Summary
“An Extremely Weird and Mildly Sacrilegious History of the Catholic Church’s Biggest Names”
Part history lesson. Part sacrilege. An entirely good time.
[…] Whether you're a lifelong Catholic or a weird-history enthusiast, How to Be a Saint is your ultimate guide to understanding the hilarious, fascinating, and shockingly true history of sainthood.

Review
Describing this book as ‘part history lesson / part sacrilege / an entirely good time’ hits the nail on the head. As an RE teacher, this was an excellent insight into the Catholic Church and the history of the saints and it's also important to recognise that I laughed… a lot. I suppose it can be said that Catholics (and God) can have a sense of humour.

Kate Sidley does a fantastic job at making some (quite dry) historical events both interesting and funny! Whilst many reviews have said that this book is not for a typical Catholic, I really enjoyed it. I would say that it isn’t for those who are easily offended… but on the whole it was fun, educational and very interesting.

It starts off with an introduction to the Catholic Church, clearly from the view of someone growing up in the Catholic Church. You not only hear about the individual stories of the saints and why they were beatified, but also the canonisation process and how that’s changed over the years. There are examples of well known saints, like St Bernadette in Lourdes, to more modern saints, including Blessed Carlo Acutis.

This niche area of Catholic history is presented from a quirky, refreshing perspective. The vibes I got were semi SNL / The Office, with a huge helping of Horrible Histories. If you were a Horrible Histories lover and enjoy American humour, and have an interest in the Catholic Church or Catholic Saints, this is a very easy read that doesn’t take life too seriously. To give you some context, one of the chapters was about ‘zombie saints’: those that didn’t perish after death - like I said previously, a completely new, light perspective!

It is worth saying that I listened to the audiobook (and loved it!) but I expect the printed version would be even better!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Catholic 101 but funny

A very entertaining and informative book that does a good job of explaining the basics of Catholicism and the canonisation of the many different saints throughout history.

The author does a great job of narrating the audiobook with her great sense of comedic timing and makes learning fun.

I've been on a real audiobook kick this year and this one - with that title and that cover - looked so fun. Happily, it was, but I was pleasantly surprised by just how informative it was, too.

This isn't the kind of book I'd usually reach for; funny non fiction isn't a genre I've ever gravitated towards, but I am endlessly fascinated by the history of Catholic saints. This book, narrated by the author herself, is a brilliant and entertaining introduction to both the process of becoming a saint and a selection of people, real and fictional, who have been canonised throughout history.

I preferred the latter half to the former, which was much more focused on the stories of various saints and also touched upon canonisation as a political act--such as Gianna Beretta Molla, who was canonised by Pope John Paul II after refusing an abortion and hysterectomy that would have saved her life at a time when the Catholic church was eager to spread its anti-abortion views.

What's most impressive about all of this, though, is that while this book is funny - and very rightly makes fun of a lot of things about and within the Catholic church, particularly its many hypocrisies - it's not a mean-spirited book. If you're a Christian who doesn't like jokes being made about your religion (which frankly is perfectly fine if you don't then seek out jokes to be offended by) then this book isn't for you, but in my opinion How to Be a Saint is a book that can be enjoyed by people from any faith or none at all.

I saw this book title and was instantly intrigued. As a still-practicing cradle Catholic I already know a lot about the saints. I even taught a class to children that focused on the same topic. Going into the book, I was well-aware I wouldn't be getting a dry run-through of the ins and outs of how people become saints. Kate Sidley does a good job of going right to her point - here's the basics, and here's some witty and facts and somewhat lurid opinions and tidbits along the way. She does a great job on accuracy - she clearly researched and fact-checked her work. I even learned some fun facts about saints I wasn't aware of. At the end I came away entertained, but didn't walk away with much else.

This is silly but I also laughed so hard and learned a few things. I love that in a book! I love the narration too.

I'm Catholic, practicing. I suspect a lot of people will find this book too irreverent for their tastes, that's ok. I'm not offended by the tone or the jokes that poke fun at Catholicism a little, I think it's written from a place of love and comes off as good-natured to me.

I thought the book was really interesting, I learned a lot! The audio version is exceptionally well done, it really suits the tone of the book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free arc, all opinions are my own.

