Saints Behaving Badly: The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil-Worshippers Who Became Saints [Hardcover]

Tom Craughwell gives hope to all of us--who as we alone know are the worst of sinners, that there is still a chance that if we turn to God we can be saints! I know what you're thinking, "How could I ever be a saint?" Or maybe you're thinking "How could he ever be a saint?" Good questions. In Saints Behaving Badly: The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil-Worshippers Who Became Saints,just published by Doubleday, Tom Craughwill gives the answers.The list of the evils that some saints engaged in before their conversion is long: thievery, embezzling, satanists, promiscuity, idolatry, drunkedness and even anti-popery. The list brings to mind St. Paul "Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God" and what follows "And such some of you were; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6: 9-11). Indeed! Craughwell's book is filled with both the well known (Augustine, Patrick, Francis of Assisi,Ignatius of Loyola) and the lesser known (Callixtus, Pelagia, Genesius, Fabiola). From the latter group is the story of St. Pelagia, an actress who before her conversion lived a life of rather loose morals. One can readily think of a number of similar actors, actresses, rock stars, politicians who might be the Pelagia's of today--whose popularity is matched by the wanton lifestyle they lead--leading others down a path of self-destruction. What keeps them and us from following Pelagia's path to saintdom--perhaps this event related by Craughwell provides a hint:

That night the devil woke Pelagia. "What evil have I ever done to you?" he asked. "Tell me how I have offended, and I will give you whatever you want. Only do not leave me. Do not make me a laughingstock."

Most of us would probably believe that lie--and if you do you might need to read another book that has just been published by Ascension Press, Interview With an Exorcist. Pelagia didn't need that book, but she knew what to do:

Pelagia made the sign of the cross and drove the devil away.

Of course this exactly what Saints Behaving Badly does for the reader, it gives them a solid lesson in Christian spirituality by showing them how the great saints have overcome the very evils that plague many of us. It is a catechism of a different source, a real page turner and in the end a book that can change your life.

Saints Behaving Badly is one of those books which stay in your thoughts long after the last page has been read. We have all heard of saints and admired them for their unselfish deeds and lifestyle. As a child I grew up with learning about every saint and could tell you verse by verse what good deeds were associated with each and everyone of them. This book keeps them in their Sainthood where they belong but adds a human element to them which completes the picture of their lives. By adding the human touch he has given us a new look at saints and made them more accesible to all of us . Mr. Craughwell has honored them by portraying them less like icons on a pedestal and more like everyday people who had their strengths and weaknesses. It is an amazing book and one which will answer the question: Are saints people too?

There's a lot of truth in the statement that evil, badness, and imperfection are more interesting than goodness and perfection. While it's of course inspiring to read about exemplary people, saints or not, doesn't it get boring to read about someone who supposedly was flaw-free and always squeaky-clean, ultra-moral, and basically just unrealistically good? Flaws make a person more interesting, multi-faceted, and human. (And the reason why oft-times sin is so sweet and seductive in the beginning is because the Devil himself is said to be so charismatic and physically attractive.) This book proves that theory by presenting the lives of 25 saints (and two not-quite-saints with the title "Blessed" and another with the title "Venerable") who weren't always very nice people or leading very upright lives. They're presented warts and all, whatever their vices were (alcoholism, being a mass murderer, being a con man, gambling, hedonism, egotism, et al), along with the accounts of how they came to turn their lives around and the good deeds they did after their conversions or returning to their former faith. A few of them had to go through the process of repentance more than once, since the first conversion didn't always take, as in cases like St. Olaf and St. Alipius. (St. Olaf, it is mentioned, probably wouldn't have made the cut had he not lived in the 11th century, as back then a bishop was allowed to canonise people from his own diocese, to kind of give the people their own local saint, someone who really spoke to them as St. Olaf did to the Norse.) This book also clears up the misinformation a lot of people have about St. Christopher; until I read this book, I too had believed that he had never existed and was one of the made-up saints who got expunged from the calendar after 1969.

The saints covered in this book cover a wide range of history, and each person is placed in his or her historical and geographical context, which as a historian I really appreciated. It lets the reader know a little more about the forces that shaped the person and the types of things going on in the world at the time. Along with well-known saints like Christopher, Ignatius of Loyola, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Becket (whose name was never Thomas à Becket, as I discovered), and Patrick, we also get tales of lesser-known saints such as Fabiola, Columba, Pelagia, Genesius, and Margaret of Cortona. And as a Russophile and someone whose field of expertise in history is Russian history, I especially enjoyed the chapters on St. Olga and her grandson St. Vladimir. Who would have ever known that the woman revered for bringing Christianity to Russia started out as a mass murderer and that her grandson, who brought to fruition what Olga had started, was a rapist, the proud owner of a huge harem, and a practioner of human sacrifice? (I'd already known he committed fratricide, but not those other things!) Some of my other favorites included St. Camillus (who, after he mended his ways, brought modern humane health care and hospitals to Rome), St. John of God (who also was a pioneer in the field of health care in an age where many hospitals were just places people went to die, with little care given to their humane treatment or attempts made to help them to recover), St. Peter Claver (who ministered to the slaves brought to the New World, one of the few people to treat them with kindness and like human beings instead of animals or dirty sub-humans), and St. Moses the Ethiopian (who went from fearsome warrior to a monk and a pacifist).

Some people find it preferrable to whitewash over the faults of important people, as though someone the likes of a saint can do no wrong, or as though someone might feel influenced to imitate those same bad behaviors, but these saints seem more interesting as people because both their faults and their positive attributes are described. If a mass murderer, a lover of blood sports, a gang leader, a war-monger, a Viking, and a practioner of human sacrifice can not only completely turn their lives around but also make the cut as saints, it gives hope to people whose sins and imperfections suddenly don't seem that awful in comparison.

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