Saintly Men of Modern Times [Paperback]

Joan Carroll Cruz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2003

Joan Carroll Cruz For every Catholic man, here are heroes you can relate to. Men need role models, too. Here are more than 70 of the best: great men of modern times who lived their faith even when it meant giving up everything they had. From horse trader to Prime minister, these are men from every walk of life. Doctors, lawyers, construction workers, and civil servants all found holiness where they lived and worked. Some of them were martyrs to oppressive governments. Others were martyrs to physical ailments, or other problems that are all too familiar to us. A detailed topical index makes it easy to find heroes by their professions or by the problems they faced. Numerous photos bring the heroes to life as real people. This is the perfect gift for any Catholic man or boy, and an inspiring pick-me-up when you need a  spiritual lift.

Product Details

• Paperback: 303 pages
• Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor (IN) (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931709777
• ISBN-13: 978-1931709774
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,266,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing and uplifting profiles of heroic, religious lay men., January 5, 2006

By 

Christian Engler (Woburn, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saintly Men of Modern Times (Paperback)

The Catholic Church offers many blessings, the sacrements being one of the most significant. But coupled along with that are the global children of the Church and the vast shining examples of good that they not only represent but advocate. Over the past few years, the Catholic Church has had to acknowledge its serious shortcomings in relation to the horrific sex scandal, among other things. The hierarchy was looked upon-and unfortunately to a certain degree still is-with scorn and jaded cynicism, and any chance of genuine rectification seemed almost impossible. It appeared to be an institution that was floundering in a sea of mistrust and anger, and rightfully so, especially in fully comprehending what happened to the victims. Along with the religious was the devout laity who took the helm and helped to usher in a deeper understanding of not humanism, per se, but of the true, palpable manifestation of faith and of the Divine gift that it really was and is. They, the laity and religious did not say that the doctrine of the Church was unsound and unstable, but rather, it was the varied manipulative and disordered practitioners of the dogma(s) that were. It was the foreknowledge and secretiveness that only added fuel to the fire. So much turmoil and havoc on so many. Hence, it was a real joy to read Saintly Men of Modern Times by Joan Cruz Carroll, because in this biographical work she illustrates the vital importance played by lay Catholics and how their holy essence of living out the Gospel has redefined, refined and added to the totality of the Catholic Church. When one thinks of sainthood, one normally thinks of that honor being afforded only to mystics, monks, priests and nuns and so forth. Yet, Pope John Paul II changed all that, and Carroll's book details in picturesque detail the lives of these men who had or are on their way to affording the honor of the alter. And some of the examples are quite startling: a former alcoholic (Matt Talbot), a former satanic priest (Bartolo Long) to medical doctors (Joseph Moscati and Ladislaus Batthyany-Strattmann) or just everyday holy blue-collar joes (Franz Jagerstatter and Dominic Cesari). A reader will be able to identify with any number of examples profiled in this book, and therein is where the beauty lies, in the underlying truth of the beauty of confession, the Holy Eucharist, the Mass, the rosary, et cetera. These men, married, single, martyred, lived out their baptism in the truest sense of the word, making the universal call to holiness an integral part of their identity. Men to stand with priests.