By this I mean, has there ever been anyone made a saint and years (or decades or centuries) later, people found out the saint had a scandalous past? Like maybe he was an axe murderer or a child killer?
I don’t really care which religion but I was just wondering.
Pope Pius XII has been named venerable (one of the steps towards canonization) and has been proposed for that. There has been much complaint that he didn’t oppose the Nazis enough perhaps even that he was a collaborator. I haven’t followed things too closely.
I’m sure if one looks back far enough in history, there must be some saints who did things that were quite scandalous by modern standards like the Spanish Inquisition, but I don’t have specific incidents in mind.
There have been some saints who were de-sainted (whatever that’s called). I believe these were all cases of thinking the person was mythical or his exploits were, rather than scandalous though.
Oh hell, sometimes it’s their very scandalousness (by today’s standards) that gets them Sainthood!
Who was that Irish Saint who pushed a girl off the cliff his cave was on? Because he was so holy (or because she was an annoying nag).
Funnily enough, googling irish saint pushed girl off cliff lead me right to it: Kevin of Glendalough.
Not sure if this really counts, but there’s St. Guinefort, who was venerated locally in France (even had his own feast day) but never actually canonized. Not bad for a dog!
Probably the closest example is Simon of Trent. Young boy who disappeared one day. Local Jews were blamed, rounded up, and forced to confess under torture. Fifteen eventually burned at the stake. Quote wiki: “Meanwhile, Simon became the focus of veneration for the local Catholic Church. The local bishop, Hinderbach of Trent, tried to have Simon canonized, producing a large body of documentation of the event and its aftermath. Over one hundred miracles were directly attributed to Saint Simon within a year of his disappearance, and his cult spread across Italy, Austria and Germany. However, there was initial skepticism and Pope Sixtus IV sent Bishop of Ventimiglia, a learned Dominican, to investigate. The veneration was restored in 1588 by the Franciscan Pope Sixtus V. The ‘saint’ was eventually considered a martyr and a patron of kidnap and torture victims.” However, “The Pope removed Simon from the Calendar of Saints in 1965. Simon of Trent does not appear in the new Roman Martyrology of 2000, nor on any modern Catholic calendar.”
Prior to “finding God,” St Augustine was a horn dog. He had famous nasty parties, noted for orgies and drunken revelry. He later straightened up and became revered as a Doctor of the Church.
I don’t know about his moral (or immoral) behavior, but before Saul fell off his horse on the way to Damascus, saw Jesus, and became St Paul, he was a persecutor of the followers of Christ. Not a good guy.
~VOW
Whose scandalous saints?
Read up on Saint Olga of Kiev. After her husband was murdered by the Drevlians, she went on what TV Tropes would call a roaring rampage of revenge. She buried people alive, burned others to death in a bathhouse, murdered a bunch of people at a banquet, burned down towns, took lots of slaves, etc.
After that, she converted to Christianity, and converted the rest of Russia to it as well.
I am not sure if it is quite what you are looking for, but lots of saints led quite dissolute lives for a while, then repented and got all holy later on. St Augustine has already been mentioned; St Francis of Assisi would be another. This is quite a standard pattern really, and not considered scandalous. It fits the standard Christian narrative of a sinner who repents and is saved. In a way, you are supposed to start out as a sinner.
Perhaps it only ought to count as scandalous, then, if someone got naughty after being recognized as saintly. But, normally someone only gets officially recognized as a saint long after they are dead, and it is too late to do anything scandalous. Also, these days, there is a careful investigation to make sure that there is not anything scandalous that could come out and embarrass the Church (although things were a lot more casual back in the dark ages, and some scandalous figures probably slipped into sainthood, as several did into the papacy).
From Wikipedia: “He was given the name Coemgen, which means “gentle one””
There were plenty of bloodthirsty Saints, e.g. King Olaf II of Norway. But point them in the right direction, and they’re somebody else’s problem.
I’ve noticed most people with strong opioions on this seem to have a bone to pick. While he may or may not have “done enough,” we was not “Hitler’s Pope”, the mutual animosity between the men was apparent.
Trying to find examples of this, but blanking on the names. In this case, they aren’t removed from the rolls so much as talked about less.
Then there’s some, like Saint Dismas (San Dimas High School football rules!) who were never given a name until much, much later.
After the TANTRUM that woman had, I don’t wonder people converted when she offered the opportunity!
~VOW
“Lord, grant me the virtue of chastity … but not just yet.” – St, Augustine of Hippo
Your query reminds me of this citation from Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary, although I can’t vouch for its accuracy:
Cite (among other places) : The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Well, St. Paul got his start by killing/harassing Christians.
Lal Ded, the Shaiva saint of Kashmir, didn’t wear any clothes. When asked if she didn’t feel shy that men could see her naked, she answered “I don’t see any men.”