Saints, Biographies & Memoirs, Religion & Spirituality 

"I fled him, down the nights and down the days, I fled him, down the arches of the years, I fled him, down the labyrinthine ways . . ."

These celebrated opening lines of Francis Thompson's "Hound of Heaven" eloquently bespeak the tenor of the lives of the nine saints including in Saints for Sinners. Each saint attained spirituality and human perfection via thorny roads: -

St. John of the Cross - sensitive and poetic, frequently suffered complete spiritual aridity;

St. Francis Xavier - missionary and visionary, often was given to abject discouragement;

St. Camillus de Lellis - ill-tempered, lazy professional soldier, was addicted to inveterate gambling;

St. Joseph of Cupertino - awkward, backward youth, was painfully stupid and incompetent;

St. Margaret of Cortona - extremely beautiful cortesean, brought shame and disgrace to her family;

Blessed Claude de la Colombiere - repeatedly endured despondency and desolation of soul;

St. Augustine of Hippo - reckless and pleasure-seeking, labored to sanctity after years of agonizing search;

St. John of God - homeless at the age of eight, developed an inordinate hardness of body and soul;

St. Benedict Joseph Labre - deeply meditative and introspective, was strongly inclined to melancholia.

This is a collection of sensitively drawn prose portraits of human beings whose temptations, flaws, struggles and failures bear striking similarity to the weaknesses and defects experienced in this modern era.

Taken from the back cover.