Sinners and Saints

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MeganKichler

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:blush:Don’t know if this is the right forum, but I’m going through my RCIA classes and was told to pick a saint’s name for confirmation. Anyway, I was wondering if there were any Saints who were major sinners? I mean, I used to be a not so great person. I did drugs, didn’t respect my parents, had sex outside of marriage, denounced my Christian upbringing (southern baptist) and totally shut God out of my life. Then about 6 years ago I gave it all up, and slowly came back to God. My friend took me to Mass a couple of years ago and I was so accepted that, after going and researching for a couple of years (again I was S. Baptist, and you know what they say abt. catholics…) I decided to become catholic myself. Anyway, I need someone who I can relate to, someone who went through a lot and with the help of God came out of it. I wasn’t pure my whole life. I just can’t find anything on saints who had a major tranformation…
 
MeganKichler said:
:blush:Don’t know if this is the right forum, but I’m going through my RCIA classes and was told to pick a saint’s name for confirmation. Anyway, I was wondering if there were any Saints who were major sinners? I mean, I used to be a not so great person. I did drugs, didn’t respect my parents, had sex outside of marriage, denounced my Christian upbringing (southern baptist) and totally shut God out of my life. Then about 6 years ago I gave it all up, and slowly came back to God. My friend took me to Mass a couple of years ago and I was so accepted that, after going and researching for a couple of years (again I was S. Baptist, and you know what they say abt. catholics…) I decided to become catholic myself. Anyway, I need someone who I can relate to, someone who went through a lot and with the help of God came out of it. I wasn’t pure my whole life.** I just can’t find anything on saints who had a major tranformation**…
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The first name that popped into my head is St. Paul. Talk about a major transformation! And he continued to recognize the sin within him - from Romans 7

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Not being Catholic, I don’t know the parameters you are to follow when making your choice, but I just thought I’d add this.

Let me finally say that i give thanks that He has brought you out of the low time in your life that you spoke about, and may you be blessed in your confirmation, and a life filled with the grace which comes from word and sacrament.

Jon
 
Thanks! God has surely blessed me for oulling through. I give thanks every day!
 
I can’t believe this is the second time I get to post this.

No sinner without a future, and no Saint without a past.

Every Saint had something in their past. They were all human after all.
 
MeganKichler said:
:blush:Don’t know if this is the right forum, but I’m going through my RCIA classes and was told to pick a saint’s name for confirmation. Anyway, I was wondering if there were any Saints who were major sinners?
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There is Saint Mary of Egypt.

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She was born in the 4th century. She ran away from her home town of Alexandria, Egypt at the age of 12, to become a prostitute. She was a prostitute for 17 years. She wasn’t a believer and she went to Jerusalem just to look for people to have sex with. Even heading to the Church of Holy Sepulcher (the Church built on the burial sight of Jesus) but for some reason she couldn’t enter because of an unseen force. She realized it was because of her sin. She was filled with guilt. She saw a picture of the virgin Mary outside. She prayed for forgiveness and when she tried to go in, she could finally was allowed in. She went to a monastery, went to confession, was absolved of her sins, and received communion.
 
that’s very true. I guess I never really looked at it that way… It’s just that every time I read about most saints, it just talks about how good and pious they always were. Or what they suffered at the hands of others. Rarely do they talk about battling your own demons, ya know?
 
St. Margaret of Cortona is one of my favorites. Here’s the beginning of her life from the Catholic Encyclopedia from New Advent:
A penitent of the Third Order of St. Francis, born at Laviano in Tuscany in 1247; died at Cortona, 22 February, 1297. At the age of seven years Margaret lost her mother and two years later her father married a second time. Between the daughter and her step-mother there seems to have been but little sympathy or affection, and Margaret was one of those natures who crave affection. When about seventeen years of age she made the acquaintance of a young cavalier, who, some say, was a son of Gugliemo di Pecora, lord of Valiano, whith whom she one night fled from her father’s house. Margaret in her confessions does not mention her lover’s name. For nine years she lived with him in his castle near Montepulciano, and a son was born to them. Frequently she besought her lover to marry her; he as often promised to do so, but never did…
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The article goes on for two more paragraphs. Just go to NewAdvent, click on Encyclopedia at the top of the page, and then go to the M’s to search for her name.

God bless you!

Gertie
 
Wow! I never thought I’d get so much support! Thanks everyone for not judging me. Some people in my own family do not forgive me, though it never really directly involved them outside of being related to me. I went through some really rough times, and I’ve paid a pretty heavy price. Living without the Light of God in my life was the worst! It’s been a hard struggle, but I am glad to know that there are people who don’t even know me who support me and help to lift me up! Godd bless every single one of you!
 
I too have “a past” and have found both consolation and advice from the Saints’ lives and writings. Along with finding a few Saints like myself (St. Mary Magdalene, St. Augustine, St. Margaret of Cortona), I have also developed a great love for those who maintained their purity of body and soul throughout their lives – St. Clare of Assisi, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Maria Goretti, Blessed Jacinta of Fatima…

God bless you!

Gertie
 
MeganKichler said:
:blush:Don’t know if this is the right forum, but I’m going through my RCIA classes and was told to pick a saint’s name for confirmation. Anyway, I was wondering if there were any Saints who were major sinners? I mean, I used to be a not so great person. I did drugs, didn’t respect my parents, had sex outside of marriage, denounced my Christian upbringing (southern baptist) and totally shut God out of my life. Then about 6 years ago I gave it all up, and slowly came back to God. My friend took me to Mass a couple of years ago and I was so accepted that, after going and researching for a couple of years (again I was S. Baptist, and you know what they say abt. catholics…) I decided to become catholic myself. Anyway, I need someone who I can relate to, someone who went through a lot and with the help of God came out of it. I wasn’t pure my whole life. I just can’t find anything on saints who had a major tranformation…
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First of all, welcome. And blessings on those who lived their Catholic faith and made you feel accepted.

I second the recommendation of St Augustine. Here is a quote from him that says it all about his earlier life:

“I became evil for no reason. I had no motive for my wickedness except wickedness itself. It was foul, and I loved it. I loved the self-destruction, I loved my fall, not the object for which I had fallen but my fall itself. My depraved soul leaped down from your firmament to ruin. I was seeking not to gain anything by shameful means, but shame for its own sake.”
-Confessions

You will discover in the Catholic Church an embarrassment of riches in the lives of the saints. Be very excited! 🙂
 
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