Five People Who Should Be Made Saints

1. J.R.R. Tolkien. You can make his wife and his mom saints, too. And probably his son the priest who just died. A family package!

2. Blessed Vilmos Apor, baron and Bishop of Gyor. Made bishop in 1941, he did his best to defend not only his own flock but all Gyor's people from Nazi laws. When the town was bombed, he went out to succor the wounded. When people were left homeless, he gave them his episcopal palace to live in. When the Soviets invaded in turn, he spoke out for his townspeople once more. And when a bunch of Russian soldiers came to his palace and demanded women, he told them to get out. They gut-shot him, then ran away in fright. The bishop died on Easter Monday, 1945.

3. G.K. Chesterton, of course! Give him a really wide holy card!

4. Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. Because she was a quiet person who nevertheless would not be cowed in following God's will. (And it's Gah-deh-lee Deh-gah-quee-tah.)

5. R.A. Lafferty and "Anthony Boucher" (William White). Saintly science fiction writer and saintly founding editor of the Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy/gourmet cook/Opera News reviewer. Again, think of the opportunity for holy card illustrations! Here's Lafferty's haunting story "Land of the Great Horses" and another one best described by its title, "Nine Hundred Grandmothers". Here is a page of obituaries, in which John Clute said, "....his Roman Catholicism governed not only the surface of his work, but its deep structure as well." Anthony Boucher isn't represented as well online, but here's "They Bite".