On Lunacy and Sanctity

A pairing of states which, though perhaps odd, is not mutually exclusive:

...The purpose of canonization is not to present the faithful with a small group of uniformly pious, bland, safe personalities in order that we may all become cookie-cutter images of saccharine devotion. There are madmen and women singing the perpetual Holy Holy Holy before the throne of God. It would be totally unrealistic, not to mention unfair, if there weren’t. The canonization of a crazy person doesn’t suggest that in order to become holy, we ought to be crazy – and I don’t think that anyone reading St. Christina’s life is likely to be inspired to climb into ovens to escape the stink of human corruption. It’s clear that the woman is totally insane; what she offers is not an image of piety that the ordinary, sane Catholic can imitate, but an image of sanctity that expands and demolishes our prejudices.

There is a widespread tendency for Catholics, and all Christians really, to believe that sanctity and sanity are somehow co-extensive. You can have any sort of physical ailment in the world and still be a Saint – it is simply considered a legitimate cross. Mental illness is a different matter. Amongst the ultra-conservative, it is liable to be seen as a manifestation of demonic possession, or at least interference, whilst the liberal are more likely to take a kindly, but ultimately condescending view of persons with mental illness, as poor, suffering souls who ought to be treated with compassion and led up the ladder to the higher levels of self-integration and fulfillment.

The truth is, a lot of Saints suffered mentally as well as physically. Some were crippled with anxieties. Others were plagued with a guilt that was more pathological than theological. Some suffered from severe sexual hang-ups. Some were obviously obsessive compulsive. But so what? Heaven is not the in-club for the high-fliers on Maslow’s pyramid. It’s a place where the crippled, the lame, the leprous, the crucified, the tormented and the mad are lifted up, their sufferings redeemed, and their earthly trials transformed into a sublime and inconceivable beauty.

St. Christina the Astonishing, pray for us.