Customer Reviews

Sister Wendy's Book of Saints

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sister Wendy Beckett is a gifted story teller and artist. Her delightful paintings and her wonderfully original expressions bring Catholicism to all readers. This delightful book is truly one of a kind. Sister Wendy shares her love for painting and her gift for this medium in this work. Her loving recounting of the accounts of saints' lives will touch, amuse and delight all who are fortunate enough to encounter this wonderful book.

Sister Wendy shows a light touch, a gentle approach to imparting her faith journey and the information she has gathered over the years. The bright colors emphasize the light, bright, upbeat tone of this wonderful book. I can't recommend it highly enough. This is truly a keeper.

God bless Sister Wendy!

A beautifully constucted book for as far as it goes, but we Sister Wendy lovers are left wanting more! If anything, it seems too small in scale. Like a delicious meal that we're only allowed to take a couple bites of. This is actually a great thumbnail introduction to saints for all us non-Catholics. The usual great paintings with Sister Wendy's wonderful, insightful commentaries. But we wish for bigger visual and literary feast. Everything about the book is small scale. Some of the illustrations should have been blown up to a larger size. We wish Sister Wendy would have gone on longer in her commentaries. At 93 pages, we wish for at least 100 more. She shouldn't have limited her selections to paintings from just one Italian exhibition. For all its brevity, I highly recommend the book. Lasty, don't pass up any chance to snag a copy of the video version of this book which aired on PBS.

If the rating had 10 stars, i would have given it 10. Sister wendy provides lucid and clear pictures and text, good book for all ages

Sister Wendy's winsome and humble approach to her subject is a testimony to her obviously strong faith. The book is absolutely beautiful and genuinely well-written and ought to be on everyone's coffeetable as far as I'm concerned.

Nice commentary as always from Sister Wendy. The artwork was not what I expected. If you look at this book as primarily an informational/devotional on saints and any art is just an extra, then expectations will be met. If you're looking for something with nice big pictures of detailed artwork that's of equal importance to the book as the information on saints, my opinion is you won't be happy. The artwork is small and neither detailed nor of particularly impressive quality...more something for private intimate use. On many pages, the pictures are so tiny one can hardly make out any detail at all. Again, the commentary is very nice however.

Sister Wendy's Book of Saints By Sister Wendy Beckett.
This is a beautiful little book (96 pages), all bright and shiny paper with brilliant colors that almost leap off the page. Sister Wendy, the nun who has made a trade mark out of her running in and out of art museums, has collected the images of saints to support both her love of art and her orthodox views on Catholicism. The book begins with St. Peter (Petrine privilege?) and works its way down to lesser-known saints.
With each portrait, Sister Wendy points out an interesting tidbit. For example, with the Evangelist, St. Mark, (page 17), Sister Wendy indicates that the artist has portrayed the saint forming a cross with his pen and his sharpening knife. She lightens the mood by describing the lion, in the painting, as resembling "... an imbecilic sheep gazing in wonderment..." at St. Mark. This lightening of the mood is intentional as Sister Wendy repeats it (page 24) when she describes the ox in St. Luke's portrait as "...an almost goofy ox".

Despite this levity, Sister Wendy comes across as quite serious about both the art depicting the saints and the theology of the saints she has chosen. In summary, I would be very happy to have this book given to me.

Vague. Lacking in content. Confusing in flow.


Recommend instead:

Lives of the Saints: From Mary and St. Francis of Assisi to John XXIII and Mother Teresa

Sister Wendy has put together a great book on Saints. I really enjoyed that she placed the saint's feast day, attributes, and what the saint is a patron to in the margins. Lovely stories and paintings. It's only fault is that it could have been much longer with more saints included.