Biographies
Showing all 16 results
-
7 Sorrows Of China
$9.95Add to cart“In the most difficult periods of the recent history of the Catholic Church in China, the lay faithful, both as individuals and families and as members of spiritual and apostolic movements, have shown total fidelity to the Gospel, even paying a personal price for their faithfulness to Christ” – Pope Benedict XVI
Mark Miravalle’s intense experiences as he travels through modern China provide a realistic picture of life outside of Beijing. He vividly recalls his recent trip traveling through China detailing the daily struggles of the Catholic faithful. Dr. Miravalle’s concise elegant writing style delivers a seven-image portrait of today’s China. A portrait that conflicts with the commercialized images of a recently liberated country, but a portrait that remains hopeful anyway. -
From Fire By Water
$22.95Add to cartSohrab Ahmari was a teenager living under the Iranian ayatollahs when he decided that there is no God. Nearly two decades later, he would be received into the Roman Catholic Church.
In From Fire, by Water, he recounts this unlikely passage, from the strident Marxism and atheism of a youth misspent on both sides of the Atlantic to a moral and spiritual awakening prompted by the Mass. At once a young intellectual’s finely crafted self-portrait and a life story at the intersection of the great ideas and events of our time, the book marks the debut of a compelling new Catholic voice.
-
He Leadeth Me
$16.00Add to cartCaptured by a Russian army during World War II and convicted of being a “Vatican spy,” Jesuit Father Walter J. Ciszek spent 23 agonizing years in Soviet prisons and the labor camps of Siberia. Only through an utter reliance on God’s will did he manage to endure the extreme hardship. He tells of the courage he found in prayer–a courage that eased the loneliness, the pain, the frustration, the anguish, the fears, the despair. For, as Ciszek relates, the solace of spiritual contemplation gave him an inner serenity upon which he was able to draw amidst the “arrogance of evil” that surrounded him. Ciszek learns to accept the inhuman work in the infamous Siberian salt mines as a labor pleasing to God. And through that experice, he was able to turn the adverse forces of circumstance into a source of positive value and a means of drawing closer to the compassionate and never-forsaking Divine Spirit.
He Leadeth Me is a book to inspire all Christians to greater faith and trust in God–even in their darkest hour. As the author asks, “What can ultimately trouble the soul that accepts every moment of every day as a gift from the hands of God and strives always to do his will?”
-
Mother Teresa : In The Shadow Of Our Lady
$17.95Add to cart“Stay very close to Our Lady. If you do this, you can do great things for God and the good of people.” — Mother Teresa of Calcutta
As it was for Mother Teresa, so it can be for the rest of us. By standing close to Our Lady we can find the grace and courage to overcome our own personal trials and crosses. Summon the same powerful presence and aid of Our Lady by following the example of Mother Teresa.
-
Pope Leo 14th
$19.99Add to cartThe election of Pope Leo XIV signals a defining moment for the Catholic Church. As he steps onto the world stage, the new pontiff inherits the throne of St. Peter, the legacy of Pope Francis, and the challenges of a rapidly changing Church.
In Pope Leo XIV, veteran Vatican correspondent Christopher White delivers an authoritative account of the dramatic conclave that shaped this momentous transition, the forces that propelled Pope Leo XIV to the papacy, and the vision he brings to the Church’s future. Drawing on exclusive reporting and expert analysis, White examines the potential impact of Pope Leo XIV’s leadership on Catholicism’s governance, doctrine, and engagement with pressing global issues. He also explores how the vision of Pope Francis’s successor may shape the Church’s role in contemporary society amid unprecedented uncertainty and change.
In these unprecedented times of global uncertainty, Pope Leo XIV offers an essential look at the past, present, and future of a papacy that exerts a major influence on 1.3 billion Catholics and the world itself.
-
Saint Damien Of Molokai
$15.95Add to cartAzure skies, lush vegetation, and sugar-white beaches: Hawaii brings such idyllic scenes to mind. But Hell invaded Paradise when the incurable disease leprosy was discovered there. An 1865 law segregated lepers by forcibly exiling individuals even children to the island of Molokai. It was onto these forlorn shores that Father Damien de Veuster stepped in the spring of 1873.
Saint Damien of Molokai is the riveting account of how a humble Congregation of the Sacred Hearts priest found his vocation in caring for these outcasts. The poorly educated son of a hardworking, religious Belgium farm family, Damien was thought to be ill suited for the priesthood. However, the desire to serve God burned so fiercely in him that he took his vows at the age of twenty.
missionary to Hawaii, Damien soon volunteered to become the permanent chaplain to Molokai. There, victims of horrible disfigurement with the promise of a lingering death, the lepers led a harsh existence. Father Damien became their caregiver, companion, and champion. In so doing, he brought hope to the hopeless, ironically losing his own life to their affliction.
