Christianity, Religious Figures - Biography

Saints: Lives and Illuminations

Name: Saints: Lives and Illuminations
Author: Ruth Sanderson
ISBN: 9780802852205

by Ruth Sanderson

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Overview

Saints: Lives and Illuminations presents the stories of forty remarkable people -- martyrs, hermits, miracle workers, scholars, and evangelists -- who were the pioneers of the early Church and who, in the first millennium, spread the Christian faith to the rest of the world.

With brief biographical sketches and lush pencil and oil portraits, author and illustrator Ruth Sanderson stokes the flame of our centuries old and ongoing interest in the faith and lives of these spiritual examples -- saints who have forever changed the way we look at and live our lives in relationship to God.

Provides brief stories from the lives of forty Christian saints of the first millenium.

Synopsis

Provides brief stories from the lives of forty Christian saints of the first millenium.

Beverley Fahey - Children's Literature

Whether they were put to death for their faith or led lives of quiet prayer and studies, each of these forty saints had a profound impact on the early Church and continue to have subtle influence today. Presented in chronological order from the first to the tenth century, the brief biographical sketches trace the lives of hermits, scholars, soldiers, and noblewomen, highlighting those aspects that singled these people out in the eyes of God. These pioneers in faith include the familiar, like Saints Anthony, Christopher, Nicholas and Patrick and the obscure, like Saints Mary of Egypt, Moses, Eloi, and Theodora, and in a nod to ecumenism, include saints from the Western Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox. Handsome portraits rendered in pencil and oils are rich in color and decoratively framed. No effort has been made to distinguish fact from legend and that may be just what makes these lives so appealing. Reading their lives may prompt modern youth to respect the spirit and the simple acts of greatness exemplified by these heroes of the Church. 2003, Eerdmans, Ages 8 to 14.

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Editorials

Children's Literature

School Library Journal

Gr 2-5-Forty brief biographies, opulently illustrated. The pencil-and-oil portraits are done in the manner of Renaissance art, with deep but bright colors, stylized frames, and the saints' faces delineated by halos. Saints, almost by definition, lived lives of sacrifice, and many were tortured or killed because of their faith. Sanderson includes those aspects in the text, but does not engage in extended or gory descriptions. All of the figures included are from the first millennium, almost half are women, they come from both the Western and Eastern Orthodox traditions, and lived in a variety of countries. The collection includes well-known saints, such as Patrick, Nicholas, and Christopher, as well as the less familiar. No sources are listed, so the line between legend and fact is somewhat fuzzy. However, for those interested in sharing inspiring stories of Christian devotion with children, this volume is well designed, attractive, and easy to use.-Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Forty stories of Christian saints from the first millennium are illustrated with appropriately gorgeous, pencil-and-oils-on-paper art. Sanderson's (Cinderella, 2002, etc.) writing style, usually graceful, suffers a bit from the format-each saint gets one page, with illustration, so sometimes the biographies, meant to be brief, seem oddly truncated. There are no sources given, either, so the lives of these splendid and colorful characters read almost like folktales. Each image is set in a frame (the frames repeat) that sometimes evokes stained glass, or manuscript illumination, or sculpture. The saints are usually in repose, full- or half-figure, often pictured with their attributes. The twin saints, Benedict and Scholastica; the mother-and-son dyads of Augustine and Monica, Constantine and Helen; and the married saints Maud and Theodora balance the many virgin/martyrs like Catherine, Stephen, Barbara, and Dorothy. Sanderson doesn't always say how the martyrs died (a point young people are always interested in) but she usually notes what each is patron saint of. She includes both Eastern Orthodox and Western Roman Catholic saints in her litany. Young people might be particularly drawn to Catherine, pictured with both a book and a sword, and portrayed almost as a princess on the striking cover. (index) (Collective biography. 9-12)