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So my headcanon Blangel successor chapter fights alongside the sisters of battle quite frequently, and has developed a bit of interfaith dialogue with them; those SOB are quite devoted to Sanguinius as well as the Emperor due to shared backstory with the chapter fighting for relics related to Sanguinius. One notion which I'm thinking of having take root is that the Sanguinor is a living saint of the emperor, which was my first explanation reading his codex entry. Reading a bit more into the lore, I now think it's more likely he's Azkaellon or a line of marines taking up the armor and name of the Sanguinor, but I'm wondering how such a position would be argued one way or the other, as it may come up in a future story I'm considering writing.

Apart from being "kind of like daemon princes of the Emperor," as I once had it explained to me, how do living saints work?

 Danielle Rae wrote:
So my headcanon Blangel successor chapter fights alongside the sisters of battle quite frequently, and has developed a bit of interfaith dialogue with them; those SOB are quite devoted to Sanguinius as well as the Emperor due to shared backstory with the chapter fighting for relics related to Sanguinius. One notion which I'm thinking of having take root is that the Sanguinor is a living saint of the emperor, which was my first explanation reading his codex entry. Reading a bit more into the lore, I now think it's more likely he's Azkaellon or a line of marines taking up the armor and name of the Sanguinor, but I'm wondering how such a position would be argued one way or the other, as it may come up in a future story I'm considering writing.

Apart from being "kind of like daemon princes of the Emperor," as I once had it explained to me, how do living saints work?

Living Saints can be many things. Some like Sabbath, Celestine, Alicia and the Companion are people of exceptionnal skill and faith who seem to display thanks to them miraculous abilities and can be transfigured by them. Super strength, speed, wings and healing abilities are rather common. They work pretty much like some sort of imperial daemon princes indeed, except their powers and transfigurating abilities can be more variable and temporary.

Living Saint is also a title granted by the Ecclesiarchy granted to particularly faithful people who did great acts of faith that can range from killing heretics, exorcising daemons to making beautiful poetry or building a lot of churches or converting populations. They are basically holy men and women, so famous and admired for their faith that they were declared Saints while still alive.

To me the Sanguinor seems to be some sort of Living Saint of the first category, but he also seem to have some point in common with the concept of Exarchs and Avatars.

epronovost wrote:

 Danielle Rae wrote:
So my headcanon Blangel successor chapter fights alongside the sisters of battle quite frequently, and has developed a bit of interfaith dialogue with them; those SOB are quite devoted to Sanguinius as well as the Emperor due to shared backstory with the chapter fighting for relics related to Sanguinius. One notion which I'm thinking of having take root is that the Sanguinor is a living saint of the emperor, which was my first explanation reading his codex entry. Reading a bit more into the lore, I now think it's more likely he's Azkaellon or a line of marines taking up the armor and name of the Sanguinor, but I'm wondering how such a position would be argued one way or the other, as it may come up in a future story I'm considering writing.

Apart from being "kind of like daemon princes of the Emperor," as I once had it explained to me, how do living saints work?

Living Saints can be many things. Some like Sabbath, Celestine, Alicia and the Companion are people of exceptionnal skill and faith who seem to display thanks to them miraculous abilities and can be transfigured by them. Super strength, speed, wings and healing abilities are rather common. They work pretty much like some sort of imperial daemon princes indeed, except their powers and transfigurating abilities can be more variable and temporary.

Living Saint is also a title granted by the Ecclesiarchy granted to particularly faithful people who did great acts of faith that can range from killing heretics, exorcising daemons to making beautiful poetry or building a lot of churches or converting populations. They are basically holy men and women, so famous and admired for their faith that they were declared Saints while still alive.

To me the Sanguinor seems to be some sort of Living Saint of the first category, but he also seem to have some point in common with the concept of Exarchs and Avatars.

Afaik, It's actually the latter that's required. The former just makes it likely they'll become something of note(Assuming you aren't killed for being a Rouge Psyker or something.)
It's probably worth noting that the entirety of the... I want to say Holy Synod but it could be the Inqusition, Puritans and Radicals have to agree, meaning that the fact that anyone is declared a Living Saint is a miracle by itself...

Living saints like celestine get their powers from the warp, likely through some innate link as opposed to overt control (like a battle psyker), all supernatural effects in the 40k universe come from the warp in some manner or other.

 Formosa wrote:
Living saints like celestine get their powers from the warp, likely through some innate link as opposed to overt control (like a battle psyker), all supernatural effects in the 40k universe come from the warp in some manner or other.

Heresy! He simply blesses those He deems worthy!

In modern fluff, Living Saints are most likely just artificially created (rather than born) Perpetuals. We know the Cabal could turn regular humans into Perpetuals in the HH era. No reason the Emperor can't do the same now.

There's a Living Saint in The Codex Infernal who seems to follow exactly the same regeneration rules as Vulkan. She pals around with a notorious Radical and doesn't seem especially devout, which implies it's not some purely faith-powered deal.

There’s one Plague War that was simply a young girl.

Spoiler alert

Well in setting worship gives power via coalescing and growing in the warp, which is why The Emperor has such powers. Sanguinalia is the most commonly celebrated holiday in the Imperium, and Sanguinius likely receives; if not the second most; one of the top shares of direct worship by humanity as The Emperor's Own Son. If The Emperor can repeatedly manifest thru all sorts of people, I find it completely believable that Sanguinius can have this one manifestation of sainthood. Belief equals power, and by that measure he's one of the most powerful "humans" to have lived.