Catholics: How has reading the works of saints helped you?

Status
Not open for further replies.
I have to admit I haven’t really read the saints so far except for the Confessions of St Augustine. But reading about them has helped a lot! Aquinas, Francis, Benedict Joseph Labre. Reading about struggles they went through is especially helpful for me.
 
I’ve been reading the works of Anthony of Padua. He wrote notes on sermons for every Sunday and feast based off the readings of the old church calendar. His knowledge of scripture and ability to link it all together into a worthwhile read is inspiring. He’s so much more than “the saint you pray to when you lose something.”
 
Reading Saint Teresa of autobiography forty years ago, I underwent an inner conversion of soul, which meant a greatly deeper spirituality.
In keeping with the opening post, Saint Edith Stein converted to Catholicism while spending all night reading this St. Teresa’s autobiography which she had happened across–at the end she said “this is the truth.”
 
I don’t think I can understate the positive effects of reading about the saints or especially the words of the saints directly.

Without them I would simply be going off of the examples of the everyday people around me and this would have left a great and even grave deficit in my life. St Faustina said it well when she talked about how disappointing creatures can be (and how we ourselves can be).
 
Last edited:
I’ve found that a lot of saints have great spiritual insight in their writings, as well as interesting lives to read about.

Some that I like to read works by/ about include St. Therese, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Faustina, St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. I thought St. Maximilian Kolbe’s writings about Mary were interesting. And of course, the New Testament is pretty much all written by saints. There are many other saints like St. Francis de Sales and St. Jean Vianney whose writings I would love to read but just haven’t had the time.

One thing I enjoy about the writings of the saints is that they tend to be very genuine. Saints generally weren’t trying to make money off their writing, or otherwise “sell themselves”. That makes their writings more interesting to me than modern lay spiritual authors who often seem to be trying to sell a lot of copies of a book, or enhance their reputation for a possible lecture tour.
 
Last edited:
I’ve read the majority of the Paulist Press wonderful edited volumes of the works of the mystics, from Gertrude the Great, to Hildegard of Bingen, to Meister Eckert, to John of the Cross, and many more. These have been very important in my life. Therese of Lisieux’s Story of a Soul and Julian of Norwich’s Revelations have done more for my spiritual life than most of the others combined. Julian is not a declared saint, and never will be (Julian is a pseudonym; we don’t even know her real name) but her work is completely orthodox and very much in keeping with Therese’s spiritual childhood. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle, especially the early chapters, has helped me a great deal as well.
 
Thank you. Do you recall the name by chance? There are so many. I have a volume set with several of her books maybe it’s in there.
 
Reading The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux changed my whole entire life. She’s arguably the biggest contributor to my recent conversion. Her contentment with “littleness” and love for Christ are so profound I can’t really even put it into words - you’d just have to read it! I downloaded it for free for my Kindle, so it should be really easy and inexpensive to find. 🙂
 
@Guest1 Reading the lives of the Saints has helped be so much in every area of my life. Their virtues under the varying circumstances are models of imitation for me under similar circumstances. The Little Flower’s life and her Little Way of Spiritual Childhood is the one that’s made the deepest impression on me.
 
@zosch I saw your post just after I made mine! 🙂 And both are about Little Therese.
 
I heartily second your endorsement of Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich 👍. Some people seem to prefer saints who offer a more pessimistic view of this life and the life to come. I have always been more drawn to optimists, and this is how I see Lady Julian and the visions she was graced to receive. Her writing always leaves me filled with hope.
 
Forgive my ignorance, but is there a reason she will never be declared a saint? I haven’t read her, so the question is genuine and not an intent to start a quarrel.

Many mentions of St Therese, but don’t forget the other Little Flowers - those of St Francis of Assisi! I read recently that it is considered by many to be one of the greatest literary achievements of the Middle Ages. A profoundly moving read, at least for me. St John of the Cross is another I love, along with the sayings and anecdotes of the Desert Fathers.

As for the original question, I’d like to think reading them has made me a better person. I think it has, honestly. But I have a long, long way to go!
 
The reason is that we don’t know Julian’s name. She was an anchoress, a religious vocation in which a woman was enclosed in a cell connected to a church, like a hermit, for life. Her vocation was to pray for the town (Norwich) and offer counsel to the people who came to her cell window. The anchor or anchoress took the name of the church, essentially giving up his/her individual identity as part of the vocation. This anchoress was at the church of St. Julian in Norwich. So while we know Julian definitely existed and wrote her spiritual work, we don’t know her name and precious little else about her. We only have her writing. No way could such a person be canonized today.
The teaching in the Revelations, based on her visions of Christ and Mary, is one of a piece with such teachings as the Sacred Heart, Spiritual Childhood, and Divine Mercy. It is enormously beautiful and consoling.
 
Last edited:
I’ve read about St. Maximilian Kolbe. A humble, loving saint.
 
I am 73 yrs of age and still like to read the writings of our saints. Summarise, and I am a cafeteria reader…until many years ago now, I read St Frances de Sales "Introduction to the Devout Life"https://www.catholicspiritualdirection.org/devoutlife.pdf and then the autobiography of St Therese of Lisieux (“Story of A Soul” Online Translation includes her letters Every word of these two saints clung to my soul and summarised for me all the bits and pieces from the various saints that had impacted. Holiness had seemed just too jolly hard for me until I read these two saints…suddenly almost there was a way for me to walk the road of holiness, one step at a time and without crushing discouragement with my many faults and failures.

Audio Book - Story of a Soul - St Therese of Lisieux
 
St. Faustina is an example of humble perseverance even when fellow Catholics are questioning your motives.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top