In an age in which an increasing number of people suffer their own personal exile on account of illness, handicap, or emotional distress, the shining example of Father Damien shows the true power of one person and how, when anchored in God’s love, one person can impact the world even among the horrors of decay and slow death.
-
Saint Gerard Majella
$22.99Add to cartA spiritual portrait of St. Gerard drawn from his writings and the lived expressions of his spirituality. The passion behind Gerard’s love for God is shared with simplicity and candor. This book will be of interest even to those already familiar with St. Gerard.
-
Saint Gianna Her Life Of Joy And Heroic Sacrifice
$19.95Add to cartSt. Gianna Beretta Molla was a devoted pediatrician, wife, and mother. She loved and served God in the simplest, humblest gestures of her family and professional life, juggling the demands of both worlds, as do many women today. Journalist Giuliana Pelucchi has revised and expanded her detailed biography of this amazing woman with new, profound insights. The book includes more first-hand interviews with St. Gianna’s closest relatives, including her beloved husband, and touching testimonies from those who knew her best. Praising the book, Gianna Emanuela, St. Gianna’s daughter, says, “Among the many biographies of my Mom, this one is my favorite.”
As a great example of a saint with a vocation to married life, St. Gianna was a profoundly prayerful woman who lived her faith daily-even when it cost her. Fully dedicated to her family and a profession she pursued passionately, she was also an avid hiker and skier, and a talented artist and musician. St. Gianna is truly a model of holiness for our times.
The life of this amazing woman shows us how keeping our relationship with God at the center of our lives allows grace to affect all our decisions, especially difficult ones. St. Gianna exemplifies how ordinary, daily experiences are important opportunities for evangelization. As a compassionate doctor who spent time helping women with difficult pregnancies, she carried her whole practice, as well as her family, into her prayer life.
Be inspired by the story of this joyful woman, whose fidelity as a wife, mother, professional, and follower of Jesus has been declared heroic by the Church.
-
Saint Maria Goretti
$18.95Add to cartThe beautiful, true story of the 12-year-old girl who in 1902 died a martyr to preserve her purity. Describes her virtuous life, poverty, holiness, valiant resistance, heroic and lingering death, conversion of her murderer and canonization in 1950 with her mother, her murderer and over 500,000 present. This is the famous, popular, classic biography! This is a good book to read to children, so they have someone worthwhile to imitate. By having Maria put before them as a model, they will learn to appreciate the virtue of purity. For a child to imitate the saints, he must first love them — which in turn requires knowing them.
-
Saint Therese Of Lisieux (Revised)
$21.95Add to cartThis volume serves as a sequel to St. Therese’s autobiography, “Story of a Soul.” It contains the intimate words of her final conversations with her three sisters during the last months of her life, especially during her time in the Carmel infirmary. Included are some of her most famous sayings, such as “I will spend my heaven doing good on earth.”
-
She Made Me Laugh
$16.99Add to cartMost people likely know of Mother Teresa’s great faithfulness to God’s call as she started her ministry to the poor in Calcutta. But at the time, few knew that she had lost all sense of God’s presence, love, and sometimes the assurance that God existed at all. Astonishingly, for 50 years, the saint’s life was spent in what she called “the darkness.” Yet, somehow Mother Teresa managed to get up every morning and say yes to God. And not only did she say yes, she came to accept the darkness, while also allowing a sense of humor and even playfulness to shine through. This book is a memoir of the author’s direct experiences with Mother Teresa during a trip to Calcutta in 1996 when she discovered that sense of humor first hand. It is also an extended reflection on the beloved saint’s “dark night of the soul” and what that might mean for spiritual seekers today.
-
Stories Of The Saints
$26.99Add to cartA great gift for Communion, Confirmation, Easter baskets, and religious holidays year-round!
Performing Miracles. Facing Wild Lions. Confronting Demons. Transforming the World.
From Augustine to Mother Teresa (officially canonized as St. Teresa of Calcutta), discover seventy of the best-known and best-loved saints and read their riveting stories filled with history, adventure, and inspiration.
