The Saints as Modern Role Models
Teaching Virtue, Courage, and Humility to Post-Modern Children
Nov 8, 2009
At a time when role models are equated with sports figures and cinema stars, children and teens have few choices when it comes to selecting a role model. People magazine and TV shows like Entertainment Tonight are a constant reminder that fame and fortune is fleeting. Top rock stars fall prey to drugs and alcohol; admired athletes cheat their way to glory and the Sunday Parade magazine often features interviews with box office giants whose rise to success led to substance abuse and the subsequent long haul back to normalcy.
When seeking a good role model, one may opt to turn toward figures of the past. In this, the saints of the Catholic Church represent alumni of virtue that still inspire some people today. Many hope that Hollywood may still film the life of Father Damien, recently canonized, who gave his life to serve lepers in Hawaii, or perhaps the life of Edith Stein, a Carmelite nun deported to a Nazi death camp.
Saints Provide Characteristics Equated with Ethics Education
For heroism and determination, few saints compare to Francis Xavier, a 16th Century Jesuit who traveled as a missionary to India, Japan, and the islands near the Philippines. He has been compared to St. Paul, the first century Christian leader whose four missionary journeys helped to build the early Christian communities in the Eastern Roman Empire.
Francis Xavier, significantly, denounced the immoral practices of Europeans, notably the Portuguese in India, who were mistreating native peoples and exploiting the weak and the poor. The Jesuits were founded by Ignatius Loyola. Loyola’s own calling from God came as he was recuperating from a wound – and reading the Lives of the Saints.
Humility and Service to Others
Few saints compare in humility and poverty to Francis of Assisi. Esteemed as a servant of God, even Protestant groups like Anglicans and Lutherans hold him up as a role model of virtue. During the height of the Crusades, Francis had the courage to present Christianity to Sultan Malek in Egypt, hoping to evangelize the Muslims.
Similarly, St. Boniface, the “Apostle to the Germans,” spent most of his life as a missionary in Northern Europe, thrusting himself into the heart of hostile barbarian territory. Boniface, like other Benedictines of his time such as St. Patrick of Ireland, represented boldness and courage in the pursuit of a higher enterprise. Each of these men dedicated their lives to a purpose even though it meant great personal sacrifice. They saw their talents and abilities as a means to positively change the world according to their perspective of social justice.
Women that Made a Difference
History emphasizes the role of men, primarily because men wrote the history and women were viewed as inferior beings. But there were many women that also qualified as role models.
Mother Ann Seton devoted her life to Catholic education in the United States. Even in the Middle Ages, women like Teresa of Avila provided strong role models for other women marginalized by the male dominated society.
Saints as Role Models is not Anachronistic
In 19th Century Protestant America, John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress was second in importance to the Bible. Teddy Roosevelt quoted from the book and many Americans saw the struggling Pilgrim in much the same way Catholics cheered on the saints.
Without the over night success of screen stars and sports figures earning millions of dollars, the saints offer both Catholics and Protestants historical substitutes that may be more permanent and provide a deeper sense of what it means to be a role model.
Source:
John J. Delaney, Dictionary of Saints (New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1980).
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