Paul pops into my mind. Not because we have valid reason to think he struggled with SSA, but because he struggled with something, that wasn’t lifted from him, and by not mentioning what it was, he allows us all to relate to him in different ways.

2 Corinthians 12:5-10
I will boast about such a man, but I will not boast about myself, except in my weaknesses. Even if I wanted to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me, or because of these surpassingly great revelations.

So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.”

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
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May God bless you as you approach your Confirmation! 🙂
 
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