HOW TO BE A SAINT is a humorous look at canonisation.

The book follows the process of canonisation more than the history of canonisation and saints, but does explain how things have changed over the years and the fact that the rules are always changing (and can be disregarded). There are saints thrown in as examples of rule changes, the sorts of people who have become saints (some of whom deserve it more than others), and other illustration points (usually in lists) throughout. I did appreciate that it touched on the highly political side of saint making -both the message making side of things and the control over who gets to make saints.

The tone is very much irreverent but not mocking, which I appreciated (I am not a fan of comedy at the expense of the group on the punchline.) The inconsistencies and hypocrisy is pointed out, but it does not deride those who are Catholics (the author is, I believe, a Catholic, or at least comes from a Catholic background).

This book is very clearly American. A lot of the jokes are full of American cultural references that are necessary for the joke to work and thus went right over my head. This means I didn't find the book as funny as I could have as I just didn't get the jokes.

It is read by the author herself, which is cool as it means you get the emphasis and delivery exactly as the author intended it.

This was a light approach to something that usually falls in the "serious matters" category. It was fun. It was a little Catholic inside baseball. I'm not sure if people who aren't pretty familiar with the topic already would enjoy it as much. I think it also probably works much better as a printed book. There are a lot of list type entries.

3.5 rounded up.
This was interesting topic with a fast pacing and interesting structure. To me, the narration was a bit too quip heavy especially at the beginning, but considering the topic it might be more approachable to many. I appreciate the critical lens this examines the Catholic traditions and its obscure history in a bite-size book. For this reason the topic stayed somewhat surface level and it is clearly meant as an entry level book about the subject (which I appreciate personally as someone who knows very little about Catholic Church).
Also, I appreciate how the topic very briefly went to art history or obscure traditions (preserved body parts for example) in relation to the sainthood. The context around the Saints are as interesting (if not more interesting) than the Saints themselves.


(Thank you NetGalley for providing me the ARC)

This was fun(ny), although did start to feel a little repetitive after a while. I was raised Catholic, and found a lot of resonance and self-deprecating humor, which I enjoyed. It's a pretty thorough-going look at what I remember of the religious experiences of my youth, and I enjoyed the snarky oh-so-helpful tone. The narration was spot-on for the book - I usually like when an author reads their own work, and definitely enjoyed it here.

This book is not as clever or funny as it thinks it is. It attempts to structure around the steps to becoming a saint, but the actual content is all over the place. Lots of lists of saints with short descriptions, lots of 'sassy' asides, quite a few scatological jokes. There are some interesting facts, but on the whole it's all rather shallow. I wouldn't call it mildly sacrilegious, I would describe it as mildly tedious. It's very repetitious, with some concepts repeated a number of time.
I'm also not sure who this book is for. If you don't know anything about Catholicism this book is going to confuse you. If you do, this might amuse you, if you like lowest common denominator jokes. What's most frustrating is I think Kate Sidley knows and cares about her topic, but she's too busy trying to be funny to be truly interesting.

[3.5 stars rounded up]

It’s good to read just a fun walk through a short, comedic history book. How to Be a Saint by Kate Sidley is exactly that. An easy to follow book broken down into many short sections and interlaced with very abridged versions of many, many Saints. These sections are treated like themes lists such as “the virgin martyrs” or “hermits”, for example. The book takes us step by step through the process of becoming a saint, both on the reader’s end and on what would happen after you die. From becoming a Roman Catholic to dying to having your miracles investigated and finally the mass canonizing you as a Saint, we get to hear about, and poke fun at, all the bureaucratic steps and changes over the years to the process. I listened to the audiobook and read the bonus material PDF that came with it. Though I lost the seemingly fun and impressive stylization/layout of the pages, Sidley does an excellent job narrating and bringing life to her sense of humor in every chapter. Either medium seems like it would be perfectly fine to read the book in, and I especially think that this would be a really fun one for a short day trip drive.

