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Quiz about Sainted Sinners
Quiz about Sainted Sinners

Sainted Sinners Trivia Quiz


Not all saints were born holy -- some of them led shockingly dissolute lives before (and sometimes after) finding God. Test your knowledge of these men and women who tested the powers of forgiveness.

A multiple-choice quiz by CellarDoor. Estimated time: 8 mins.
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Author
CellarDoor
Time
8 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
278,551
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
5 / 10
Plays
1337
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. This man is one of the most famous sainted sinners of all time, a masterful theologian from northern Africa. Despite the prayers of his Christian mother, St. Monica, this young man loved wine, women and song, and followed Manichean ideas of an evenly matched battle between good and evil. In his late twenties, however, he turned to Christianity and spent the rest of his life developing ideas from original sin to just warfare. Who was this saint and Doctor of the Church? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Sin was a controversial topic when St. Callixtus was elected pope in 217. At the time, standard Christian practice was to postpone baptism as late as possible -- because baptism washed away all prior sins, but mortal sins committed after baptism might cut one off from God and the Church. St. Callixtus took a more merciful view, having lived a life of sin himself. Which of these terrible crimes did he commit? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. St. Vladimir (c. 956-1015) is famous for converting the Rus to Christianity, but many of this Kievan grand prince's most memorable deeds are more properly infamous than famous. Which of these sins is he NOT alleged to have committed? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. St. Mary of Egypt (circa 344 - 421) ran away to the big city of Alexandria at the age of 12, entranced by the prospect of a life of fun and sin. "I did free of charge what gave me pleasure," she told St. Zosimas, whom she met at the end of her life, "and ... there is no mentionable or unmentionable depravity" she could not lay claim to. But this life ended in Jerusalem, where she experienced a miracle that turned her life around. What was it? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. St. Dismas is the name tradition gives to a man who was a sinner and a criminal his entire life, repenting only on his last day on Earth. Nevertheless, he was blessed with a personal guarantee of salvation from the dying Jesus Christ. According to the Gospels, for what crime was St. Dismas executed by the Romans? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. St. Pelagia, a 5th-century dancer and seductress, was so precious to the Devil that he is said to have visited her the night after she repented and was baptized. "What evil have I ever done to you?" he asked. "Tell me how I have offended, and I will give you whatever you want." According to this story (related by James the Deacon), why did the devil want St. Pelagia's soul so badly? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. As a young boy, St. Ignatius of Loyola fell prey to an underappreciated deadly sin: pride. Desperate to achieve personal glory and honor, he pursued first gambling, then duelling and women. At 26, he joined in the defense of Pamplona -- and was seriously injured after he ignored orders to surrender. The episode left him not with glory but with gravely injured legs, and in his slow recovery he discovered God. What religious order did he go on to found? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Many sainted sinners seemed to go directly from from the depths of vice to the heights of virtue, with nary a look back. St. Moses the Ethiopian followed a more nuanced path. After he gave up banditry, sex, and violence to follow God, he struggled for the rest of his life to truly leave behind his sins. Where did St. Moses live and struggle after converting to Christianity? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. When Christ Himself calls you a sinner, there's not much you can say to object. This apostle and Gospel writer was collecting taxes and generally fleecing the public when Jesus called him to his flock -- prompting one of the Pharisees' first criticisms of him. Who is this evangelist, also known as Levi? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. The Vikings spent centuries terrorizing much of Europe, raiding villages and massacring monks -- not exactly the stuff of sainthood! Yet St. Olaf (995-1030) was a Viking himself, and an enthusiastic one at that. Nor did he allow his teenage conversion to Christianity to inhibit his lifestyle, although it did redirect him somewhat. On seizing power in Norway, what means did he primarily use to Christianize the country? Hint



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Feb 28 2024 : brm50diboll: 10/10
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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. This man is one of the most famous sainted sinners of all time, a masterful theologian from northern Africa. Despite the prayers of his Christian mother, St. Monica, this young man loved wine, women and song, and followed Manichean ideas of an evenly matched battle between good and evil. In his late twenties, however, he turned to Christianity and spent the rest of his life developing ideas from original sin to just warfare. Who was this saint and Doctor of the Church?

