I have wanted to write about this for a while now and I finally got some time and interest to do so. This shall be first part of three articles
- What are Saints? Pt.1 (Real and Living)
- What are Saints? Pt.2 (Virtues and Election)
- What are Saints? Pt.3 (Canonisation)
What are Imperial Saints, how are they elected and by whom? These are today's questions, if you're interested, take a look but I warn you! None of the content on this page is canon as all fluff associated with saints is basically just sidementions and miscallenous content.
Saintness in real life[]
Games Workshop teams have and still do use lot of available information about the Catholic Church as the source for Ecclesiarchy, Adeptus Ministorum. Now this is quite reasonable, considering it is so dominant in the lives of Europe and the world as a whole and is filled with lot of less known facts.
Considering the fact that the original writers were British, it makes sense. In Anglican churches saintness is okay and part of the religion, so to draw such properties as sainthood into the superstitious Imperium in the 41st millennium makes sense. Less so for us who hail from protestantist or lutheranist countries where praying to a saint is idolatry, heresy and sin, and a bad one too.
Further down, all of my speculations are drawn from the Christian churches, more so of Catholism than others.
Imperial Saints[]
First of all, there are two distinct categories of saints. The living saints and (ordinary) saints. Of course there is nothing ordinary in saints, but let's not get stuck in that.
Living Saints[]
Living saints tend to be members of the Adepta Sororitas Orders Militant, not all though, at least Saint Sabbat was not for she existed 700 years before the whole institution was found. They do, however, seem to be always women.
Living saints become ones under certain circumstances. Even if these circumstances are unknown to us, they most likely share something in common. These might be a vision (and simultaneously granted power) from the Emperor himself or from another saint, possibly even retrieval of relic associated with other saint(s) or even the Emperor himself. They all seem to be, even before becoming a living saint, truly servants of the God Emperor, heroic in virtue and devout beyond question.
Some living saints even re-incarnate after many years of their disappearance, or death. Saint Celestine and Sabbat being great examples of such.
Speculation[]
Virtues given above are called both "cardinal" and "theological" ones. When brought to particular level... well, maybe they manifest themselves into something we call living saint. Now there are lot of theories about living saints, my personal favorite is that they are "Emperor's daemons".
Think about it and it sort of makes sense... more or less. The Emperor himself is not only an extremely powerful psyker. I mean, his body in this world is nothing but dust, he is only a little more than soul itself. His soul however is capable of residing in a dead body, adn to keep a warp gate closed, and to beam up Astronomican, and what else more! When it comes to Warp, the Emperor's presence in there is of such magnitude that no other can even hope to achieve anything like that, he is the single most powerful psyker ever existed. Now Emperor is said to affect all lives within his realm. Not directly, but through visions, Emperor's Tarot and saints. Now all prayers are directed towards the Emperor, infused with many feeligns but obviously with such as "hope" and "faith". Maybe the Emperor has learned to use these emotions directed towards him, as they apparently magnify his psychic presence in the Warp as other emotions magnify other more insideous powers within the Warp. Maybe, just maybe, this power the Emperor gains from all the hope and faith directed towards him is directed by Him towards single inviduals who brightly burn in the Warp as heroic in virtue. These inviduals apparently then become living saints being technically daemons, as birthed from a thoughts of sentient Warp entity, Emperor.
If the saint's body ever becomes destroyed, her physical presence in material realm ceases. However, this mightly infused person holds not only the power granted to her by the Emperor in Warp but also her own personal soul. When time comes and enough power is gathered towards this saint, she reincarnates somewhere with her actual body, being part of her making her a lot more powerful than a regular daemon who cannot manifest itself in material realm for a long continuous time because it lacks a physical body.
This is purely theoretical and speculation, but one thing, at least to me, seems to without doubt certain. That living saints are infused with some of the Emperor's power, granted especially for them.
Wings[]
Living saints are often depicted with wings. Strangely enough, halo (the golden aura around head) is discarded in 40k lore and the only halo they tend to have is artificial one. Nevertheless, are the living saints' wings real?
I doubt it, even if some sources point towards such. I don't believe they are part of the living saint's physical body or even artificial ones. The living saint radiates with constant glow of such power and awe that those of lesser spirit fall to their knees in praise hoping not to do anything but to follow that invidual. The divine power of the Emperor magnifies this inviduals deeds and words. Therefore the wings seem to be more of an illusion. How do they fly then? Well apparently they (living saints) don't really flap their wings to get around or to stay stationary in the air, they just slowly float up and down sort of badly resembling the movement done by wings when one flies. The living saints float in the air because they are so divine, not because of wings. The living saints have wings for... reasons unknown. Maybe they are a good way to distinguish them from the other people..?
Note also that there is other groups of inviduals that tend to float a bit over the ground. Psykers when casting psychic powers, and daemonhosts.