Lynata brought some interesting opinions up about the topic of Living Saints and their connection to the Emperor as an entity.

My post/question isn't really about that. Are there any stated material depicting how Living Saints act? Their mannerisms? Are they any different than their previous state before they died and were brought back? Is there much fluff on this in the TT rulebooks? Did I perhaps miss something in the Dark Heresy books about the topic?

I don't want to know everything about Living Saints. Just their personality in relation to their newfound "sainthood".

I'm a bit hazy on the subject; the only Living Saint really mentioned in the tabletop is St. Celestine, formerly of the Adepta Sororitas. They're not all Battle Sisters, though: There's St. Sabbat, a peasant girl turned war hero who is basically Joan of Arc IN SPAAAAACE! and St. Drusus, proof that you can still be a Living Saint even if you have a Y chromosome.

Sadly, i'm not aware of much either. All i've really ever had access to is various wiki information, which isn't very helpful with specifics on the subject.

Though i think the idea that they're like daemons, only spawned of the Emperawr, is pretty neato. The warp is a bizarre thing.

There are only two Living Saints with 'speaking parts' in 40K books that I've read. One is in one of the Gaunt's Ghosts novels (I forget which one, but it's in the second omnibus collection), where Gaunt meets the reincarnation of Saint Sabbat (she acts benevolent and aloof, just like you would expect of a saint, nonchalantly performing miracles). The other is in the novel Atlas Infernal , where the main Inquisitor has a 'living saint' in his retinue. In that case, it's pretty obvious that the 'saint' is really supposed to be a weird semi-daemonic mutant (she drinks blood and can regenerate almost any injury) mistaken for a saint, who is fiercely devout and probably unaware of her true nature.

In GW material, there is indeed only Celestine who is this special - other Living Saints have been mentioned*, but none with the powers ascribed to Saint C.

In terms of licensed material, the Ork Boss and Adeptus-B have already mentioned two further occurrances. A third one that springs to mind would be Saint Aeneas from Dawn of War, who is (in terms of visuals and powers) essentially a copy of Celestine under a different name.

*: off the top of my head...

• four of the six founders of the Adepta Sororitas (Dominica, Katherine, Silvana and Lucia)
• Helena the Virtuous, Prioress of the Convent Sanctorum
• Missionary Joachim of Ulant, leader of an Imperial crusade against Abaddon's forces during the siege of Cadia

Given this list (sourced in SoB Codex fluff and White Dwarf #292), I believe the original idea was to have Celestine be unique in her "miraculousness" - but as the other examples are notably less known (even amongst SoB fans), she may often be "mistaken" for the average Living Saint, including by novel authors.

An interesting detail is that in GW's d100 Inquisitor game there is an exiled Battle Sister-turned-Assassin by the name of Anastasia (who is either completely bonkers, tricked by Chaos, or guided by the Emperor, depending on how you interpret her "kill list" visions) wielding a power sword called the "Blade of St. Joachim" she plucked off the hands of a dead priest at a temple overrun by Plague Zombies. Go figure.

Anyways, I believe there is a fine distinction between what Celestine is, and what the term Living Saint means - because the latter is ultimately just a title attached to people, following a lengthy conclave of Ecclesiarchy officials and various Inquisitorial factions, as much influenced by faith and investigation as by internecine rivalry and politics.

If you read carefully, GW fluff even offers further alternate explanations:

"There are those amongst the Administratum who claim such things are simply mass hysteria brought about by the trauma of battle, while others maintain that it is a form of collective psychic projection. It is enough for the Ecclesiarchy simply to know that the Emperor marches alongside their armies and those who doubt His almighty power are fools of the worst kind. Those who have witnessed its effects simply know that faith can be a potent weapon indeed."

- 40k Chapter Approved vol. II

Kind of ambiguous, if you read between the lines. But by now I've become use to GW always saying at least two different things in every piece of fluff they put out.

Also, did no-one else find it odd how St. Celestine is only T3 in the tabletop? The 2+/4++ save actually comes from her armour, which once belonged to another Living Saint. Curiouser and curiouser...

Looking forward to hear more theories, though, especially regarding the possible nature of Celestine!

