Carey Wallace
Illustrated by Nick Thornborrow
h WORKMAN PUBLISHING h
NEW YORK
For my father, the saint
—CW
For Lindsey, Amy, and Eric
—NT
CONTENTS
The Roman Empire and the Ancient World
INTRODUCTION
Who is a saint?
Saints aren’t born better or braver than the rest of us. Gregory the Great ran away when the people of Rome elected him bishop. Jean Vianney couldn’t do simple schoolwork. Bernadette was too sick to play like other girls.
Saints aren’t people who are always good and never afraid. They’re people who believe there must be more to life than just what we can see. This world may be hard and unfair, but saints believe in a God who is bigger than the world, whose law is love, and whose justice is mercy. And this faith gives them courage: to stand up to evil kings, to care for people everyone else forgets or hates, to slay dragons.
This book doesn’t contain the stories of all the saints, because there have been thousands and thousands of them, and perhaps many more whose stories no one has ever heard. But these are some of the best-known and best-loved saints of all time. And they’re presented in chronological order, so we can see how the world and lives of faith have changed—and how they’ve stayed the same.
Are these stories true? That depends on what we mean by true stories. For some saints, like Joan of Arc, we know plenty of history. For others, like Valentine and Christopher, we know little besides their names. Their stories come to us through traditional tales.
But just because we can’t be sure a story really happened doesn’t mean it isn’t true in another way. These stories have been told for generations, some for thousands of years. In this book, they’ve been dramatized, but always based on tradition or history. They come from many sources, but they are among the best-loved and most enduring stories in the world because of the deep truths they contain.
They tell us that when people stand up for justice or mercy or love, they may see miracles, but they ...
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About Stories of the Saints: Bold and Inspiring Tales of Adventure, Grace, and Courage
A great gift for Communion and confirmation! |
| Support Info | 9781523503940 |