Saints Are Not Sad: Short Biographies of Joyful Saints

by Frank Sheed

The only tragedy is not to be a saint, wrote the French novelist Leon Bloy. And St. Francis de Sales said that A sad saint would be a sorry saint. But what is a saint? One way to answer is to analyze sanctity, theologically and psychologically. Another way, which is the path Frank Sheed chose in creating this volume, is to show you a saint--or rather, since no two saints are alike--to show you a number of saints. In this book, you are shown forty saints.The saints Sheed chose for this collection are from various time six before A.D. 500, seventeen from then to the Reformation, and seventeen from the Reformation to the middle of the twentieth century. Many are well known, like St. Anthony, Francis, Augustine, Patrick and Bernadette, while others are lesser known, for example, Columcille and Malachy.The same can be said for the various authors of these short biographies. Among them are the famous like Hilaire Belloc, Alban Goodier and G.K. Chesterton, as well as priests and laymen whose names may no longer be familiar but whose writing still brings to life men and women whose closeness to God gave them purpose, strength, and yes, joy.

Genres: Catholic, Theology, Faith

442 pages, Paperback

First published February 17, 2012

About the author

Francis Joseph Sheed was an Australian-born lawyer, Catholic writer, publisher, speaker, and lay theologian. He and his wife Maisie Ward were famous in their day as the names behind the imprint Sheed & Ward and as forceful public lecturers in the Catholic Evidence Guild.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally published in 1949, I suspect many writings were even from earlier periods. Rather than facts, writers assume we know something of these 38saints, so spend paragraphs extolling virtues unclearly with little demonstration of their actions.
Not joyful as anticipated, I assume these people were joyful because of their love of God.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a great idea because it gathers a lot of different short pieces about the lives of many different saints, but it was very hard for me to get through because it is a collection from many different authors and the style changes a lot from account to account. I learned a lot, but it was a bit of a slog to get through.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book, although the title is a little misleading. Originally published in 1949, Frank Sheed (the editor) picked these short saint's lives to counterbalance sugar-sweet, overly pious Victorian accounts. The essays in "Saints are not Sad", in contrast, are written in a lively "modern" style, setting the saints in full historical context and giving attention to their particular personalities, gifts, challenges, passions, and circumstances. So no, the saints here haven't been picked because they were particularly known for cheerfulness, and the essays don't emphasize that aspect; but of course saints are pretty joy-filled people, and the essays do succeed in portraying the saints as real people and not plaster statues.

There are a number of different authors, mostly priests but some laymen and women, so some chapters I thought hit home more effectively than others, but it's probably just the difference in authors. (One exception: there's an excerpt from the 1st century account of Perpetua and Felicity's martyrdom that is really an odd one out. It's not a good translation and nothing else is primary source.) Some of the essays are more comprehensively biographical than others. I really enjoyed the mix of styles and approaches. The saints profiled are generally "famous" ones -- this isn't a collection of unknowns -- but again, the point of the book is to really make them come alive and I met some great personalities in these pages. St Anthony of Padua stands out in my mind as someone who I had of course heard of but didn't have any idea of what he had done or what he was like; and his essay in this book is a stand-out.

Definitely a recommended read for anyone.