A S H LSO BY COTT AHN Consuming the Word: The New Testament and the Eucharist in the Early Church The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth Hail, Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God First Comes Love: Finding Your Family in the Church and the Trinity Lord, Have Mercy: The Healing Power of Confession Swear to God: The Promise and Power of the Sacraments Letter and Spirit: From Written Text to Living Word in the Liturgy Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace: My Spiritual Journey in Opus Dei Understanding the Scriptures: A Complete Course on Bible Study Understanding “Our Father”: Biblical Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer A Father Who Keeps His Promise: God’s Covenant Love in Scripture Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism WITH KIMBERLY HAHN Living the Mysteries: A Guide for Unfinished Christians WITH MIKE AQUILINA Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots Many Are Called: Rediscovering the Glory of the Priesthood Catholic Bible Dictionary, GENERAL EDITOR This is an uncorrected eBook file. Please do not quote for publication until you check your copy against the finished book. Copyright © 2014 by Scott Hahn All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Image, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York. www.crownpublishing.com IMAGE is a registered trademark and the “I” colophon is a trademark of Random House LLC. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ISBN 978-0-307-59079-4 eBook ISBN 978-0-307-59080-0 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition CONTENTS Cover By Scott Hahn Title page Copyright page Preface: How the Book Works P I ART 1. Incident in Assisi: The Science of the Saints 2. The Only Saint 3. For All the Saints 4. What Do Saints Do? 5. Talking about My Veneration 6. A Gathering of Angels P II ART 7. St. Michael and the Angels 8. Holy Moses 9. St. Paul, Son of God 10. St. Ignatius of Antioch, God’s Wheat 11. St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Blessed Peacemaker 12. St. Jerome and His Circle 13. St. Monica and Her Son 14. St. Thomas Aquinas, Biblical Theologian 15. St. Therese of Lisieux, Saint of Little Things 16. St. Maximilian Kolbe, Saint of Auschwitz 17. St. Josemaria Escriva, Saint in the Street 18. Queen of All Saints, Mother of the Church Epilogue Bibliography Notes PREFACE HOW THE BOOK WORKS When I first began to think about this book, I planned it to unfold in much the same way as my book Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots. In that book I began with a brief exposition of basic doctrinal considerations, then proceeded to look at individual devotions. In this book, I thought I’d set down a similar brief introduction before galloping on through our encounter with many individual saints, a saint for every chapter and a chapter for every saint. I’m afraid, however, that enthusiasm got the best of me as I composed the “brief” introductory chapter, and before long I saw that it had exceeded the bounds of what normal people call a chapter. I concluded that I’d have to divide it into two chapters. But then I kept finding more material that simply had to be included in the book, and soon those two chapters were three; and then those three were four; and before long I had six. So this is not the book I had planned to write. It is the book I had to write. It now sets out with six chapters as it leads to the seventh and beyond. Consider the book to be a “week” that concludes in the long Sabbath of the saints. All subsequent chapters are meditations on the lives of a few popular saints. The meditations are necessarily short and usually focus on only one or two aspects of the saint’s thought or accomplishments. I hope these will pique your interest and inspire you to find out more about the saints that attract you most. There’s much more to learn. Entire libraries could be devoted to works related to St. Augustine, for example. And much of the greatest western literature of the past two thousand years can arguably be seen as a footnote to the life and work of Moses! With each meditation I’ve included writings by or about the saints under discussion. I tried to choose the passages that will best inspire prayer and rouse us to imitation of the virtues of the saints. I tried also, wherever possible, to choose passages that discuss points of doctrine or devotion related to the Communion of Saints. You’ll find these under the heading “Ponder in Your Heart,” a line I’ve taken from St. Luke, who said of the Queen of All Saints: “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). There is otherwise nothing special about my selections—of saints or readings —except that they are mine. I did try to include a representative variety, including angels and regular folks, characters from the Old Testament and the New, lay and clergy, ancient and modern. But, as I prepare the book for press, I notice that my chosen saints tend to be those with whom I have something in common. Most are teachers, scholars, researchers, and writers, as I am. There is far greater diversity in the saintly communion than I’ve let on in this book! Should you decide to write your own book, I’m certain you will have a different list! A note on my sources: I have drawn most texts of the Church Fathers from the three nineteenth-century series: the Ante-Nicene Fathers (which I’ve abbreviated ANF); the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1 (which I’ve abbreviated NPNF1); and the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2 (NPNF2). I’ve chosen these series because they’re easily accessible, for free, online. My citations are fairly simple: NPNF2 1:1 means Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, volume 1, page 1. I have taken the liberty of updating the language from these old translations. I welcome you, though, to find the works online and read the quoted passages in their original context. (I’d be happier still if you got so excited that you learned the ancient languages, to check the work of the original translators as well.) I pray you will come to know these saints and know their care in your life. I pray you will love these saints as I do. As I read the table of contents, I think of you and me and the time we’ll spend together in these pages. And I say with each name: “Pray for us!” P I A R T