Saints Misbehavin'
Even the holiest men and women were not always thus.
Interesting article on the push to canonize Jacques Fesch, a Frechman who was executed for murdering a policeman during an armed robbery where he also pistolwhipped a shopkeeper. In addition, he had previously been a serial adulterer who fathered and abandoned a child outside marriage and divorced his wife.
On death row though, he experienced a deep and sincere conversion to Catholicism and repented for his sins. Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger, retired archbishop of France is pushing for his canonization.
The article linked above provides details of other saints who weren't always so saintly:
Consider St. Callixtus of Rome, who died in 222: He was an embezzler, a brawler, a twice convicted felon. Yet Callixtus was touched by grace, repented, became a priest, was elected pope and died a martyr.Indeed, the Catholic calendar is full of notorious men and women who turned their lives around and became saints. St. Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614) was an Italian mercenary soldier, a cardsharp and con man. For six years St. Margaret of Cortona (1247-1297) lived as a Tuscan nobleman's mistress. St. Moses the Ethiopian (c. 330-405) led a gang of cutthroats in the Egyptian desert. In 217 in Rome, St. Hippolytus set himself up as the first antipope. And St. Pelagia was the porn queen of fifth-century Antioch; her contemporary, St. John Chrysostom, recalled that "nothing was more vile than she was, when she was on the stage."
Ths doesn't include Satin Augustine, one of the greatest saints of theologians, who also fathered a child outside marriage.
This is an example of how we understand and live the doctrine of forgiveness. With God, all is forgivable. There is no sin God can't forgive; we're never beyond hope. The fact that some of those people listed above not only returned to the faith, but made it to Heaven and are close enough to God that they were acknowledged as saints is a great example of that.
No matter what you've done, it's never too late to return to God and get His forgiveness. He wants to give it to you; ask Him for it.