Though I think a lot of Americans will be able to laugh and find something out of this book, it’s obviously not meant for very by the books trad Caths. I am Catholic and do really revere the Saints (most of them at least) but I also had a lot of fun at how Sidley points out some of the more out there aspects of Catholicism and the Papacy. If you’re going to be put off by the book opening with a letter from God welcoming you to the process of dying and becoming a Saint, then this isn’t a book for you. Some of the humor is definitely pointed at those who were at least raised Catholic. Jokes about not knowing what to do with Holy Cards and keeping your baptism candle awkwardly in your attic and never using it are spread throughout. Sidley herself grew up going to Catholic school and was at least raised Catholic, so she’s not an outsider gawking in.

Sidley has been nominated for a comedy Emmy seven times and has been a writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for years and it is pretty obvious through her sense of humor. I don’t really watch any of those late shows but have laughed enough at the short clips I’ve seen online over the years. However, the book makes use of the general humor found in these shows - minus the political jokes or heavy pop-culture referencing. There’s a lot of “[describing the story of Saint Alexius who left on his wedding night of his arranged marriage to become a hermit] since Alexius left after his wedding, his wife had to continue living with her parents-in-law, which means that she ultimately sacrificed more than Alexius!” style of humor. The book’s sense of humor comes across very clearly from the start, so if you know you’re gonna hate it then you probably are. I thought, though generally not laugh out loud funny, the book remained entertaining throughout and didn’t have too many instances that fell flat. Again, Sidley does an excellent job narrating these parts and delivering the jokes perfectly.

The main bulk of the book follows the steps of “how to be a Saint”. We begin with the process of becoming Catholic (baptism, etc.) and end with what your duties as a Saint would be (listening to prayers and intervention). These chapters are short but not lacking in information. Though obviously not the be all end all complete detailing of every aspect of the steps to confirm a Saint (which this book is obviously not trying to be), the book still acts as both a good primer and an easy way to gawk at the admittedly very odd parts of Roman Catholicism and the stories of certain Saints.

I really enjoyed the parts where she went step by step with all the people involved with your canonization of being a Saint, from your local petitioner off to Rome reviewing everything, then a Vatican group reviewing everything again, and then maybe another group again before the Pope reviews everything. She points out the ways that the canonization of Saints has been used in ways to support the Church (a modern example being Carlos Acutis being fast-tracked to Sainthood so quickly as a possible first Millennial Saint just as the Church faces the lowest attendance of young people in its history) and all the ways that the system has been streamlined and made easier over time. I always love pointing fun at bureaucracy, and this one is no different.

This book was exactly what I assumed it was and was such an entertaining book to listen to. Definitely something to pick up for a long day or as a Christmas gift!

Though Sidley does an excellent job narrating the audiobook, there are many moments with awkwardly long pauses. This is mostly before a name, long word, or odd Latin pronunciation. It didn't effect my enjoyment that much, but another quick run through with an editor would really clean it up.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

"How to Be a Saint" is a hilarious book, while being very informative. As a Protestant, I went into this book knowing very little about Saints. I learned a lot while being entertained. The author and narrator are very witty. I laughed out loud many times! And who knew that there were so many Saints! I also found the quotes from past Popes interesting. It was a nice quick listen.

Thank you Netgalley and Tantor Audio for allowing me to listen to this ALC.

How to Be a Saint, written and narrated by Kate Sidley, was a quick, hilarious, but also educational book about Sainthood and the Catholic Faith that I really enjoyed!
I did not know much about this book or its author before checking it out, but I really enjoyed it. This book reviews ways to become saints, steps to Sainthood, stories (and legends) about Saints, and different aspects and Sacraments of the Catholic church. The title does say that it may be considered mildly sacreligious which I think I would have to agree with (there were definitely parts where I felt bad for laughing!) but I also think that it is helpful to find humor when we need to! As a cradle and practicing Catholic I definitely feel like I learned more than I expected too. Like I didn't know all squares are rhombuses! Sure I knew they were all rectangles, but rhombuses? Also I have definitely been pronouncing some of these names wrong. Sorry Saint Joachim!
Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher, author, (and narrator) for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I love when the author reads their own book and is really, really good. I read the print version of this and thought it was wonderfully subversive and hilarious, but it's even funnier on audio.
There is a surprising amount of real information, and I learned a lot about the Catholic Church. But the narrative is tongue in cheek and the facts are easy to understand and digest.
So if you want to become a saint, this is the perfect guide.