Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.

There is a garden which God has planted for Himself, more beautiful than any earthly garden. The flowers that bloom there are the white souls of His saints, who have kept themselves pure and unspotted from the world. In God's garden there is every kind of flower, each differing from the other in beauty. Some are tall and stately like the lilies, growing where all may see them in their dress of white and gold; some are half concealed like the violets, and known only by the fragrance of kind deeds and gentle words which have helped to sweeten the lives of others; while some, again, are hidden from all earthly eyes, and only God knows their loveliness and beholds the secret places where they grow. But known or unknown, all have risen above the dark earth, looking ever upward; and, although often bent and beaten down by many a cruel storm of temptation and sin, they have ever raised their heads again, turning their faces towards God; until at last they have been crowned with the perfect flower of holiness, and now blossom for ever in the Heavenly Garden. In this book you will not find the stories of all God's saints. I have gathered a few together, just as one gathers a little posy from a garden full of roses. But the stories I have chosen to tell are those that I hope children will love best to hear. Let us remember that God has given to all of us, little children as well as grown-up people, a place in His garden here on earth, and He would have us take these white flowers, the lives of His saints, as a pattern for our own. We may not be set where all can see us; our place in God's garden may be a very humble and sheltered spot; but, like the saints, we may keep our faces ever turned upward, and learn to grow, as they grew, like their Master, pure and straight and strong—fit flowers to blossom in the Garden of God.

Saints are God's gift to all of us. Saints, Our Friends & Teachers is unique because, along with engaging short stories, it provides patterns and simple instructions for making figures of the saints and other characters out of foam. These easy-to-make figures can be used in a variety of ways. Teaching tools such as objectives, symbols of the saints, vocabulary words, and prayers add to the book's value.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.

A fresh account of the lives of some of the most popular saints in the history of the Church--plus, the lessons to be derived from them. Written to help parents inspire love for the Faith in their children through examples from the lives of the saints, it is also one of the best lives of the saints we have seen, and as such is great reading for all, especially because of the lessons it teaches. Extremely thought-provoking. Impr.

"What if nothing happens on the 13th? Aren't you afraid people will laugh at you?" asked the parish priest as he looked closely at 10-year-old Lucia. "Oh no, Father!" replied Lucia. "I know something wonderful is going to happen on the 13th. The Lady told us so." This book tells what happened and gives the wonderful story of Our Lady's appearances to little Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia.

Honorable Mention, PROSE Award A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year A Junto Favorite Book of the Year Beginning with metaphysical debates in the sixteenth century over the nature of Christ’s presence in the host, the distinguished historian and scholar of religion Robert Orsi imagines an alternative to the future of religion that early moderns proclaimed was inevitable. “This book is classic Orsi: careful, layered, humane, and subtle... If reformed theology has led to the gods’ ostensible absence in modern religion, History and Presence is a sort of counter-reformation literature that revels in the excesses of divine materiality: the contradictions, the redundancies, the scrambling of borders between the sacred and profane, the dead and the living, the past and the present, the original and the imitator...History and Presence is a thought-provoking, expertly arranged tour of precisely those abundant, excessive phenomena which scholars have historically found so difficult to think.” —Sonja Anderson, Reading Religion “With reference to Marian apparitions, the cult of the saints and other divine–human encounters, Orsi constructs a theory of presence for the study of contemporary religion and history. Many interviews with individuals devoted to particular saints and relics are included in this fascinating study of how people process what they believe.” —Catholic Herald