In this second volume of New Saints and Blesseds of the Catholic Church are depicted the lives and deaths, the struggles and battles of those women and men who were raised to the honors of the altar by Pope John Paul II during the fours years from 1984 through 1987, in forty-nine beatification ceremonies and in seven canonization liturgies.
Among them are Blesseds and Saints from a wide variety of countries, languages, ages and walks of life: lay people, religious, priests, and bishops, confessors and martyrs, including Edith Stein, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Titus Brandsma, Teresa of the Andes, and many more. All of them not only deserve reverence, but are worthy of imitation in their striving for perfection, in their fidelity to the Catholic faith and to the Church of Jesus Christ.
The life of each one of these personages is portrayed briefly, occasionally in greater detail, followed by the homily which the Pope gave at the respective beatification or canonization ceremony. This papal address presents a very contemporary commentary on the life of the new Blessed or Saint.
Anyone who reads these short biographies is edified and touched, moved to give thanks, that the Church, which today is so often reviled and criticized, is still in our days a “Mother and teacher”, the Mother of Saints, and a guide to sanctity. Illustrated with many pictures.
Ferdinand Holböck, a German priest and renowned hagiographer, is the author of volume one in this series, and of Married Saints and Blesseds.