The Radical Tradition

The 16 saints memorialized in this collection are, in the opinion of Dominican Friar Markus, ``examples of sanctity-in-the-world, models of what it means to be filled with the grace of God in a world which is all too often marked by fear and selfishness.'' Interpreted with contemporary relevance by a diversity of scholars, the stories of the saints range from the well-known (Augustine, Thomas More) to those less so (Canaire of Inis Cathaig). The thread extending from the third century to the 18th is the witness each was conscience-driven to make, whether to champion the rights of the dispossessed (Hugh of Lincoln's defense of the Jews in King Richard's England), to organize social awareness of the poor (Vincent de Paul in 17th-century France) or to reject war (Maximilian, the first Christian conscientious objector). The figures depicted here are not plaster effigies but powerful counter-advocates. Markus serves as Catholic Chaplain to the University of Edinburgh. (Nov.)