Saints that used to be very bad

St Mary of Egypt was a prostitute for 17 years.

Also, I seem to recall the story of at least one saint who used to be a pirate leader & at least one saint who was an executioner & repented after witnessing the manner of bodily death of the christian martyrs that he himself executed.

I'll dig a bit & see what I can find online to rephresh my memory and share .

St. Silouvan killed a man and then entered Mt. Athos to repent.
I think it was ruled involuntary manslaughter.

St Varvaros

I'm afraid all I could find about him was in greek, but the following link also has two icons of him (one modern, one seemingly old).

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According to the sites I found, he was an 8th century North African Arab pirate, whose band was plundering the eastern mediterranean coast. On one occation, they landed in Aitolia area (somewhere in nowadays western Greece), but the locals fought the pirates well, killing all but the later-to-be saint, who managed to flee. He subsequently remained on land, making his living by robbing. One day he entered a church during service time in order to plunder it & by Divine Grace he miraculously saw two angels serving together with the priest. This vision brought him to repentance & he was subsequently catechised & baptised. Later he became an ascetic. He was accidentally killed by hunters, who at night mistook him for prey. He is commemorated as a myrrh-gusher & the myrrh from his tomb had healing properties. His remains were taken to Italy in the 16th century by a venetian soldier that he had healed & nowadays they are lost. His memory is especially held in Aitolia and in Corfu, where a miracle attributed to him is still remembered.

His baptismal name Varvaros (=barbarian) is said to have been chosen by him, to remind him of his former deeds and help keep him in repentance.

That's a quick summary. There's more online if you could read greek .

St Cyprian of Nicomedia, before being converted by the holy virgin St Justina, was a dark pagan sorcerer. He tried to send plagues upon holy people and even conversed with Satan himself, before being converted to the true faith. He is commemorated on October 2nd as a hieromartyr.

St. Moses the Black was a runaway slave and the leader of a band of robbers. He was a mighty man who loved to eat and drink excessively. He killed, robbed and committed all evil. No one could stand up before him. When trying to plunder a monastery, he was converted by the abbot, and stayed on as a monk. He was ordained a priest in his old age and founded a monastery in the desert of Egypt, which grew to 75 monks. He foresaw his own death by a party of raiders. He sent the monks out into hiding. Some tried to urge him to hide as well, but he said it was right that he should die by violence since he had committed violence. (Matt. 26:52)

St. Christopher on a quest to serve the mightiest ruler became a servant of the devil until he realized the devil feared the sign of the cross.

St Silouan the Athonite did not kill a man. But, yes, plenty of saints had bad lives. The most famous ones, St Mary of Egypt (she figures very prominently during Great Lent!) and St Moses the Black, have already been mentioned. If you read the desert fathers, there are even a great number who became Christian (or even entered the monastic or clerical ranks), then did terrible things (fornication, murder, theft...), and then repented.

gzt said:

St Silouan the Athonite did not kill a man. But, yes, plenty of saints had bad lives. The most famous ones, St Mary of Egypt (she figures very prominently during Great Lent!) and St Moses the Black, have already been mentioned. If you read the desert fathers, there are even a great number who became Christian (or even entered the monastic or clerical ranks), then did terrible things (fornication, murder, theft...), and then repented.

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Thank you for the correction. He did not kill anyone. He did hurt a man by punching him, but he did not die. He was repentant for his actions. What come mind with the question that was asked is the thief on the cross. The first person the enter paradise.

Not that this helps with the OP, but it should also be kept in mind that there are countless of what I call "silent Saints". Saints that, if their inner lives had been noticed by the Church would have surely been extoled to official Sainthood... they are nonetheless true Saints in how we understand upper-case "S" Saints to be. Among those are surely countless Saints who had terrible lives before that.

I say this only to assure the OP that although only 5 saints have been mentioned so far, this is much more common than we realize. One of the wonderful things about honoring the Saints is not only to honor them but to realize that many of them had nothing more in their lives (or less) than we do to push them towards God. It makes us realize that if they can do it, there is no reason we can't too... especially since it happens more than the Church is able to recognize... did that make sense? Sorry if not.

Joshua

well, if you want saints that did some terrible things, just read the Bible aside from St Paul. that being said, there are also a ton of saints who were the torturers of other saints, who converted as they witnessed the latter's faith in Christ even at their own hands. I mean how many stories are about some saint, who patiently endures persecutions, only to convert the very people that are harming and killing them.

I think St. Augustine (if I remember correctly) was a pretty bad dude before he came to Christ. Regardless of some questionable aspects of some of his theology... THAT's not what makes one holy.

Don't forget St. Augustine of Hippo!

It took him a very long time to overcome his sexual immorality - he liked to party, and he engaged in a lot of promiscuity (prostitutes, women he met, etc.). He also struggled with a lot of pride, being lauded as incredibly smart and rich. He was a real mischief-maker in his youth - stealing things and such. He had a child out of wedlock with a prostitute.

He lamented these sins for the rest of his life. He wrote a lot about them - his Confessions recount his life as he makes an attempt to find God even in his iniquity.

He is one of my favourite Saints for that reason. His conversion took quite awhile, but it was truly made possible by the grace of God.

Gwendolyn... see my post right above yours.

St. Taisia:
Saint Taisia
and
Petronia: Saint Taisia
they have two different stories and feast days though. are they two different people?

Joshua G. said:

Gwendolyn... see my post right above yours.

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lol oops I need to learn how to read.

I think Moses the Black used to be pretty bad before he became a Saint.

I used to be bad too before...oh wait...I'm still bad...bad to the bone!

Hmm is King Solomon a Saint?

Kreikkalainen said:

St Mary of Egypt was a prostitute for 17 years.

Also, I seem to recall the story of at least one saint who used to be a pirate leader & at least one saint who was an executioner & repented after witnessing the manner of bodily death of the christian martyrs that he himself executed.

I'll dig a bit & see what I can find online to rephresh my memory and share .

Click to expand...

I have heard St Mary of Egypt not described as a prostitute as a profession but as a very loose woman. She would sleep with anyone just for the fun of it basically, not even as source of income.

Blessed Fr. Seraphim Rose, though he has not been canonized yet, was an atheist and hated God very much.