With All Saints Day coming up next week, I've been reminiscing on the many saint stories that were told to me when I was a kid. In fact, I enjoyed the saint stories more than fairy tales. Hagiographies that are designed for children are often the most enjoyable accounts of the lives of saints- they couch everything in simple terms, contain beautiful pictures, and they don't shy away from pious legends. It's no wonder that I developed devotions to many of my favorite Saints- including St. Clare- after reading these stories as a child.
In surfing the internet this evening, I found a website dedicated to the online preservation of antique childerns' books. Included on this website was a 1912 childrens' book about the Saints- The Book of Saints and Heroes. This book vividly captures the lives of many well-known Saints.
Check out this story on St. Colette! It's probably the best account of her life that I've come across.
The above picture was also taken from this book's chapter on St. Francis. It's one of the most beautiful pictures of him that I've seen!
Many old Catholic books are available on Google books to read, and many can even be downloaded as PDF files. Just go to
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and search for "benziger brothers". This was the name of a Catholic publisher. Many old Catholic books will appear. Here is a book you might enjoy:
http://books.google.com/books?id=P9QPTUXu4KsC&printsec=frontcover
Fr. John Larson, MIC
Thanks for your recommendation for the story on St. Colette. I am going to pass it along to members of my Secular Franciscan Fraternity, Our Lady of the Pearl. I am reading Colette's biography, Walled in Light: St. Colette, by Sister Mary Francis, P.C. The last three posts on my blog have been on two first generation Franciscan women. St. Colette, of course, came later, but she is certainly an outstanding Franciscan and Poor Clare.
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