Answer: St. Augustine

St. Augustine (354-430), later wrote that he was "in the mood to be seduced" when he left home as a teenager in order to study at Carthage. At eighteen, he found a regular mistress (whom history does not name) who became the mother of his son, Adeodatus.

Despite the boy's name, which means "gift from God," it would be another ten years before St. Augustine converted after hearing several sermons by St. Ambrose. In his 40s, the now holy man wrote what is considered the first western autobiography, "Confessions," in which he described his early life of sin, his conversion, and his philosophy. "My sin," he reflected, "was all the more incurable because I did not think myself a sinner".
2. Sin was a controversial topic when St. Callixtus was elected pope in 217. At the time, standard Christian practice was to postpone baptism as late as possible -- because baptism washed away all prior sins, but mortal sins committed after baptism might cut one off from God and the Church. St. Callixtus took a more merciful view, having lived a life of sin himself. Which of these terrible crimes did he commit?

Answer: He embezzled money from a bank that served Christian widows.

When St. Callixtus's embezzlement was discovered, he was sentenced to hard labor but temporarily freed to try to recover some of the money. This led to a brawl at a local synagogue (after all, it was rather rude to interrupt services and demand cash) and a trip to the mines of Sardinia. After some time there, he was freed by the order of Emperor Commodus's mistress, a Christian who took pity on her fellow Christians working on the mines, and he began a reformed life in Rome.

His election as pope infuriated the Church's hardliners on sin; one of these, St. Hippolytus, went so far as to split from the Church and become the first antipope. Nevertheless, St. Callixtus instituted rules allowing sinners to confess their sins and do penance, after which they could return to the Church and receive full Communion. This was not a new idea, but he took it further than many others: he felt that even (shudder) heretics could be reconciled with the Church!

He died a martyr in 222, thrown down a well (or so the legend goes) by a mob of violent anti-Christians. St. Hippolytus eventually took advantage of his enemy's reforms, returning to the Church after his schism.
3. St. Vladimir (c. 956-1015) is famous for converting the Rus to Christianity, but many of this Kievan grand prince's most memorable deeds are more properly infamous than famous. Which of these sins is he NOT alleged to have committed?

Answer: The heresy of identifying the Slavic god Perun with the God of Abraham

Despite his grandmother St. Olga's Christian faith, St. Vladimir clearly enjoyed a life unconstrained by Christian standards of behavior. At one point after his violent succession to the throne of Kiev he had over eight hundred concubines -- including the unlucky widow of his murdered brother Yaropolk, who had a better claim to the principality. In 987 AD, however, he decided that monotheism was the path for him. Nestor the Chronicler, a monk born after St. Vladimir's death, wrote that the prince took a very worldly approach to choosing a faith. Islam was impossible because of its prohibition of alcohol ("Drinking is the joy of the Rus!" proclaimed the Prince), Judaism was unacceptable because the Jews had lost Jerusalem, and Christians, after all, built some very lovely churches.

St. Vladimir agreed to convert to Christianity as a condition of marrying Anna, a sister of the Byzantine emperor Basil II. To the surprise of virtually everyone around him, he took this conversion seriously: he disbanded his harem, built churches, and began to live more or less peacefully with his neighbors. (He did not, however, manage to live peacefully with his subjects: he destroyed numerous temples to the old gods, and insisted that his people be baptized or be counted among "the prince's enemies." Most took the unsubtle hint.)
4. St. Mary of Egypt (circa 344 - 421) ran away to the big city of Alexandria at the age of 12, entranced by the prospect of a life of fun and sin. "I did free of charge what gave me pleasure," she told St. Zosimas, whom she met at the end of her life, "and ... there is no mentionable or unmentionable depravity" she could not lay claim to. But this life ended in Jerusalem, where she experienced a miracle that turned her life around. What was it?

