Saint Books

Foreword by Joseph Pearce Pope John Paul II canonized or beatified such a staggering number of people--well over fifteen hundred--that many of them remain as obscure after receiving their new title as they were before. If you have never heard of Bartolo Longo, the former satanic priest, you are not alone. And what about Enrico Rebuschini, who battled depression? Or the happily married Luigi and Maria Beltrame-Quattrocchi? In lively detail, Brian O'Neel tells the stories of these and more, a number of who are our near-contemporaries and coped with such horrors as Nazism (Jakob Gapp, Maria Restituta Kafka), slavery (Josephine Bakhita) or the Spanish Civil War (Vincente David Vilar). Amazing stories of ordinary human beings who demonstrate that holiness is not another word for boring, but a defining characteristic of those who threw themselves wholeheartedly into the adventure of life.

Angels and saints. Catholics tend to think of them as different from the rest of us. They're cast in plaster or simpering on a holy card, performing miracles with superhero strength, or playing a harp in highest heaven.

Yet they are very near to us in every way. In this lively book, Scott Hahn dispels the false notions and urban legends people use to keep the saints at a safe distance. The truth is that Jesus Christ has united heaven and earth in a close communion. Drawing deeply from Scripture, Dr. Hahn shows that the hosts of heaven surround the earthly Church as a great cloud of witnesses. The martyrs cry out from heaven's altar begging for justice on the earth. The prayers of the saints and angels rise to God, in the Book of Revelation, like the sweet aroma of incense.

Dr. Hahn tells the stories of several saints (and several angels too) in a way that's fresh and new. The saints are spiritual giants but with flesh-and-blood reality. They have strong, holy ambitions--and powerful temptations and opposition that must be overcome. Their stories are amazing and yet familiar enough to motivate us to live more beautiful lives. In this telling of their story, the saints are neither otherworldly nor this-worldly. They exemplify the integrated life that every Christian is called to live.

Still, their lives are as different from one another as human lives can be. Dr. Hahn shows the heavenly Church in all its kaleidoscopic diversity--from Moses to Mary, Augustine to Therese, and the first century to the last century.

Only saints will live in heaven. We need to be more like the saints if we want to live in heaven someday. Dr. Hahn shows us that our heavenly life can begin now.

It must.

This volume represents a contemporary English edition of John's rarely published work, "Ascent of Mount Carmel," a commentary on his entire spiritual vision.

2012 Reprint of 1958 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. St. Therese of Lisieux, "The Little Flower", was recently declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II, the third woman to receive this honor in 2000 years. She thus ranks with such intellectual and theological giants as St. Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas. This elevation is all the more astonishing when we consider her background; born to a bourgeois family in provincial 19th century France, she entered a cloistered convent at the age of 15, and died in obscurity at age 24. The posthumous publication of her spiritual journals created a sensation in the Catholic world comparable to that produced in the postwar world by "The Diary of Ann Frank." Adopted as a universal "little sister" by the French soldiers of World War I, St. Therese's naive, charming, but profound words were carried next to many an infantryman's heart. Therese's story and the effect of her powerful personality and passionate devotion have lost none of their force. "At last I have found my calling," she declared. "My calling is love." The core of her spiritual message, the "little way" is the recognition that any act, no matter how trivial, is infinitely valuable if done out of love. Her influence on other great 20th century figures such as Theresa of Calcutta and Edith Stein is obvious. This is a unique book, to be read with pleasure, with joy, and with the assurance of great spiritual benefit. The homely and human details of Therese's short life lead to the path of enlightenment. In her memoirs, she describes spiritual life: she lived each day with an unshakable confidence in God's love. "What matters in life," she wrote, "is not great deeds, but great love." Therese lived and taught a spirituality of attending to everyone and everything well and with love. She believed that just as a child becomes enamored with what is before her, we should also have a childlike focus and totally attentive love. Therese's spirituality is of doing the ordinary, with extraordinary love.

Bernard of Clairvaux holds a distinguished place in the history of Christian spirituality. During the twelfth century this gentle monk from France became the primary guide for those who follow the path of selfless love as well as a spokesman for a revival in monastic life. This collection of his most important writings provides a superb introduction to a man who has greatly shaped the Western monastic and mystical traditions.

