Alexandra Bonfante-Warren

A great introduction to the Saints, especially for those that aren't of the Catholic faith while having no idea what the subject matter may cover. In this case Alexandra did a great job at combining some of the more famous saints such as Saint Patrick, Saint Nicholas, Saint Joan of Arc and Saint Francis of Assisi along with some lesser known ones.

What makes this a treasured book is the artwork that is included. Some of the artwork is from much closer to modern times artwork while others go back into the Middle Ages thus you have a line of famous artists to the anonymous type. It is stunning to study the numerous styles, to see the changes, the evolving of detail and so much more. But as a heads-up there are some graphic pictures that children aren't suppose to see so I would steer this book clear from little hands.

The author split the book up into various groups of the saints such as the original group, missionaries, scholars, etc. Then each of the groups was split into a certain amount of saints who were listed in alphabetical order with their feast day underneath the name. From there the author discussed the contributions of the saint, offered possibly a story or two if there was room and of course some of the history. And at the same time you learned the history of the Catholic church or the "nation" that saint came from.

The one thing I thought was missing would have been to also include the symbol or emblem of the saints for most of the artwork of Europe focused on these individuals while the "name-card" to the artwork would have been that emblem thus the illiterate wouldn't know who they were looking at. I will confess a few of them were given the emblem in brief mention but I would have liked to have seen it for all.

All in all I know there were only 70 Saints mentioned when there are a whole bunch more than that but the book would have been so much bigger to have included all of them. All in all if you are interested in the subject matter I would read this book to get you started and then see if you can find other books that are more in-depth with the subject.… (mais)