The Book of Saints and Heroes

by Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang, Andrew Lang

The first Christians to visit Europe and the British Isles met pagans who told tales of fairies, talking beasts, and other wonderful things. To these marvelous stories, they soon added new ones about the Christian saints. Some were true, others improbable, and many simply fantastic. In the ones we include here, you'll meet the saint who spent seven Easters on a whale's back and the amiable lion who was St. Jerome's friend. You'll see St. George fight the dragon, and you'll read about the fierce wolf St. Francis of Assisi converted. But many of these stories have in them scarcely a wave of the fairy wand. So you'll also find here true tales of great saints such as St. Louis of France, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary - souls marked by courage, kindness, and piety. These marvelous legends and exciting true stories of Christian saints and heroes will provide many hours of delightful reading to believers and non-believers alike!

Genres: Fantasy, Christianity, Catholic, Religion, Inspirational, Christian

325 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

Wife of Andrew Lang, and translator and adapter of many of the stories that appear in The Coloured Fairy Book series, despite never being credited properly. Or in the words of Andrew Lang:

"The fairy books have been almost wholly the work of Mrs. Lang, who has translated and adapted them from the French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and other languages.

My part has been that of Adam, according to Mark Twain, in the Garden of Eden. Eve worked, Adam superintended. I also superintend. I find out where the stories are, and advise, and, in short, superintend."

Often styled as Mrs. Lang, or Leonora Blanche Lang. (1851-1933)

Reviews

[Siobhain · Rating 5 out of 5]

When my youngest son received this book from his godparents, I absolutely did not appreciate it. I considered reading saint stories to my children something that I did so that we could share the experience so I never thought to suggest that he read the stories on his own. Unfortunately, I did not read the stories either, because with six children, I didn't feel like I had the time to read such long, fanciful tales. I cared much more about saints who were connected with our study of history. As usual, I see that my focus on efficiency and practicality cause me to miss a treasure in this book.

The Langs, especially Mrs. Lang who really should get the credit for any of their story books, believed in the value of stories, including the fanciful elements, believing that they revealed truths and faith among peoples. With this viewpoint and her Christian background, Mrs. Lang takes these stories of the saints with their fanciful or unknown elements and fleshes them out, helping the reader to imagine what life was like for each saint.

The Book of Saints & Heroes contains the stories of 23 saints. I base this review on having just read three of them: "The First of the Hermits: St. Paul and St. Anthony," "The Saint with the Lion: St. Jerome," and "Founder of Hospitals: St. Vincent de Paul." In each, I felt like I understood the saint better, had a better idea of how each would have felt, how each would have responded to the situation in their lives, and how the fanciful elements make sense in their story after reading their entry. In each I also learned new factual information that I had not read before.

For example, in the life of St. Jerome, I have never read in any other story that he had a companion from his youth named Bonosus who went with him to college, travelled with him, seems to have had a religious conversion with him, and in time, separated from Jerome and went to an island in the Adriatic to become a hermit. It seems odd that no one else thought that might be interesting or important, but then St. Jerome had such a full life. Maybe it's just easy to leave out. One of the unusual elements in the life of Jerome is that he was accompanied by a group of holy women in his journey to the Holy Land and that they lived in a convent near him and consulted with him on his translations. People of his time accused him of impropriety regarding this, and I, too, have found it unusual. In this fleshed out story, we can better imagine their beautiful friendship, Paula's financial help to his undertakings, and the love of God of the ladies, which leads them to want to hear and discuss St. Jerome's translations. In all stories, we hear of St. Jerome's irascible nature. In this story, it is pictured with the legend of the lion who was given a job by Jerome to look out for a donkey who made a trip each day to pick up wood for the monastery from a man who loaded the paniers he carried. One day the lion falls asleep and the donkey is stolen by people in a caravan who pass by. The picture shows the lion who has returned sheepishly home without the donkey, and Jerome sternly scolding him, assuming that he has eaten the donkey, so in this expanded story, including the fanciful elements, one truly feels like he has better met St. Jerome. I found this to be true for each of the stories that I read.

I started this reading assuming that I would not like this book as I had decided that I didn't like it long ago. How mistaken I was! I am so thankful for Mrs. Lang for taking on this project.

There is no credit given to the illustrator, but the occasional illustrations are quite nice and fitting to the story, but not every story has an illustration. At first, I was puzzled why in this Goodreads entry for the Book of Saints and Heroes, Mrs. Lang's full name is given, and she is given first billing as that is not so on the physical copy of the book that I own. On my Sophia Institute Press copy Andrew Land is listed first in larger letters, and Lenora Lang listed below him. It is only in small print with the publishing information that we see that when the book was originally published Mrs. Lang was listed as the author and Andrew Lang as the editor. I'm glad whoever set up this entry knew to give Mrs. Lang the primary credit.

I recommend this book for those who like a good story and want to take the time to read a longer, sometimes fanciful story, in order to get to know a saint better.

[Jaime · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book about a variety of men and women of varying backgrounds and lives who became saints is a good introduction to the Catholic saints. As you read this book, you will get an idea of these people's faith walk. One criticism I have are that the writing is too factual at times and not as inspirational as it should be. The illustrations should also be in color.

[Izabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great book! I learned so much from this book! The historical stories of people defending their faith will always get me hype!