St John Ogilvie is someone we call a saint. He’s a canonised saint, and that kind of saint who gives his life for the faith – a martyr. He was hanged in Glasgow in 1615 – 410 years ago – and was canonised in 1976, 50 years ago next year. He was a grain who fell into the soil of Scotland, bore fruit and is now where his Master is and honoured by the Father.
Here’s a shock: each of us is meant to be a saint. Not a canonised saint, not a martyr necessarily; just a saint, simply a saint, let’s say. That isn’t a private idea of mine. It’s the teaching of the Gospels and St Paul and the Church.
Here are seven stabs at what a saint is:
- Someone who loves God with their whole self and others as themselves.
- Someone who’s like a new edition of Christ. Christ lives in himself, in heaven, and Christ lives in others, here and now. A saint is someone in whom Christ is radiantly alive.
- A saint has let the Holy Spirit into their life.
- Is someone whose life has become a gift for others.
- Someone who doesn’t lie and doesn’t hate, and who cares, who lives the Beatitudes.
- Someone completely human, who has let God make the best of them.
- Someone who spreads hope.
Others can do better, I’m sure. Let’s try again:
- A saint plants trees in places there are none (like St Amphilochios of Patmos)
- A saint picks up people dying in gutters and gives them a bed (like Teresa of Calcutta)
- Someone who prays (like Clare of Assisi, Teresa of Avila)
- Someone who really notices everyone they come across.
- Someone who cleans another’s wound they’ll have to clean again (like John Bradburne).
- A saint prefers giving to having (like St Francis)
- A saint never despairs of God’s mercy (St Benedict said that).
Story 1. In a big city, there was a student. Every day he went to university by bus, and every day from the bus he saw a beggar sitting on a bench reading a large black book. This intrigued him so much that one day he got off the bus and went to the bench where the beggar sat and asked him what he was reading. He had to ask 12 times before the beggar told his story It wasn’t the Bible he was reading; it was a medical textbook. He used to be a doctor, a surgeon, but something tragic happened and his medical career came to an end. And to make up for it, he decided to become a beggar. And then he said to the young man: “you see that bar opposite? When young people go there, they get drawn into drugs and dealing, and I’ve seen what it does to them. I’m too old to do anything. But if you want to do something with your life, you could try to help.” Well, this struck the young man profoundly. He decided he’d become a priest. And when he was ordained, the bishop said to him, “your parish is the streets of this city.” And ever since, with others, many others, he has worked to give addicts and prostitutes their lives back, and to fight criminality at constant personal risk. His name is Don Luigi Ciotti. Perhaps he’ll be canonised one day.
Story 2. Rome has a famous railway station, called Termini. You don’t want to hang around there, because of the kind of people who do hang around there; it’s not a safe place. Abbot Anselm of Pluscarden had a nasty experience there once. Anyway, in 1987, a Catholic young woman in Rome, very attractive actually, was struck down by a neurological condition that meant she would go blind and suffer great pain. What sustained were some Gospel words: “I have said these things to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (Jn 15:11). And there grew in her the desire to help the young people she had seen at Termini. One night she said to the Lord, “If you want me to do this, give me the health I need.” She woke next morning healed. She began to go to the station at night and speak with the young people there, street kids. Some of her encounters were transformative. She gained helpers. She set up places where young people caught up in drugs and other things could come. She pioneered a pathway of self-knowledge and the healing of the heart; it has become known a SpiriTherapy. She founded a movement called New Horizons. Some of the members are religious and take vows of chastity, poverty and obedience – and a 4th vow of joy. The majority involved of course are lay people, now over half a million in many countries in the world. Her name is Chiara Amirante. Perhaps she’ll be canonised one day. “Live for something big”, she says.
What’s the message of St John Ogilvie? Be a saint. However complicated our life, it’s possible. We make plans; it’s not a sin. But God’s plan is simple and larger, it includes and exceeds ours; it’s that we be saints.
In 2018, Pope Francis wrote something on being holy in today’s world. It’s called Gaudete et Exsultate. It’s worth reading. He ends saying this: “It is my hope that these pages will prove helpful by enabling the whole Church to devote herself anew to promoting the desire for holiness. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us a fervent longing to be saints for God’s greater glory, and let us encourage one another in this effort. In this way, we will share a happiness that the world will not be able to take from us” (n. 177).
St Thomas, Keith, 8 March 2025
