Smoking Sigrid Undset

Literary circles and Catholic communities around the world are celebrating the news of Sigrid Undset's cause for sainthood being opened soon. This Nobel laureate, Third Order Dominican, heroic opponent of Nazism, and fearless voice for the vulnerable represents a deeply grounded, intellectually rigorous model of modern holiness.

Sigrid Undset's ashtray can still be seen on her desk at her home in Lillehammer.

However, as her name comes up in conversations about canonisation, a predictable objection might be: "But wasn't she a smoker?"

To modern eyes, accustomed to the clean-living wellness culture, an image of a prospective saint sitting up all night at her typewriter with coffee and exhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke might feel disconcerting. But does being a smoker disqualify someone from heroic virtue? Truth be told, if tobacco use were to disqualify one from sainthood, the ranks of heaven’s canonised would be depleted.

A tour of modern Catholic sainthood reveals that tobacco - whether smoked via pipe, cigar, cigarette, or taken as snuff - has a surprising association with holy men and women:

• St Damien of Molokai: The beloved apostle to lepers famously smoked a pipe—partly for comfort, but primarily to bear the overwhelming odour of decaying flesh while tending to infected wounds.

  
  

• Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati: The energetic young Italian dubbed the "Man of the Eight Beatitudes" was frequently photographed with his pipe firmly clenched between his teeth.

  
  

• St Pius X: Known for his profound humility, liturgical reforms, and simple life, Pope Pius X enjoyed cigars and snuff.

  
  

• St Padre Pio: The famed Italian mystic and stigmatist frequently used snuff, a habit common among friars of his generation.

  
  

• St Josemaría Escrivá: While not a heavy smoker himself, the founder of Opus Dei famously encouraged some of his young priests in the early years to smoke cigars or pipes to help them relax.

To understand why smoking does not automatically undermine a cause for canonisation, one must look at how the Church evaluates moral actions and temperance.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses substance use (and abuse) under the Fourth and Fifth Commandments: "The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine" (CCC 2290).

Notice the word abuse. Catholic moral theology distinguishes between intrinsic evils (actions that are always sinful, such as murder or perjury) and matters governed by temperance. Tobacco is not an intrinsic evil. While the Church urges prudence and bodily health, tobacco consumption in itself is not considered a sin unless it involves reckless excess that destroys one's duty to God, family, or neighbor. Nor does the Church's teaching hold an equivalence between tobacco and other drugs because it does not violently alter the function of the mind.

Furthermore, historical context is not without importance. For much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, medical science did not fully understand the long-term health risks of smoking. For Undset and her contemporaries, lighting up was seen as much of a moral failure as eating pickled herring.

The objection to Undset’s smoking would stems from a misunderstanding of what a saint actually is. Saints are not sanitised, flawless porcelain figures who lived in sterile bubbles. They are real human beings redeemed by grace. When the Church investigates a cause for beatification, the primary criteria are heroic virtue and alignment with the Gospel.

Sigrid Undset’s holiness was forged in intense trial and self-sacrifice. Her sanctity did not consist in having perfect habits according to twenty-first century standards, but in her unyielding surrender to Christ amidst a century of secularism and war. In fact, Sigrid Undset’s messy, intense, sharp-witted humanity is precisely what makes her witness so magnetic. She was a woman who drank strong coffee, spoke her mind fearlessly, wrote masterpiece novels, and smoked tobacco while contemplating the mysteries of God.

If Sigrid Undset is eventually raised to the altars, she won't be a saint because she smoked - nor will she be barred from sainthood because of it. She will be venerated because she loved truth, served the poor, bore her suffering with patience, and surrendered her formidable talent entirely to God.