Wisdom of the Celtic Saints

by Edward C. Sellner, Susan McLean-Keeney (Illustrator)

Faithfully presenting the lives and legacies of twenty Celtic saints of the sixth to ninth centuries, Edward Sellner reveals their wisdom in a way that can be understood and appreciated by contemporary readers. The stories recounted range from the well-known -- Patrick, Brendan, Brigit -- to those less likely to be familiar -- Monesan, Samthann and Aidan. Vivid portrait illustrations by Susan McLean-Keeney add to the prayerful beauty of the book.

Genres: Spirituality, Christianity, Ireland, History, Nonfiction, Theology

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Edward Cletus Sellner, BA, MA, PhD

Reviews

[Rachel Hafler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the intro and descriptions of Celtic spirituality! Loved learning about both well-known and obscure Celtic saints. But the writing about the saints and their stories was just dreadfully dry and confusing and disorganized, thus the year-long reading time.

[Erin Klarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating stories of little known (to Americans, that is) holy men and women of Ireland. Some of the hagiography is clearly from the middle ages and borders at times on the fantastical. A bit of Papism is thrown in, but is not overbearing

[Sarahsketti · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. The introduction section had some interesting bits, but the stories of the saints were astonishingly dry. Like truly astonishingly.

[Pixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Book is organised geographically and chronologically and demonstrates a lot of research,some of it probably a bit speculative and I am not sure what the original sources are, but it makes fascinating reading, and this is enhanced by a good preface, map, and very lengthy introduction which was worth coming back to after reading the 'histories' of each saint. Where this book fell down was in the illustrations, I guess I have got used to lots of good pics and images and photos, and although the book is illustrated in terms of most of the well-known saints, a little bit more could have been done with imagery other than black/white/grey tonal images sprinkled with vaguely celtic symbols, and I felt that this took away from the power of the history and messages and indeed philosophical and religious meaning of celtic culture. I did not think they were "vivid portraits" of the saints as advertised on the back cover. All this aside, it is a lovely book which I go back to every so often as a source of facts and knowledge about our celtic culture, as much of the content is not widely promoted or associated with celtic tradition, which is where this book does real justice to our long-lost celtic tradition, bringing it back into the present.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring stories about the famous and not-so-famous Celtic saints and much to think about. I also liked the woodcuts.