One Hundred Saints: Their Lives and Likenesses Drawn from Butler's Lives of the Saints and Great Works of Western Art

A paperback edition of the 1993 original, this volume unites text adapted from Butler's mid-18th century Lives of the Saints with reproductions of saints' portraits in stained glass windows, illuminated manuscripts, sculptures and masterworks by Titian, Botticelli, Carvaggio, Rubens and El Greco. Though intended as a ""gift to the Christian faithful,"" Bulfinch's book, with its fascinating and classic hagiography and its judicious choice of sacred art, should have a wider appeal: to students of religion, for instance, or lapsed Catholics, or anyone fascinated by sometimes grim stories of the pious and brave. From the well known (St. Thomas Aquinas, Church Father and patron saint of students) to the more obscure (St. Barbara, patron saint of fire prevention and stonemasons), the lives of Butler's saints are sure to astonish and inspire.