They were wrong. And, it was the fault of clerics that so few laymen received the Eucharist. They were too "unworthy", they were told, to approach the Communion rail.
The saints you mention deserved sainthood if for no other reason than encouraging Catholics to receive Christ frequently.
It's not a question of worthiness or even of being in a state of grace. It's a question of being properly disposed. A person who has been provoked to anger, even involuntarily, is not properly disposed to receive.
You might remind some people that it was St. Pius X--surely no modernist-- who forced the abandonment of the
practice of infrequent communion,