FearlessStories of the American Saints
The star-spangled saints made in America aren't quite like the plaster saints familiar to us from Europe. Nurtured and shaped by this land and history, their story is part of the fabric of our nation. Includes the stories of Isaac Jogues, Kateri Tekakwitha, Junípero Serra, Elizabeth Seton, Philippine Duchesne, Theodore Guérin, John Neumann, Francis Seelos, Damien de Veuster, Marianne Cope, Frances Cabrini, and Katharine Drexel, all set in the rich context of American history.
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Review
The authors make it quite clear that these saints are not unreachable heroic figures but rather quite human people who risked much—for some, their very lives—to spread the good news about Christ. The book’s aim? That "all of us might find our place among these heroic hearts." Catherine O’Connell-Cahill, U.S. Catholic
Book Excerpt
For the sake of Christ, Francis kissed a leper. For Christ's sake, Damien became one. Herein lies the holy perfection of a Belgian peasant described by most contemporaries as an extraordinarily deficient man. Damien's character flaws were many and glaring. His bishops and superiors declared him infuriatingly insubordinate. Members of his Sacred Heart Community of priests found him intolerable to work with. Bishop Hermann Koeckemann of Honolulu, mollified by media worship of Damien after his death, noted snippily that "Saints look better at a distance." ... Yet to one of his collaborators, "such faults were consumed like straws in the fire of Damien's charity.