Answer: An invisible force barred her from entering a church until she had repented.

It was not a spiritual pilgrimage that brought the 29-year-old St. Mary of Egypt to Jerusalem; instead, she viewed the crowds of pilgrims as an ample supply of partners in sin. But when she tried to follow the crowds into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in order to celebrate a relic of the True Cross, she found herself unable to enter -- and she was struck by remorse. Praying to the Virgin Mary for guidance, she begged for forgiveness and for the chance to turn her life around by living as a hermit. After this, she was allowed into the church, where she venerated the True Cross, gave thanks to God, and set about fulfilling her promise. She entered the desert across the river Jordan with only three loaves of bread to her name, and survived some 47 years there as a hermit.

The only person she is known to have met during that time was St. Zosimas, a monk to whom she told her story (later set to paper by St. Sophronius). He repaid her by bringing her Holy Communion; she died the very night she received it.
5. St. Dismas is the name tradition gives to a man who was a sinner and a criminal his entire life, repenting only on his last day on Earth. Nevertheless, he was blessed with a personal guarantee of salvation from the dying Jesus Christ. According to the Gospels, for what crime was St. Dismas executed by the Romans?

Answer: Theft

All four Gospels mention the two men who were crucified beside Jesus on the day of his death; Matthew and Mark specify that their crime was theft or banditry. Luke 23:39-43 gives the only account of their conversation. The unrepentant thief (traditionally called Gestas) mocked Jesus, demanding that He save them if He was indeed the Messiah; St. Dismas scolded his companion, and then asked respectfully, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus assured him that "today you will be with me in Paradise."

St. Dismas is the patron saint of criminals, especially of thieves; his story is often used to support the idea that a rite of baptism is not necessary for salvation. Roman Catholics believe that he underwent a baptism of desire, "a perfect contrition of the heart ... which contains ... a desire of baptism." (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907).
6. St. Pelagia, a 5th-century dancer and seductress, was so precious to the Devil that he is said to have visited her the night after she repented and was baptized. "What evil have I ever done to you?" he asked. "Tell me how I have offended, and I will give you whatever you want." According to this story (related by James the Deacon), why did the devil want St. Pelagia's soul so badly?

Answer: He feared that he would become a laughingstock if she went to God.

St. Pelagia did not particularly impress the Christians of the day. Before she gave up acting, wealth and freedom to convert to Christianity, St. John Chrysostom wrote of her: "Nothing was more vile than she was when she was on the stage." According to the somewhat excitable James the Deacon, however, there was one bishop -- Nonnus -- who saw in her a glimpse of something more. All Christians, he thought, should spend as much time preparing their souls for God as she did preparing her face for the world! After praying for her redemption, he finally reached her one day when she stopped by his church, heard his sermon and was overcome by grief and guilt.

After her devilish visit, St. Pelagia must have decided that it was too dangerous to remain in her old haunts. She freed her slaves (giving them a handsome back pay package), liquidated her fortune and gave it to the poor, and spent the rest of her life living in a grotto as a hermit -- where everyone simply assumed that she was a eunuch, since they could not imagine a woman taking on a life of such privation!
7. As a young boy, St. Ignatius of Loyola fell prey to an underappreciated deadly sin: pride. Desperate to achieve personal glory and honor, he pursued first gambling, then duelling and women. At 26, he joined in the defense of Pamplona -- and was seriously injured after he ignored orders to surrender. The episode left him not with glory but with gravely injured legs, and in his slow recovery he discovered God. What religious order did he go on to found?

Answer: The Society of Jesus

During an agonizing convalescence after the battle in Pamplona, St. Ignatius asked his brother and sister-in-law (who were caring for him) for books to read, so that he could pass the time. They had only two books -- both religious works -- and his intensive reading of them, at such a vulnerable time, changed the course of his life. He dedicated himself to improving in his understanding and his faith, and his "Spiritual Exercises" -- a 30-day program written partly to guide himself -- is now used around the world.

