Customer Reviews

Saints Lives & Illuminations

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The illustrations are sweetly innocent and charming, but somehow neither holy nor inspiring (the best one is the cover).
The descriptions of the different saints are quite interesting, and although they include the details of how the different saints died, it would be a matter of how you raise your children that decides you on this book.
Example on Saint Catherine:
"Catherine was tied between great spiked wheels, but it is said that lightning struck the wheel and saved her from this torture. Catherine was then beheaded, and milk, not blood, flowed from her body. "
I suppose that one of the cornerstones of Saints & martyrs being declared is the manner of their death, therefore it is relevant.
Recommended reading group 8+

This is a beautiful book for children which has one page per saint. Each page has about 2/5 of it with a beautiful colored picture of the saint. The other 3/5 of it has a equally beautiful stories of the saints. The saints included in this book are as follows.
Alexandra . . . . Anthony . . . . Augustine . . . . Barbara . . . . Basil . . . . Bede . . . . Benedict . . . . Brendan . . . . Brigid . . . . Catherine . . . . Cecilia . . . . Christopher . . . . Columba . . . . Constantine . . . . Dorothy . . . . Dunstan . . . . Edmund . . . . Eloi . . . . Ephraim . . . . Genevieve . . . . George . . . . Gregory the Great . . . . Helen . . . . Jerome . . . . John Chrysostom . . . . Kevin . . . . Lawrence . . . . Martin of Tours . . . . Mary of Egypt . . . . Maud . . . . Monica . . . . Moses . . . . Nicholas . . . . Nina . . . . Paula . . . . Patrick . . . . Scholastica . . . . Spyridon . . . . Stephen . . . . Theodora

This is NOT merely a book for children. Millions love saints. Their heroic goodness fuels our own hopes, because unlike fairy tales--the lives of saints supposedly are factual. I add "supposedly" because we all know that many saints' lives are part fact and part legend. One reason I'm so strongly recommending Ruth Sanderson's new "Saints: Lives and Illuminiations" today is that her collection of more than 70 saints' stories and iconic illustrations leans toward some of the documented real-life saints of particular interest to North Americans.

For example, you'll find St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pioneering American educator and passionate advocate for the poor and orphaned. Plus, Sanderson has included two saints who the Vatican has not yet officially canonized, but who already are very important: One is Mother Teresa, whose personal example of service as well as her writings continue to inspire millions around the world. The other very welcome addition in this regard is Kateri Tekakwitha, the remarkable 17th-century Algonquin-Iroquois woman who now is widely regarded as patronness of ecology, the environment and youth. While the Vatican has not yet canonized them, which is the Vatican's official declaration of their sainthood, Christian teaching clearly indicates that they're both saints already.

What most impressed me about this collection, though, is the inclusion of another very important saint: St. Moses the Ethiopian, sometimes known as St. Moses the Black. Sanderson includes him in this collection with an illustration depicting him as a youthful monk. So often, when St. Moses' image is displayed these days, he's shown as a much older father of the church. St. Moses is a vital bridge between Africa and the rest of the Christian world. He's also a bridge between East and West in Christianity--venerated both by Orthodox and Western-Rite Christians.

This book is not just for children, although the reading level does make it great for young readers. This book, in fact, is terrific for the whole family.

Beautiful artwork and short stories giving a brief yet pithy description of the saints. It is either good for young children who want to learn, or adults who want more of a meditation than a detailed account. A lot of female saints which may appeal especially to women and girls.

Beautiful color illustration of each saint graces one page, with a short 1-page narrative on the saint's life.

My book also has such saints as Padre Pio and Blessed Mother Teresa. The copyright dates in my book show 2003 and 2007. I wonder if this is a second version of this book and these saints were added between the two versions. The "More Saints" book by the same author is entirely a subset of this version of the original "Saints" book that I have.