The Suffering of Saints

We are what we are, as nature made us
that universal force of existence made
mysteriously palpable yet unknowable
even as we search for its meaning. To suffer
claim some, for whatever reason unclear
as we journey from birth to death an
inexorable plight with no end but to endure.
For many the pain of existence fraught 
with unavoidable torment haunts them
all the days of their lives, dark thoughts
deep within, physical decline without
in conditions from which there is no
escape. For others it is the decisive
circumstance of when, where and why
they inhabit life that delivers cruelty
and manifest evil to their days of life
their mourning unrelieved but for the
brief fantasy of escape when all routes
are abbreviated and locked. They are the
vast legion of sufferers whose condition
leads to sainthood. Oh, not their own at
all, their unrelieved condition gifting awe
and glory in sanctity of the oppressed and
the ill-given to those claiming to bring
upon themselves the suffering of others
to intercede on their behalf with the
hidden powers of redemption, true saints.