The Society of Jesus (whose members are called Jesuits) is an order of priests and monks perhaps best known for their work in education; they are sometimes called the soldiers of the Pope, due to their founder's background as a knight. St. Ignatius (1491-1556) lived 35 years after his injury, and was the first Superior General of his order.
8. Many sainted sinners seemed to go directly from from the depths of vice to the heights of virtue, with nary a look back. St. Moses the Ethiopian followed a more nuanced path. After he gave up banditry, sex, and violence to follow God, he struggled for the rest of his life to truly leave behind his sins. Where did St. Moses live and struggle after converting to Christianity?

Answer: In a monastery at Scetes, in Egypt

St. Moses, who lived from about 330 until 405, was renowned as a thief and murderer from an early age. At one point he led a band of some seventy-five brigands who raided villages, robbed travelers and generally terrorized the countryside. The band split up on pursuit by the army, and St. Moses fled to a nearby monastery; the monks' simple and holy lifestyles touched him, and he resolved to turn his face to God.

Turning away from the devil, however, was not so easy. St. Moses became frustrated at how hard it was to banish thoughts of the temptations he had left behind. The abbot -- St. Isidore -- once famously called St. Moses to watch the dawn with him, and comforted him about his spiritual journey. "See how long it takes for the light to drive away the darkness of night?" he asked. "It is the same with the soul."

Firmly dedicated to principles of nonviolence, St. Moses was eventually martyred by bandits, along with seven other monks who refused to resist a raid on the monastery.
9. When Christ Himself calls you a sinner, there's not much you can say to object. This apostle and Gospel writer was collecting taxes and generally fleecing the public when Jesus called him to his flock -- prompting one of the Pharisees' first criticisms of him. Who is this evangelist, also known as Levi?

Answer: St. Matthew

St. Matthew was not merely a bureaucrat or a government functionary in an unpopular job. At this point in history, tax collectors were essentially independent contractors: they paid the Roman governors a fee for the right to collect taxes, and anything extra that they managed to extort or overcharge was pure profit. It's no surprise that they quickly got a bad reputation!

His choice of work means that he must have valued worldly riches, but St. Matthew nonetheless came immediately when Jesus called him -- he walked away from his booth in the middle of the day. The Pharisees complained that St. Matthew was unsuitable company for a holy man, leading Jesus to declare, "I came not to call the just, but sinners." The exchange is found in Matthew 9:9-13; the tax collector is called Levi in Mark 2:13-17 and Luke 5:27-31.
10. The Vikings spent centuries terrorizing much of Europe, raiding villages and massacring monks -- not exactly the stuff of sainthood! Yet St. Olaf (995-1030) was a Viking himself, and an enthusiastic one at that. Nor did he allow his teenage conversion to Christianity to inhibit his lifestyle, although it did redirect him somewhat. On seizing power in Norway, what means did he primarily use to Christianize the country?

Answer: Terror: He executed, blinded or otherwise mutilated those who refused to convert.

St. Olaf "let none go unpunished who would not serve God," wrote contemporary chronicler Snorri Sturlason -- and his punishments were quite severe. No doubt a violent childhood (by 16 he was an experienced raider, participating in the murder of ordinary people in Canterbury, England) contributed to his, er, forceful view of religion. In 1030, he was killed in battle trying to defend his kingship -- and tales of healing miracles performed with his blood began to spread. Grimkell, a local bishop, seized the opportunity to declare that Norwegians now had a saint of their own; during this era, this was a decision that could be made locally rather than through the central Church. Modern popes and prelates would have found it harder to overlook St. Olaf's excesses!

St. Olaf's conversion of Norway took hold (unlike many other conversions imposed from above) -- perhaps because of its violence, perhaps because the king focused his attention on the inland regions where the old religion was strongest, and perhaps because of national pride in the man's sainthood.
Source: Author CellarDoor

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