Also, did no-one else find it odd how St. Celestine is only T3 in the tabletop? The 2+/4++ save actually comes from her armour, which once belonged to another Living Saint. Curiouser and curiouser...

Not at all. She's human, not a Space Marine.

Not at all. She's human, not a Space Marine.

Exactly ... or a miracle.

To me, Saints are the human equivalent of exploding Weirdboyz. When great enough mass of people get hysterical enough, Saints happen: for whatever arcane reasons, the turmoil in the Warp finds a focus on the battlefield, with a result that is somewhere between an unsanctioned Psyker and a Daemonhost, with a nature reflecting the faction that created it, and its host.

Sneak-edit: I suppose people with strong faith in their own self-righteousness and the magic of the God-Emperor, are pretty ideal focus points for the sort of Warp turmoil that can occasionally grant people magic powers. I mean, I doubt someone who never in a million years would think something like that could happen, and especially not to themselves, would be unlikely to suddenly become all Fuelled By The God-Emperor or... as would be the case in our take on the setting, wholly corrupted by the Warp (in a not-instantly fatal kind of way).

But technically a Saint is "just" someone recognised as such by the Ministorum. That body usually doesn't work fast enough to formally declare someone a Saint while they're still alive, but occasionally it does manage. Which is when you get a Living Saint.

I'm a bit hazy on the subject; the only Living Saint really mentioned in the tabletop is St. Celestine, formerly of the Adepta Sororitas. They're not all Battle Sisters, though: There's St. Sabbat, a peasant girl turned war hero who is basically Joan of Arc IN SPAAAAACE! and St. Drusus, proof that you can still be a Living Saint even if you have a Y chromosome.

What about the 40K SoB special character Saint Praxades? I suppose she was sainted after she was declared dead, but she wasn't actually dead at the time and she was/is full of magical effects on the tabletop.

Lexicanum also has a list of Saints , but I can't be arsed to look though it. Honestly I'm really not strong on this area of the fluff, because I've never had a regular SoB opponent in 40K, and between the occasional opponents I have had and the whole bondage nun thing, I've always been a bit put off by this stuff.

What about the 40K SoB special character Saint Praxades? I suppose she was sainted after she was declared dead, but she wasn't actually dead at the time and she was/is full of magical effects on the tabletop.

I wouldn't describe it as magical.

Praxedes (not canonised until after going MIA)

Helena the Virtuous (Living Saint)

I believe I should have been more focused in my question. I was simply interested in what Living Saints were like as people. Were they different than before they were reraised. Did they seem even alien to regular humans?

Were they the same, and just realized that they had a larger purpose in events now?

Not their powers, not the nature of their existence. Just what they were like, if it's been discussed, as people themselves.

Oooh! Gotcha. Totally misinterpreted the purpose of this thread.

Well, as far as I know, Celestine is the only Living Saint who actually came back from the dead. With how your question is now phrased, it matters little whether or not Living Saints are actually "magical" or not, for I'd wager that the Saints would certainly see themselves as such, given how steeped they are in their faith. I'm not sure whether or not you have seen the Jeanne d'Arc movie with Milla Jovovich, but I'd wager it explores this very subject - a previously normal person suddenly becoming the center of religious attention, and a figurehead of a holy war - in a rather interesting way.

From the list of Saints I posted above, five of the six examples already were in a position of leadership, their canonisation (Katherine was the very first Living Saint) merely being an official recognition of their role, or a calculated move to raise morale and stir up support amongst the Imperial populace. With Celestine and Joachim, however, it was insofar different as both were perfectly ordinary members of the lower echelons of their organisation, who were then raised to the status of a Living Saint because of displaying seemingly unusual abilities which were then interpreted as miracles and caused a resurgence in faith: Celestine was presumed dead but then awakened again, Joachim was said to have the ability to calm the Warp, significantly increasing the speed and safety of Imperial fleets (a power also attributed to Sebastian Thor).

Unfortunately, we know little of who these people were before, or how their personalities took the sudden change in personal significance and influence, but I think it is safe to say that in such a position it would be very easy to get "swept away" by the excitement of the masses, exactly like it may have happened to Jeanne d'Arc.