plaster saint

plaster saint (plural plaster saints)

1. Someone who makes a show of being benevolent and morally upright, often in a hypocritical way.
2. A model of correct behavior.
   • 1892, Rudyard Kipling, Tommy:

     We aren’t no thin red ’eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
     But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
     An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
     Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;

   • 2017, Theodore Dalrymple, The Knife Went In:

     Of course, I don’t want to make [prison] officers into plaster saints; and they themselves would not want such an absurd depiction.