There is a saint for every day of the year and children are often named for the saint of their birth date. The local newspaper publishes a daily column describing the saint of the day. Most saints achieved their sainthood by being tortured and executed for their beliefs. There are a few like Saint Martin who were sainted for good deeds but the vast majority were ingeniously tortured to death. Here is a sample from the newspaper:

Sainte Blandine
Died in Lyon in 177 A.D. Blandine was whipped, slowly burned over a small fire, tied up in a net and given to a bull to play with before being finished off with a sword. Blandines are tender and willful. Their color is blue and their number is 7.

For more that two thousand years, saints have been burned, whipped, stoned, castrated, mutilated and castigated. These martyrs are the reason for the success of Christianity in western culture. Maybe the two thousand year history of gruesome executions is also the reason the death penalty is banned in Europe. I have no idea why saints are assigned a color and a number but I always find it amusing to read this cheerful conclusion to such a macabre subject.