This is the inspiring story of the famous Father Miguel Pro who was executed in Mexico in 1927 for the crime of being a Catholic priest. This young Jesuit spent most of his short life in the priesthood dodging the Mexican police as he ministered to the underground Church during the Mexican Revolution. Fr Pro's quick wit and keen sense of humor were put to good use as he pedaled around Mexico City on his bicycle in various disguises, en route to administering the Sacraments, giving spiritual talks or begging food and money for the poor. But behind the disguises beat the heart of a Saint - as the Mexican people testified by turning out in throngs to pay their last respects after his martyrdom. Fr Pro offered his life for the Catholic Faith and his last words on this earth were: "Viva Cristo Rey" - Long live Christ the King! Blessed Miguel Pro makes history come alive and highlights the dramatic conflict between the Church and her enemies that continues even to this day. Every member of the family will be delighted by this fast-paced true story of a modern Catholic hero who proclaimed both in life and death the reign of Christ the King.

There is no greater authority on the saints than Alban Butler, and his enormous research has been the standard reference on the subject for the last two and a half centuries. This new adaptation of Butler's multi-volume Lives of the Saints presents a modernized text for today's reader and provides an illuminating guide to these historic, symbolic, and foundational Christian men and women.

Butler's daily readings from the lives and works of the saints offer readers of all backgrounds the opportunity to engage directly with these great figures. Butler's distinctive contribution to stories about saints was to turn attention away from the superhuman, miraculous themes that are prevalent in earlier works. He gives us saints who are examples of Christian living, who provide inspiration for our own lives, in every time and circumstance. As Butler writes: "They were once what we are now, travelers on earth. They had the same weaknesses we have. We have difficulties; so had the saints."

Important features of this version include mention of recently canonized saints as well as those whose path to official sainthood is still in progress. Also included in the daily readings are more obscure saints whose lives and contributions to Christianity should not be forgotten.

In each generation, heroes of the Faith, whom the Church recognizes as saints, emerge. There are many characteristics that they have in common, but none thus far have used cell phones, played PlayStation video games, or searched for information on Google.

That is about to change.

A young “computer geek” named Carlo Acutis, who created a website cataloguing every reported Eucharistic miracle in the world and died of leukemia a year later at age fifteen, was beatified in November 2019, after a healing miracle in Brazil was attributed to his intercession. Since the beatification ceremony one year later, solemn crowds have been filing past the exposed relics of the blessed youth in Assisi’s Church of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Carlo is a sign of contradiction in the modern world who serves as a heroic model for today’s young people—a teenager who programmed computers and enjoyed films and comics yet lived as an authentic and sincere disciple of Christ. In these pages, you’ll discover how he embraced the Faith as a boy and developed the virtues necessary to live a Christ-centered life in a secular society, how he overcame the vices that plagued him, and how he gracefully dealt with heartaches he could not divulge even to his parents. 

When he developed leukemia, he offered his suffering both for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Catholic Church, saying: “I offer all the suffering I will have to undergo for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church.” In this surprising and inspiring book, you’ll also learn:

• How Carlo became holy, in only a few short years
• The young man’s unusual loneliness and how he dealt with it
• His strategy for resisting peer pressure
• How he had fun without losing control and learned to resist gluttony
• How he interacted with teen girls who became his friends
• Why his explanations about the Mass are used in today’s catechism classes in Italy
• How he dealt with friends who were sexually promiscuous and what he told them
• How he responded to the shocking news that he was dying (which happened two weeks later)
• His remarkable Eucharistic Miracles Exhibition—made possible by his computer skills—that is now touring churches all over Europe

In his newest book, Casting Nets with the Saints, Chris Stewart uses entertaining stories of saints to demonstrate "The Seven Characteristics of Effective Evangelizers."

No book except the Bible itself had a greater influence on the Middle Ages than City of God. Since medieval Europe was the cradle of today's Western civilization, this work by consequence is vital for understanding our world and how it came into being.
Saint Augustine is often regardarded as the most influential Christian thinker after Saint Paul, and City of God is his materpiece, a cast synthesis of religious and secular knowledge. It began as a reply to the charge that Christian otherworldiness was causing the decline of the Roman Empire. Augustine produced a wealth of evidence to prove that paganism bore within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Then he proceeded to his larger theme, a cosmic interpretation of in terms of the struggle between good and evilL the City of God in conflict with the Earthly City or the City of the Devil. This, the first serious attempt at a philosophy of history, was to have incalculable influence in forming the Western mind on the relations of church and state, and on the Christian's place in the temporal order.
The original City of God contained twenty-two books and filles three regular-sized volumes. This edition has been skillfully abridged for the intelligent general reader by Vernon J. Bourke, author of Augustine's Quest for Wisdom, making the heart of this monumental work available to a wide audience.

