What is a saint? Many people upon hearing this curious word "saint" cringe. To them, saints are one-dimensional, sometimes even vaguely creepy people who are uncomfortable to be around. They have one track minds and are other than human. They exist on a different plane where they have no real appreciation of how ordinary folk live. Saints are rigid creatures who don’t know the agonies and eccentricities of life. Those who feel this way about sainthood are likely to say, with a hint of disdain – and pride – "I’m NO saint!"

Then there are people who think the saints exist in a type of rosy glow. They exude sentiment from holy cards and would be quite at home with sweet Hallmark greetings. To this audience the saints are always kind and gentle and never have a rotten thought. Supermen, but elevated even higher, the saints are miraculous figures whose feet never really touched the ground. People who have this image probably also think of our Lord in rosy glows – eerily adrogynous, with stylized features and a perfect complexion. This is the Jesus whom Dorothy Sayers describes (in the wonderful The Whimsical Christian) as someone whom we have declared and "certified 'meek and mild’…a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies."

If you perceive sainthood as an undesirable attribute or think of saints as one-dimensional shadows of real human beings, you probably have never met cantankerous Saint Jerome or firebrand Saint John the Baptist, anxious and tormented Padre Pio or wry Saint Teresa, joke-cracking bishop Saint Laurence O’Toole or achingly grateful Saint Mary Magdalen, brainy and poetic Saint Thomas Aquinas or indomitable Saint Catherine of Siena, moody Saint Augustine, playful Saint Therese or mad Saint John of God. Perhaps you did not know that among the saints there are people who, rather than being meek and mild, are rather ferocious. Among the saints there are also great wits, addle-brained dreamers, foolish oafs, mischievous curmudgeons, radical crusaders, shy artists, and passionate poets. There are housewives and kings, tax agents and lawyers (yes, lawyers!), bakers and brigands.