Voices of the Saints: A Year of Readings

The inspiring stories of 365 holy men and women-from the best known to some of the most obscure-come to life in an engaging collection of biographical profiles, quotations from the saints themselves, meditations, and prayers.

Voices of the Saints opens with an instruction from Saint Philip Neri: "The best preparation for prayer is to read the lives of the saints, not from mere curiosity, but quietly and with recollection a little at a time. And to pause whenever you feel your heart touched with devotion."

With these words of faith and wisdom as his guiding principle, Bert Ghezzi presents the lives of such familiar and beloved saints as Saint Peter and Saint Catherine of Siena; Saint Jerome and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux; of humble, little-known figures like Felix of Nola, Pelagia the Penitent, and Leonard of Port Maurice; and of sainted men and women associated with a particular place, including Margaret of Scotland, Rose of Lima, Elizabeth Ann Seton, and Junípero Serra.??In lively profiles written for contemporary readers, Ghezzi chronicles their journeys of faith and their contributions to the vitality of the Church.??The voices of the saints resound throughout the book, in quotations drawn from their own writings, the works of biographers, and the recollections of witnesses.

Readers can use Voices of the Saints in several different ways.??Organized alphabetically, it serves as a helpful, easy-to-use dictionary.??It also features a day-by-day numbering system, ideal for daily readings; notations at the end of each entry, enabling the exploration of the lives in historical order; an index that highlights particular themes (including the intriguing "Porcupine Saints"), and a calendar of saints' days.??A fascinating look at disparate and unusual lives-each one a rich source of illumination, inspiration, encouragement, and motivation-along with prayers and meditations, Voices of the Saints is a valuable companion for members of Catholic, Episcopal, and other traditional churches, and an enlightening introduction to the saints for general readers.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Voices of the Saints: A Year of Readings by Bert Ghezzi begins with an epigraph drawn from the writings of St. Philip Neri: "The best preparation for prayer is to read the lives of the saints, not from mere curiosity, but quietly and with recollection a little at a time. And to pause whenever you feel your heart touched with devotion." Ghezzi's devotional has a fluid structure that will nourish any aspect of a reader's prayer life. Scores of short profiles of the saints (including familiar characters such as St. Peter and obscure saints such as Pelagia the Penitent) are deftly cross-referenced and indexed so that readers may pursue topical interests ("Angels," "Doubt," "Forgiveness," "Avant-Garde Saints") or explore the personal and historical connections among the saints. The readings are also numbered 1 through 365, for readers who prefer the discipline of a daily devotional (in this regard, The Voices of the Saints follows closely but not exhaustively the feast days of the Catholic liturgical calendar). Ghezzi's brief lives of the saints are complemented by well-chosen prayers and meditations drawn from the saints' writings. This book is a fine preparation for prayer, offering much to give the faithful reader pause.