This book contains Letters from 1546 to 1577. Includes Introductions, Endnotes, Biographical Sketches and Index.

This is the second edition of volume One of The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, first woman doctor of the church. The translators have taken full advantage of all that recent scholarship has contributed to a better understanding of Teresa and her writings. This volume includes her first major work, The Book of Her Life, and two of her shorter works, the Spiritual Testimonies and the Soliloquies. Clear and contemporary, this rendering captures Teresa's spirit while remaining faithful to her thought. Includes general and biblical index.

This book contains The Book of Her Foundations and Minor Works. Includes a general and a biblical index.

Elizabeth of the Trinity (Elizabeth Catez), who died in 1906 at the age of 26 in the Carmel of Dijon, is a mystic for our times, with a profound spirituality rooted not in visions and voices but in attention to the indwelling Trinity and in the call to become a "praise of glory" for God. This first volume of her Complete Works contains her major spiritual writings, including two sets of retreat notes ("Heaven in Faith" and "Last Retreat") and her famous prayer "O My God, Trinity Whom I Adore." A comprehensive introduction to Elizabeth's life and spirituality by the editor, Conrad De Meester, is also included, along with detailed notes and 5 pages of photos.

Confessions of St. Augustine is--after the Bible and The Imitation of Christ--the most widely translated and highly esteemed book in Christian history. Translated by Rev. J.M. Lelen, Ph.D., this edition is published in a prayer book format, offering a participatory reading and prayer experience based on St. Augustine's confessions of his youthful errors. With a brown Dura-Lux cover, this classic book will make a meaningful personal resource or gift.

In the midst of crisis, confusion, and a world at war with the Church, it's time to come home again to our spiritual father, St. Joseph. In this richly researched and lovingly presented program of consecration to St. Joseph, Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, brings to life the wonders, the power, and the ceaseless love of St. Joseph, Universal Patron of the Church and the Terror of Demons.

This book explores both the psychological and spiritual dimensions of the life of St. Thrse of Lisieux. The basic premise of this book is that the spiritual life is not an encapsulated sphere, cloistered from the realities of our human existence. Rather it is our response to God within the physical, psychological, social and emotional dimensions of life.

"Conversations with Mother Teresa" is a lively and personal portrait of this modern-day saint that captures Mother Teresa's vision, energy, determination, and great love for Jesus in the poorest of the poor. Italian Journalist Renzo Allegri relates his impressions upon meeting this "diminutive woman in love with God" in a way that makes us feel as if we were there with him. He also includes lesser known stories about her life: her Albanian family and the hope she never realized of seeing her mother and sister again; her successful plan to place a miraculous medal in the Kremlin; and the suffering she felt when leaving her convent to launch her new mission. All who read this book will share Allegri's admiration and amazement of Blessed Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity she founded, which he calls "an army that defies the impossible."

Milton Lomask contributes his second volume to the Vision Books series of saints for youth 9 - 15 years old in this story of the greatly beloved Cure of Ars. Jean-Marie Vianney, a farm boy born during the French Revolution, longed to become a priest. But he could not learn Latin, and it seemed as if the humble, lovable, slow-thinking Jean-Marie would never be ordained. He did at last become a priest, and such a holy one that St. Jean-Marie Vianney is invoked as the patron saint and model of parish priests everywhere. To many he is known, not by name, but simply as "the Cure of Ars, " the parish priest who devoted his life to the little village of Ars and so successfully led his people to sanctity that he became a prime target of the devil.

This bestselling book that birthed the Divine Mercy movement, one of the fastest growing movements in world today. This amazing narrrative will stir your heart and soul while it chronicles the experience of a simple Polish nun.

This booklet from bestselling author Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC (Consoling the Heart of Jesus and 33 Days to Morning Glory), gives you a brief and easy-to-understand introduction to the Divine Mercy message and devotion. Discover the history and context of Divine Mercy, the essential elements of the devotion, and how you can live the message.

It iIncludes the full prayers of the Divine Mercy Novena and St. Faustina's Litany to Divine Mercy, as well as two bonus appendices: valuable Divine Mercy prayers and Divine Mercy wisdom from Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.