Other editions of book The Book of Saints and Heroes

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!

This charming collection of the stories of saints are told by Leonora Blanche Alleyne (1851 - 1933) in the manner of a fairy tale or romance. The difference is that her saint stories are basically true, even though they include some fantastic parts. Among the many saints included, are Augustine, Jerome, Germanus, Columba, Margaret, Vincent, Elizabeth, and Francis.

Andrew Lang's Fairy Books are a series of twenty-five collections of true and fictional stories for children, published between 1889 and 1913. The best known books of the series are the twelve collections of fairy tales, known as Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors. In all, the volumes feature 798 stories, besides the 153 poems in The Blue Poetry Book. The Book of Saints and Heroes contains twenty-three stories about saints. Most of these are true stories, although a few legends are also included. Stories Included Within This Book: The First of the Hermits The Roses from Paradise The Saint with the Lion Synesius, the Ostrich Hunter The Struggles of St. Augustine Germanus the Governor Malchus the Monk The Saint on the Pillar The Apostle of Northumbria St. Columba Brendan the Sailor The Charm Queller Dunstan the Friend of Kings St. Margaret of Scotland St. Elizabeth of Hungary Saint and King The Preacher to the Birds Richard the Bishop Colette The Apostle of the Japanese The Servant of the Poor The Founder of Hospitals The Patron Saint of England

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!

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!

A noted non-Catholic writer on pedagogical subjects stated some time ago that if his own religious body had the wealth of story contained in the lives of the saints of the Catholic Church, it would be abundantly supplied with religious literature for children. It is true that the lives of the saints are an inexhaustible treasure-house for all that will interest and stimulate children; and that the same treasure-house is too seldom drawn upon. Its riches are, comparatively speaking, little known to our children or, indeed, to our older folks. A book that taps this vein of Catholic inheritance is: The Book of Saints and Heroes, by Mrs. Lang, and edited by the late Andrew Lang. Needless to say the work is admirably well written, and no child, even though tired, would think of sleep while the story of Jerome and the Lion, or Francis and the Wolf of Agobio, was being read. Here is all that will arouse the imagination, fascinate the mind, and instill that romantic love of heroic deeds which, in turn, is so powerful a stimulus to virtue. The book is most richly and tastefully illustrated with page drawings, many of them beautifully colored. The author has combined legend and history, and has sought to give us an interesting story book.

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. 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!

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. 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!

PREFACELONG, long ago, when the world was young and gay, grown-up people must have been much more like children than they are at present. The grown-ups were quite as fond of fairy tales as any child can be to-day; and they actually believed in fairies more than some wise and grave little boys and girls do at present. Why should they not believe in them, for they met them dancing in the open dells of the forests, and saw them, beautiful girl fairies, wading and swimming in the river pools. These fairies were as friendly as they were fair to see; and the fairy of the oak tree or the well would step out of it when a handsome shepherd or warrior passed; and the pair would fall in love with each other, and sometimes marry. Homer, the oldest of Greek poets, tells us, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, about a man who married a fairy, and how, as they were kind, friendly people, they built their house near a road and entertained all the passers-by. This sort of thing is still going on in the islands of the Pacific, or so the natives believe. A native of New Caledonia, a young man, the friend of a cousin of mine named Jim, came to see him once, and stayed long, and seemed nervous and cried when he was saying good-bye."What is the matter, old man?" asked Jim. "You seem to have something on your mind. Can I help you?""In three days I shall be a dead man," said the native."What put that nonsense into your head?""As I came here through the forest I met a fairy, who looked exactly like the girl I was to marry, and I kissed her.""And what for no?" asked Jim, who was a Scot by birth. "Any fellow would have done it. Is it what you call tabou to kiss your young woman?""No," said the poor fellow, "it is not tabou. But she was not Maluka, who will never be my wife. She was a fairy. She faded away as I kissed her, as a light morning cloud fades on the hillside. She was a fairy.""Well, suppose she was, what then?" asked Jim."I must die in three days; whoever kisses a fairy dies in three days. So goodbye, we shall not meet again."And they did not meet again. The lover died within the three days.Thus there are fairies, you see, in the far-away isles, and Louis Stevenson heard of them often, and men see them, and fall in love with them; so of course they believe in fairies, though they are grown up. Does not Mr. Lawson tell us in his book about Greece that he saw a fairy? (he calls her a nymph or a Nereid, for that is Greek for a fairy), and he is a learned man. I wish I had his luck; but, as Joan of Arc said to her judges, "I never saw a fairy, not that I knew to be a fairy." No, not even in Kensington Gardens. Still, they are seen in the Highlands, even now, and seeing is believing.Thus, long ago, grown-ups believed in fairies, as we all would do if we saw them. Why, when a young Greek in Homer's time met a pretty girl in the forest he always began by asking "Are you a fairy, or are you a goddess?" It was the regular thing to do. Consequently, these pleasant people of long ago mixed up fairies with their religion. The stories about the Greek gods and goddesses are merely fairy tales; some are pretty, and some are not at all nice.

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. 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!

A noted non-Catholic writer on pedagogical subjects stated some time ago that if his own religious body had the wealth of story contained in the lives of the saints of the Catholic Church, it would be abundantly supplied with religious literature for children. It is true that the lives of the saints are an inexhaustible treasure-house for all that will interest and stimulate children; and that the same treasure-house is too seldom drawn upon. Its riches are, comparatively speaking, little known to our children or, indeed, to our older folks.A book that taps this vein of Catholic inheritance is: The Book of Saints and Heroes, by Mrs. Lang, and edited by the late Andrew Lang. Needless to say the work is admirably well written, and no child, even though tired, would think of sleep while the story of Jerome and the Lion, or Francis and the Wolf of Agobio, was being read. Here is all that will arouse the imagination, fascinate the mind, and instill that romantic love of heroic deeds which, in turn, is so powerful a stimulus to virtue. The book is most richly and tastefully illustrated with page drawings, many of them beautifully colored. The author has combined legend and history, and has sought to give us an interesting story book. This book is illustrated and annotated with a rare extensive biographical sketch of the author, Andrew Lang, written by Sir Edmund Gosse, CB, a contemporary poet and writer.

Andrew Lang was an Oxford fellow and Scotsman who had a distinguished career as a poet, novelist and historian. His wife Leonora was extremely well-educated herself, having translated a history of Russia from the French and written several other books of her own. However, they are both remembered best for their series of 12 fairy tale books--beginning with the Blue Fairy Book in 1889 and ending with the Lilac Fairy Book in 1910. These quickly became the most popular gift books of all time and remained so for several decades. It was Andrew Lang's interest in anthropology that led him to collect and publish these folk tales from far-flung lands, most of which were unknown to English readers at the time. And though all of them were published in Andrew's name, his role was largely editorial--a great deal of the translating, adapting and rewriting was done by his wife Leonora and others. This husband and wife team next applied their highly successful formula for choosing, researching and adapting folk tales to the stories of the saints, creating The Book of Saints and Heroes in 1912, with a result that is both inspiring and fun to read. Add the illustrations by H.J. Ford, whose creations illuminated the Fairy Books, and you have a book which makes an ideal gift for any child.