John J. Delaney - Pocket Dictionary of Saints: Revised Edition

a valuable reference book which ought to find a place in every Catholic publication office.

Catholic Journalist

a masterful compendium which proves that it is possible to be both scholarly and popular.

U.S. Catholic

it is remarkable how the most significant facts are recorded here, even those of a legendary character. This makes the volume ideal for ready reference.

National Catholic Register

D ICTIONARY OF S AINTS has used all the latest critical investigations into the lives of the saints We have here a fascinating company of men and women who devoted their lives to Christ in widely varied ways not only a careful and thoughtful presentation of all the saints you would want to know about, but it is delightful reading to dip into.

America

The author is careful to separate legend from history, but includes as legend most of the popular stories about the saints a dictionary of saints is a sine qua non of a church librarys reference collection. This one suits the purpose admirably [and] is heartily commended to the pious amateur.

Church & Synagogue Libraries

comprehensive abounds with interesting tidbits.

Christianity Today

This readable, up-to-date one-volume compendium gives more about more saints than similar dictionaries.

Library Journal

as a reference and resource book this volume contains all the saints the ordinary person will ever seek information about no matter where you start reading in it, it is interesting and hard to put down. Thats a compliment to both the saints and the author of the book.

Spiritual Book News

A N I MAGE B OOK
PUBLISHED BY DOUBLEDAY
a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036

I MAGE , D OUBLEDAY , and the portrayal of a deer drinking from a stream are trademarks of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

This abridged Image Book edition published March 1983 by special arrangement with the author and Doubleday.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Delaney, John J.
Pocket dictionary of saints.
Abridged ed. of: Dictionary of saints.
1. Christian saintsBiography. I. Title.
BX4655.8.D442 1983 282.0922[B] 82-45479
eISBN: 978-0-307-81734-1

Copyright1980, 1983 by John J. Delaney
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

v3.1

To
The two wonderful women in my life
My mother
and
My beloved Ann

This version of Dictionary of Saints has been prepared to provide biographical information about the lives, activities, and spirituality of a group of saints selected from the larger volume in a handy, convenient-sized volume. It is the hope of the author that the reader will find in these pages those saints and beati of interest to him or her. The selection is that of the author but in choosing the saints to be included I tried to include as broad a selection as possible to appeal to all tastes. All the biographies included are full and unabridged as they appear in the complete Dictionary of Saints. For a more comprehensive collection I refer the reader to that volume.

A word about the saints selected for inclusion in this volume. Among them are saints that some may have felt had been disowned by the Church a few years ago, such as St. Ursula, St. Philomena, St. Barbara, and St. Catherine, when they were dropped from the liturgical calendar. But such is not the case. The Vatican weekly LOsservatore Della Domenica explained it this way: Generally the removal of a name from the calendar does not mean passing judgment on the nonexistence of a saint or lack of holiness. Many have been removed because all that remains certain about them is their names, and this would say too little to the faithful in comparison with many others. Other feasts were removed because they lacked universal significance. In short, the Church did not rule out the legitimacy of any saints claim to sainthood in the reorganization of the liturgical year and calendar for the Roman Rite as approved by Pope Paul VI in his 1969 motu proprio Paschalis mysterii. It merely relegated to another category (not included in the revised calendar) saints who had formerly been included. The key words of LOsservatores remark above is that some saints have been removed because all that remains certain about them is their names (italics mine).

For much of our knowledge of many saints is not known with any degree of certainty. It is based on legend, myth, tradition, distorted biographies, hearsaywhat have you. But as modern scholars know, much that is legendary and mythical is a methodoften very practicalof passing to future generation a fact or a truth. Often the core of truth is so embellished and exaggerated over the centuries that it is obscured. But the basic fact or truth is there, often requiring decades of scholarly research to sift aside the accretions of centuries to reveal the truth. And so it is with saints lives and activities. The human tendency to exaggerate, especially about our greats, is applied to the saints as well as to other people and aspects of history; so one must be careful not to dismiss accounts that seem incredible, for buried therein may be a rich and rewarding lode of truth.

And so much of the information about the lives and activities of the saints included in this volume is based on sources that can by no stretch of the imagination be considered certain. But in many cases these legends, myths, traditions, and untrustworthy sources are the only sources of information. Consequently I have not hesitated to use such material, but where I have done so I have been careful to point out that the sources are unreliable and the material is often legendary. But I emphasize the core of truth and fact in practically any myth or legend, so such material cannot be arbitrarily discarded in a book of this nature. That myth and legend are often fact in different garb is not sufficiently appreciated though legend, myth, and rumor are frequently integral parts of portraits of even modern and contemporary great figures, despite the modern insistence on factual approaches. The answer, of course, is that though we accept and understand our own myths, we tend to discount those of other eras because the forms they take are often unfamiliar to us. Information from such sources is valid material for reconstructing the lives of long gone people but must be used with care and understanding.

Which brings us to a consideration of the nature of sainthood and how it is achieved. We are all familiar with the modern process of beatification and canonization. Intensive investigation is conducted of the life, holiness, activities, writings, and miracles of the person proposed for canonization, extending over years, decades, even centuries before the infallible papal declaration is made during the elaborate canonization ritual in St. Peters in Rome, when the Pope declares that a person who died a martyr and/or practiced Christian virtue to a heroic degree is now in heaven and worthy of honor and imitation by the faithful. But this process is a comparatively recent development in the history of the Church. The first official canonization by a Pope was of St. Ulrich by Pope John XV in 993; the process of canonization was not reserved to the Holy See until 1171 by Pope Alexander III; and the present process dates back to 1588, when Pope Sixtus V established the Sacred Congregation of Rites principally to handle cases for beatification and canonization, now handled by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.