Saints for Now [Paperback]

Clare Boothe Luce (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1993

Edited by Clare Booth Luce The well-known writer and Catholic convert, Clare Booth Luce, edited this classic on the lives of saints by a group of world-famous authors. She asked twenty writers to contribute a short biography of their favorite saint to this volume. Writers such as Evelyn Waugh, E. I. Watkin, Whittaker Chambers, Thomas Merton, Barbara Ward and Karl Stern wrote stories of saints whose lives and message provided special significance for our times. Saints from every age of the Church are here, including St. Augustine, St. John the Apostle, St. Benedict, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Helena, St. Thomas More, the Curé of Ars, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and more. Each essay highlights some facet of the timeliness of each saint. As they differ in birth, condition, and talent, so too do the saints differ astoundingly from one another in the modes of expressing their holiness. "The saints present the now of Christianity in the many nows in which it has existed. Saints for Now helps us to explain our time, our now, to ourselves because it tells us how Christian saints lived their `nows.'" - James V. Schall, S.J., Author, Another Sort Of Learning

Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: Ignatius Press (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898704766
• ISBN-13: 978-0898704761
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,172,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most inspiring and well written books of saints., April 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Saints for Now (Paperback)

The book is a collection of biographies of saints written by friends of Clare Booth Luce. It begins with an engaging introductory essay by Ms. Luce on the question: What is a Saint? It follows with 20 biographies on 19 different saints (two cover St. John of the Cross). Each essay focuses on the "timeliness" of the saint's life. Authors include Alfred Noyes, Evelyn Waugh (quite good on St. Helena the Empress), Whittaker Chambers and Thomas Merton (on St. John of the Cross). Especially interesting are the entries on St. Thomas Moore (by Barbara Ward) and St. Therese of Lisieux (by Karl Stern). Several unusual saints are covered: St. Radegund (by E.I. Watkin), forced to wed Clothaire the Beast, St. Hilda of Whitby (by Sister Madeleva), who brought poetry to the English language, and St. Simeon Stylites (by George Lamb) the saint of doing, well, nothing. Do not miss Bruce Marshall's telling of life of the Cure of Ars. This book is well worth the read.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Philosophical Historical Perspective of the Saints, October 5, 2005

By 

Miryam Shoresh (Adirondack Mountains, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saints for Now (Paperback)

While most books on saints draw you into their lives and leave the preaching to be done by the life of each saint (in how they lived out their lives) this book does just the opposite. To give you an example of what I mean, let me quote the following from this book on page 121 about St. Francis of Assisi:
"Francis had pets, a lamb, a pheasant, a rabbit, a cicada, a dog, a wolf, but upon honest and unsentimental terms. For he was as polite and considerate to an earthworm, a slug, a bird, a beetle or a mole, as amusedly tolerant and withal, understanding and warmly loving as one would be to one's brothers and sisters. He called them so, not with the pious emptiness the words have come to connote in modern times, but with the deep conviction of the kinship.
It is told of him that he would stoop to remove an earthworm from his path so as not to crush it. One feels that with Francis it was a personal as well as symbolic courtesy to something living he happened to encounter.
There appears to be a touch of the child's world of fancy in this but it is really an intensely practical way of life aboard an overpopulated planet, and what is more, it has the great advantage of beauty over ugliness. Looking back to the daily joy and happiness that Francis managed to crowd into the forty-four years of his life it is not at all difficult to understand that it is better to be kind than unkind and to be generous and accommodating instead of rude and possessive. This is not childish. It is one of the most adult discoveries ever made."
If this is the kind of retelling of the saints lives that you want, then this is a good book for you. If you are looking for something different, then please feel free to check out my review of over 20 other books on the saints which I found to be much better.

5.0 out of 5 stars Something for everyone, September 11, 2011

By 

matt (the reading room) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saints for Now (Paperback)

This has become one of my new favorite book on the Saints. My copy was published in 1952, with artwork included that reflects that time (not sure if it is in the Ignatius version), and many of the authors of this collection were well-known at the time. Each author, including Thomas Merton and Kathleen Norris, were given free reign on which saint they wanted to write about, and for whatever reason they desired. The result if a mixed bag of reflections, some more inspiring than others. That said, the introduction alone is a powerful testimony to the fact that God lives in His body, the Church of Christ through His saints. Some of them, like St. Helena, are canonized for one major deed, such as the finding of the cross. Others, like St Theresa the Little Flower, found the cross in the splinters of daily life that we all too often turn into the seeds of bitterness and petty resentments that choke out the seeds of grace. A great collection that has stood the test of time, just like the saints themselves.