Saintly Role Models of the Opposite Sex

[Lady Grey, Hot]

"Single girls and ladies can be role models for the Church, taking Mary and the many female saints as their guide.  Single boys and men can do likewise, looking to Jesus and the male saints as their template." (source)

 

From what I have seen, this is a fairly typical attitude regarding taking the saints as role models. Is this simply because it may often be easier for women to relate to women and men to relate to men? Or is there something inherently wrong with, for example, a man looking to St. Monica as a model of parenthood, or a woman seeing the courage of Thomas More and trying to emulate that? For that matter, is it for some reason impossible/improper for a woman to seek to imitate Christ Himself? 

[Credo in Deum]

 I think the above quote is done to let women and men know they have role models of the same sex within the faith and that you can look to them for inspiration and, yes, I think it is done because women can easily relate with women and men with men. 

Regardless, there is no rule that women must only have special devotion to female saints or men to only have special devotion to male saints.  I also disagree that the above quote is promoted as the typical attitude within the Church. 

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Credo in Deum