Product Overview
SECULAR SAINTS is a book unique in Catholic literature, for among these saints there are no priests, no nuns, no monks-just secular saints - men, women and children who achieved great sanctity while living in the world-men, women and children who often had to overcome incredible difficulties to achieve holiness, who were placed in the most unlikely circumstances, who committed outrageous sins prior to their conversion, or who faced the most unbelievable problems. Here are recounted such stories as the saint who mistakenly murdered his parents, the saint who committed rape, the saint who was killed by his adopted son, the saint who for many years was a man's mistress, saints who were alcoholics, saints who died in childbirth, saints who had an unfaithful husband or wife, saints who were orphaned, who were abandoned, who married young, who died young, who ran away from home, who left the Faith and later returned, who died for the Faith, who were killed in battle, who were murdered, saints who were tortured, who were fired from a job, who were disliked, who were homely or illiterate, who were mystics, who were neglected, who were poor, who were ridiculed, who were sick, who had mental problems, who endured others' bad temper, who had trouble with their in-laws, who though married lived as celibates, etc. Before writing this book, Mrs. Cruz set the definite standard of selecting only those saints who never became priests, monks or nuns, and who never lived the life of cloistered religious. She even excluded saints like St. Catherine of Siena, St. Rose of Lima and St. Joan of Arc because either they lived like nuns (St. Rose) or they had an extraordinary mission miraculously designated by God (St. Catherine and St. Joan). Rather, she chose only those lay men, women and children who lived in the world like people today and who faced many of the same problems most of us face in working for a living, raising our children
