Faces of Holiness: Modern Saints in Photos and Words (v. 2) [Paperback]

Ann Ball (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2001

They come from every walk of life, every corner of the globe.  They are young, old, scholarly, uneducated, average, charming, solemn, religious, lay, married, single.  They have little in common except for their empowering Faith.  They are the faces of modern holiness. Noted author Ann Ball brings to life more saints and martyrs of the 20th century in her second volume of Faces of Holiness.  With gripping stories and vivid photographs, this collection of biographies features venerables, blesseds, and saints who lived and died to bring glory and honor to God.  For inspiration, encouragement, and an extraordinary look into a seldom-seen aspect of contemporary history, this remarkable compilation profiles the amazing depth and breadth of sanctity that characterizes faces of holiness.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor (IN) (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879734094
• ISBN-13: 978-0879734091
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,213,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspiration for all, February 7, 2002

By 

V. Triay (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Faces of Holiness: Modern Saints in Photos and Words (v. 2) (Paperback)

Ms. Ball has written a great work detailing real life stories of people who gave their minds, bodies, and souls to a cause. This is a work that will inspire all people, Catholic and otherwise, who dedicate their lives to an ideal. I was especially pleased that she reserved a chapter for the inspirational life of Rogelio Gonzalez Corzo, code-named "Francisco," a young leader of the anti-Communist/anti-Castro underground in Cuba. This deeply religious man, an agricultural engineer only in his late twenties, a Catholic school graduate, and a leader of the Agupacion Catolica Universitaria, bravely took on the puppets of the Soviet Empire in his country. He never doubted his actions, and in his famous letter to his family just before hsi execution, he wrote, "Death is already knocking at my door, but as all my companions I have great peace of mind, because cost what it may it will show me the way to heaven and eternal happiness."
Ms. Ball is to be highly commended for her work. The others featured in the book, from a wide range of backgrounds and nations, were extrememly well selected. Not only does her choice of modern saints make the book attractive and inclusive, but truly speak to the transnational connection of Roman Cathilics around the world. A great book.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Companion to the First Volume, January 22, 2002

By 

Tim Drake "Author and Journalist" (Saint Joseph, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Faces of Holiness: Modern Saints in Photos and Words (v. 2) (Paperback)

It doest look as if Amazon has made an error in combining reviews from Ann Ball's first volume, and this more recent second volume.

Faces of Holiness II is another of Ball's gripping books of modern saints. Like the first, it introduces the reader to many largely unknown saints through both words and numerous photographs.

A respected hagiographer, Ball has assembled a unparalleled collection of modern blesseds, venerables, and saints.

This work, like her first, is thoroughly inspiring. It introduces the reader not to saints that lived long ago, but to more modern individuals that had lives just like those of our friends, family, and neighbors. The stories are very accessible.

The book includes more than 100 biographies of the saints, a complete biography, and an index.

The biographies include those of Satoko Kitahara from Japan, Knights of Columbus founder Michael Joseph McGivney, Spanish teen Alexia Gonzalez-Barros, and the Visitandine Martyrs of Spain.

The photographs alone are worth the price of this book.

This would be a wonderful book to read to your children.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Saints Alive!, January 29, 2002

By 

Fr.Campion Lally,ofm (Kiryu, Gumma Prefecture, JAPAN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Faces of Holiness: Modern Saints in Photos and Words (v. 2) (Paperback)

The saints are human beings just like us, but formerly hagiographers tended to make them unreal. Ann Ball has shown a marvelous talent to bring them within our reach. They had problems and difficulties like the rest of us, but with God's help they revealed a true heroism that inspires us toward goodness.