Written with an emphasis on the adventurous life and strong character of each saint, these stories are as exciting as any Greek myth and as inspiring as any tale about knights or superheroes. Meet Joan of Arc, whose transcendent faith compelled her to lead an army when the king’s courage failed. Francis of Assisi, whose gentleness tamed a man-eating wolf. Valentine, a bishop in the time of ancient Rome, who spoke so often of Christ’s love that his saint’s day, February 12, has been associated with courtly love since the Middle Ages. St. Thomas Aquinas, the great teacher. Peter Claver, who cared for hundreds of thousands of people on slave ships after their voyage as captives. And Bernadette, whose vision of Mary instructed her to dig the spring that became the healing waters of Lourdes.
Each saint is illustrated in a dramatic and stylized full-color portrait, and included in every entry are the saint’s dates, location, emblems, feast days, and patronage. Taken together, these stories create a rich, inspiring, and entertaining history of faith and courage. For kids age 10 and up.
Imprimatur granted by the Diocese of Brooklyn.
-
Teresa Of Avila
$21.00Add to cartA refreshingly modern reconsideration of Saint Teresa (1515-1582), one of the greatest mystics and reformers to emerge within the sixteenth-century Catholic Church, whose writings are a keystone of modern mystical thought.
From the very beginning of her life in a convent, following the death of her mother and the marriage of her older sister, it was clear that Teresa’s expansive nature, intensity, and energy would not be easily confined. Cathleen Medwick shows us a powerful daughter of the Church and her times who was a very human mass of contradictions: a practical and no-nonsense manager, and yet a flamboyant and intrepid presence who bent the rules of monastic life to accomplish her work–while managing to stay one step ahead of the Inquisition. And she exhibited a very personal brand of spirituality, often experiencing raptures of an unorthodox, arguably erotic, nature that left her frozen in one position for hours, unable to speak. Out of a concern for her soul and her reputation, her superiors insisted that she account for every voice and vision, as well as the sins that might have engendered them, thus giving us the account of her life that is now considered a literary masterpiece.
Medwick makes it clear that Teresa considered her major work the reform of the Carmelites, an enterprise requiring all her considerable persuasiveness and her talent for administration. We see her moving about Spain with the assurance (if not the authority) of a man, in spite of debilitating illness, to establish communities of nuns who lived scrupulously devout lives, without luxuries. In an era when women were seldom taken seriously, she even sought and received permission to found two religious houses for men.
In this fascinating account Cathleen Medwick reveals Teresa as both more complex and more comprehensible than she has seemed in the past. She illuminates for us the devout and worldly woman behind the centuries-old iconography of the saint.
-
That Was Father Stu
$18.95Add to cartThis inspiring, insightful, and often humorous look at the life of Father Stuart Long is told by his close friend Father Bart Tolleson. After their relationship began and almost ended with a practical joke, the two men were ordained together and forged a strong, lasting friendship. As the exuberant, edgy Father Stu confronted a rare degenerative disease, the former brawler and professional boxer used every ounce of his declining strength to fight the good fight for souls.
Also included in this book is the enduring legacy of Father Stu, whose moving story continues to draw people closer to God, especially in times of suffering. His life inspired actor Mark Wahlberg to produce the film drama Father Stu, in which Wahlberg plays the title role. Father Bart, who was consulted by the makers of the film, provides interesting background on the movie.
Illustrated with many photos.
-
Therese De Lisieux
$17.95Add to cartIn 1895, at the Carmel of Lisieux, sister Therese of the Child Jesus, following the order of her Prioress, her own sister Pauline, undertakes to write her life story. At first, The Little Flower was Therese Martin, a hypersensitive child, following her mother’s premature death. When she joins the Carmel order of her sister Pauline, who in many aspects replaced her mother, a strange illness takes over her and interferes with her abilities. But the miraculous smile of a Virgin Mary statue sparks off her swift recovery. But that is not all – Therese receives a second blessing on Christmas Eve, and overcomes her hypersensitivity. From then on, and in her own words, she starts “to run like a giant”, and obtains a derogation to enter the Carmel of Lisieux at the premature age of 15. She dies of tuberculosis on September 30th, 1897, leaving her burning, passionate autobiography, The Story of a Soul.
At dawn on the day she was born, Therese Martin receives from a child the promise to become a rose one day. Twenty-four years later, at the Carmel of Lisieux, she promises “to let fall a shower of roses” upon her death. Mysteriously followed by this mystical leitmotiv, Therese lets herself be consumed by love until her very last breath. According to her, to love is to give all. In a century still marked by jansenism, she rediscovers Divine Mercy and invents a spiritual childhood path, which will later make her a Doctor of the Church. After Joan of Arc, whom she deeply admired, she is the Second Patron of France.
