Not all Christians are saints — not everyone who professes virtue is virtuous. Appearances of piety or respectability do not guarantee actual goodness.
This Milanese proverb reflects the healthy scepticism of a mercantile city that had seen centuries of people using religious respectability as a cover for commercial fraud. The great financial scandals of Lombard history — from the Renaissance moneylenders who displayed religious charity while charging ruinous interest, to the twentieth-century bankers who attended Mass every Sunday while looting their depositors — gave this proverb an edge of bitter experience. The Catholic tradition of the city is genuine and deep, but so is the Milanese awareness that religiosity and goodness are not the same thing. The proverb is directed not at religión but at hypocrisy: it is the gap between the claim and the reality that the Milanese find intolerable.
Milanese sceptical proverb rooted in centuries of observing the gap between religious respectability and commercial behaviour in a great trading city.
A Milan businesswoman on a fraudulent supplier
Andava a Messa ogni mattina e ci ha truffato di trecentomila euro. Minga tüt i cristian a son sant.
Iba a misa todas las mañanas y nos estafó trescientos mil euros. No todos los cristianos son santos.
A Milanese journalist on a political scandal
Il consigliere con l'immaginetta della Madonna in ufficio è stato arrestato per corruzione. Minga tüt i cristian a son sant.
El concejal con la imagen de la Madonna en la oficina ha sido detenido por corrupción. No todos los cristianos son santos.
A grandmother warning her granddaughter about a suitor
— Va a Messa tutte le domeniche. — Minga tüt i cristian a son sant, cara. Aspetta a giudicare.
— Va a misa todos los domingos. — No todos los cristianos son santos, querida. Espera antes de juzgar.
Two Milanese colleagues discussing a recently exposed colleague
Era sempre il primo a fare il benefattore, le foto per i giornali e tutto. Minga tüt i cristian a son sant — e adesso si vede.
Siempre era el primero en hacer de benefactor, las fotos para los periódicos y todo. No todos los cristianos son santos — y ahora se ve.