Writings about the Saints

[Tis_Bearself]

I don’t see any point in being Negative Nancy about it. Most people who are sincerely interested in emulating the saints aren’t looking for faults to prove that the saint isn’t so great. Instead, they just want to see an example of somebody else who overcame a fault or managed to succeed without being perfect.

It’s like when you hear that some famous celebrity had to overcome social anxiety or dyslexia. You don’t point to the person and say, “See, she’s not so great, she has dyslexia”. Instead you say, “wow, that person overcame dyslexia and still became a big success.”

 

[TK421]

I am wondering how people on CAF feel about books that are written about the Saints that “romanticize” their lives. Do you think it’s pious or that it’s a disservice to us by sometimes only showing us the good things about the Saints.

Saints come from an enormous variety of backgrounds, some of which included extremely sinful ones.
By ordinary standards, any faults they had by their end of their lives would have been very minor. That is to say: the fruits of relying on the graces from God were concrete and apparent in their lives by rooting out their imperfections.

Peace.

 

[angel12]

I don’t know maybe to make saints seem less holy and make less of a standard. Most posts here seem to suggest that they want them to be more realistic.

“More realistic” doesn’t mean adding faults. It means recognizing those that are there. It can give great hope to those struggling with the same issues.

 

[Mtdobbs]

It’s like writing an Incomplete history book or a biased biography. It’s usually a disservice.

Even the thorn in the flesh of St Paul wasn’t omitted.