I find the life of Godrick to be simultaneously infuriating, disquieting, and pathetic. Perhaps what I find infuriating is that this twisted and deeply injured and self-loathing soul has been elevated by the Church for almost a millennium as an exemplar, rather than a cautionary tale, of the Christian faith. By making Godrick a saint and by putting him into the Calendar, the Church ensures that, from age to age, people will be taught to emulate this individual.

What is it that I find so troubling about making Godrick into a saint? It’s not that he should be denied any posthumous comfort that there is to be had. It’s that the Church lauds him for his extremes of self-hatred. In positive and glowing terms, Butler details Godrick’s relationship with his Confessor:

He (Godrick) was most averse from all pride and vanity, and never spoke of himself but as of the most sinful of creatures, a counterfeit hermit, an empty phantom of a religious man: lazy, slothful, proud, and imperious, abusing the charity of good people who assisted him with their alms.

Then the payoff for future Christians who should come across the story of Godrick:

But the more the saint humbled himself, the more did God exalt him by his grace, and by wonderful miraculous gifts.

It’s a trap! First, humbling oneself involves recognizing that one is part of the human race, that one is not superior (nor inferior, I would contend) to others. Humbling is a return to egalitarianism, a recognition of the artificiality of caste, stratum, and exceptionalism. It is an embrace of commonality and a celebration of an elemental connection to the very cycles of life and death. And indeed this humility opens the doorway to astounding relationships, to sharing freely, to compassion that recognizes no bounds of race, gender, nationality, sexual expression, religion, education, wealth, or any of a host of other ways that we distinguish ourselves from one another. Such humility is the most powerful force for “liberty and justice for all” that there is. Indeed, it opens gateway upon gateway to grace and “wonderful miraculous gifts.”

Now back to Godrick. What he did was to abase and abuse himself, to detest himself, to proclaim himself the Imposter to Beat All Imposters. He flagellates his very soul as he denies the validity of his very existence, and he insults the core of his humanness. In this, he is assisted by his Confessor and praised through the centuries by the Church. He identifies himself as a piece of shit, not as a human, and instead of being invited into the warmth of compassion and commonality, he is applauded for continuous wallowing in self-hatred.

Godrick ends up dying alone in the desert. And he’s called a hermit and a saint. Uggh.