Reply To: Book 17: What does this label mean?
I must confess to not having a great concept of sainthood, so therefore I’ve had to do some homework! I looked up some things about what constitutes a saint, and found that it means different things to different people, but the basic definition, according to Britannica.com, is that a saint is a “holy person, believed to have a special relationship to the sacred as well as moral perfection or exceptional teaching abilities.” Applying that to Haniya and Vincent is tricky. Vincent has been an exceptional teacher in his lifetime, and found a certain state of grace in his work at La Porte and his care of his patients; Haniya courageously, selflessly, saved others and it is her mission to continue to do so, and she does educate others through her example. They both seem to have that special relationship to the sacred in their desire to help others. And yet, moral perfection seems to elude them. they can both be petty and malicious at times, and both are egotistical and have superiority complexes. Armand has said before that all saints are/were assholes in their own ways. But could they be, and still be morally perfect? Or is it simply that some were so perfect that they made others nervous and jealous, so they decided they were assholes? That is not the case with Vincent and Haniya; they really are assholes at times. So I’m not sure either of them quite meet the criteria of saint, while they do at times meet the criteria of asshole! It only works if you apply the “or” in that definition — can they be morally perfect OR exceptional teachers, not both, to be a saint? In that case, they probably qualify. That said, they both have remarkable depths of goodness in them, and are valuable people who have done remarkable things, saints or not.