Saint Books

From best-selling author of Champions of the Rosary --a sweeping history of the Rosary -- and promoter of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, shares the riveting stories of the 26 key figures who championed the rosary and thereby changed the world - a smaller format for readers interested in delving into the lives of these great champions!

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.

A true treasure of spiritual insights, this little booklet contains the remarkable meditations on the Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane by Blessed Padre Pio, the stigmatist priest. One of his few writings, the booklet also includes many pictures of Blessed Padre Pio from throughout his ministry. Padre Pio's beautiful and descriptive manner of writing provide a wonderful spiritual insight into that last night of Jesus' human life.

Excerpt:

"Jesus has returned to His place of prayer, and another picture, more terrible than the first, presents itself to Him. All our sins with their entire ugliness parade before Him in every detail. He must clothe Himself with this entire unclean mass of human corruption and present Himself before the sanctity of His Father, to expiate everything with individual pains, to render Him all that glory of which they have robbed Him, to cleanse that human cesspool in which man wallows with contemptible indifference.

And all this does not make Him retreat. As a raging sea this mass inundates Him, enfolds Him, oppresses Him. Behold Him before His Father the God of Justice, facing the full penalty of divine justice. He, the essence of purity, sanctity by nature, in contact with sin, indeed, as if He Himself had become a sinner! Who can fathom the disgust that He feels in His innermost spirit? The horror He feels? The nausea, the contempt He senses so vividly? And having taken all upon Himself, nothing excepted, He is crushed by this immense weight, oppressed, thrown down, prostrated. Exhausted, He groans beneath the weight of Divine Justice, before His Father, Who has permitted His Son to offer Himself as a Victim for sin, as one accursed."

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.

By PaulaAnne SharkeyLemire. A handy guide for devotion to this popular North American Blessed! This booklet contains a short life of Kateri and a collection of approved prayers, chaplet instructions, and a novena to Blessed Kateri.

Many full-color images of Kateri and photos of places associated with her life. The back cover features the original painting of Kateri which she herself requested in a vision after her death. 32 pp. Softcover. (After this booklet was published, Kateri was canonized.)

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.

Translation of: Carlo Acutis, un geek au paradis.

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

From the best-selling author of the classic Catholic conversion story, No Turning Back: A Witness to Mercy by Fr. Donald H. Calloway, comes a powerful and comprehensive history of a spiritual weapon: the rosary.

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

This volume contains two of Teresa's most popular works: The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle.

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 TheImitation 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 burgundy Dura-Lux cover, this classic book will make a meaningful personal resource or gift.

In Consoling Thoughts on God and Providence, St. Francis de Sales, beloved Doctor of the Church, speaks of how God wants only good for us, and why we should have great confidence in His merciful love. This treasure of spirituality beautifully explains God's love for the sinner, how great His joy is upon the return of just one lost sheep, and how God's mercy extends even towards the damned. St. Francis encourages us to conform ourselves to God's will, and teaches us to abandon ourselves to the Lord who so desires our hearts. Readers of Consoling Thoughts on God and Providence will experience firsthand why St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) is known to history as the Gentle Saint. St. Francis was Bishop of Geneva and a tireless preacher, who yet made time to correspond with numerous souls who wrote him for his insight and guidance. His Consoling Thoughts are compiled from these letters as well as from his other spiritual works.

"In mental prayer the soul is purified from its sins, nourished with charity, confirmed in faith, and strengthened in hope; the mind expands, the affections dilate, the heart is purified, truth becomes evident; temptation is conquered, sadness dispelled; the senses are renovated; drooping powers revive; tepidity ceases; the rust of vices disappears. Out of mental prayer issues forth, like living sparks, those desires of heaven which the soul conceives when inflamed with the fire of divine love. Sublime is the excellence of mental prayer, great are its privileges; to mental prayer heaven is opened; to mental prayer heavenly secrets are manifested and the ear of God [is] ever attentive."-St. Peter of Alcantara, Spiritual Director of St. Teresa "What St. Teresa has done so brilliantly is to describe precisely how a person can indeed contact God through prayer. Despite her reputation as a soaring Spanish mystic, she was an eminently practical person, and that practicality shines through her teachings about prayer: she is an instructor who shows, in step-by-step fashion, how the individual can contact God and then sustain that relationship."-Peter Thomas Rohrbach "Do not be astonished at the difficulties one meets in the way of mental prayer, and the many things to be considered in undertaking this heavenly journey. The road upon which we enter is a royal highway which leads to Heaven. Is it strange that the attainment of such a treasure should cost us something? The time will come when we shall realize that the whole world could not purchase it."-St. Teresa of Avila

These interviews, given during the lifetime of St. Josemaría Escrivá, explain the nature of Opus Dei and describe some basic aspects of its spirit and organization. The replies of Opus Dei's founder, despite the awkwardness of the inadequate juridical terminology at the time, explain its aim to spread in all spheres of society a deep awareness of the universal call to holiness and apostolate, in the fulfillment of one's ordinary professional work.

St. Josemaría also addresses issues of family life, education, society, and the Church. Freedom of the individual, love of the Church, and his own supernatural outlook and human warmth are features that permeate these conversations.

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.

"From 1899 until her death in 1903, the young Italian woman St. Gemma Galgani physically experienced the wounds of Christ every Thursday evening. The stigmata would appear and bleed on her hands, feet, and side, stopping only of Friday afternoon and leaving white marks as a reminder. St. Gemma also experienced countless visions, raptures, ecstasies, and other mystical graces-- as well as intense temptations from the devil." [from back cover]

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.

The Dolorous Passion has been inspiring thousands since it first appeared in 1833-being based on the detailed visions of Our Lord's Passion and Death as seen by Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), a German Augustinian nun, and recorded by Clemens Brentano, a prominent literary figure of the day. A saintly person from her youth and a great mystic and victim soul, Sister Emmerich was privileged by God during almost a lifetime of ecstatic visions to see all the events of Our Lord's suffering and death, which visions we can now understand in hindsight were a great gift from God to the world. Her account of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, while faithful to the Bible, is heart-rending, edifying and surprising-because of its intimate detail. The Dolorous Passion recounts with incredible precision the horrendous sufferings undergone by our Saviour in His superhumanly heroic act of Redemption. Also illuminating is its description of Mary's participation in the sufferings of her Son, so that this book gives the reader a poignant understanding of why Our Lady is often called our "Co Redemptrix" and "Queen of Martyrs." The Dolorous Passion is a singular book that conveys a lasting impression of the terrible Agony of Our Lord, of His infinite love for us that motivated His Agony, and how His Passion and Death were brought on by each person's sins. Here is a book that gives one a holy feeling just to read it. Here is a book that will melt a heart of stone!

Raise your spirits and toast Saint Nick!

Hot gin toddies. Smoking rosemary old fashioneds. A "wet" Advent calendar. Now you can experience Christmas the way it was meant to be celebrated: with festive cocktails and a lively history of Saint Nicholas and other saints! Michael Foley, author of Drinking with the Saints, presents holiday drink recipes; beer, wine, and cider recommendations; and witty instruction on how to honor the saints in this exquisite gift book that will make your Christmas more spirited than ever before.

"With lively stories and delicious drink recipes, this book takes us on a rollicking journey through the lives of the saints. What a fun and fabulous way to engage with your faith during the holidays." -- Jennifer Fulwiler, author of One Beautiful Dream and host of the Jennifer Fulwiler Show on the Catholic Channel